Heritage Day and Family History

Today is Heritage Day: what does it mean to you? Is it merely a public holiday, a rest from the office or school, a chance to work in the garden or to indulge in your favourite hobby? 

What is Heritage? In South Africa the holiday officially recognises different aspects of South African culture and encourages all South Africans to celebrate their cultural heritage, the diversity of their beliefs and different traditions.

Heritage includes features which belong to the culture of a particular society - traditions, languages, buildings, sites of major events - created in the past and retaining historical importance to all South Africans.

On a personal level, your Heritage is what you were born into, one's ethnic and cultural background, which may differ from that of other people or groups of people but which has especial meaning for the individual. Our personal Heritage is a vital part of our consciousness and in a sense makes us who we are - just as much as our DNA does.

Because it is so vital to each of us, we respect the Heritage of other people, as much as we respect our own. 

Heritage may be tangible - traditional clothing and modes of decoration, tools, buildings, artwork, monuments, modes of transportation - or intangible - not physical items but those which exist intellectually. Each aspect is equally significant.

Heritage is about respecting our ancestors (and those of other people). For anyone researching their family history, today allows some free hours to explore another forefather or find one you previously didn't know about. Or you might want to read about the times in which that ancestor lived, providing a context for your family narrative which will make it that much more interesting and exciting. 

Perhaps you feel like visiting a cemetery where your ancestors lie buried. Place some flowers to show they aren't forgotten, tidy the plot, clean the headstone so that the information can be clearly read. None of this is done in a mournful spirit - family historians find cemetery visits most enlivening!

Get out that shoebox full of old family photos you keep meaning to collate and preserve properly. Write down as much information as you know about the people in the photos - your children and grandchildren will be grateful. Keep them in suitable envelopes (never plastic).

Make a start on writing the family history. This doesn't have to be a huge volume that will take years to finish: put down the salient features known about each ancestor with some context and a photo, if one exists, to make sense of the results of your research for others who will read it later. Don't forget to put together your own life story - you'll be an ancestor one day!

Happy Heritage Day to all Mole's Blog readers!

Family history is perishable ...

Who Do You Think Your Ancestor Is?

In the merry pursuit of ancestry, leaping lightly from twig to twig on the family tree, we tend to lose sight of the fact that an ancestor is a person from whom one is directly descended. That is, by blood, which is why an Ancestry Chart is sometimes referred to as a Blood Descent. A correctly produced Ancestry Chart includes all lines of ascent through male and female lines.

For genealogical purposes, the term family includes all people of the same name and blood descended from a common male-line ancestor. This is quite different from the everyday usage of the term, which includes close relatives of both father and mother and grandchildren by both sons and daughters.

These days, the study of  family history covers research into one’s forebears, often with the object of putting together a narrative history for the benefit of living relatives and future generations. An ideal narrative history should place the family members in the context of their times, giving an insight into their life events.

Since the number of ancestors doubles with each generation, there are more than enough direct ancestors to research without starting on collateral lines. Sometimes, of course, a ‘sideways search’ might help in identifying a problem ancestor.

The photograph below shows a group of my HAMILTONs: of those included, only my great grandfather, great grandmother and their son, my grandfather, are my direct ancestors. The others are my grandfather’s siblings.

Hamiltons of Stevenston, Ayrshire

A few quick searches on ScotlandsPeople provide information on all of them – but where does it all end? Do I proceed further forward to the next generation and the next, in each case? There has to be some consideration of time and costs in such an exercise.

The alternative is to stick to the direct line and use the extra time for in-depth research into the people from whom I truly descend. Disadvantage: going that route you could miss a wealth of interesting stories and some weird and wonderful distant cousins.

While on the subject, descendant is another term bandied about indiscriminately. A descendant has a proven descent from a particular ancestor. I have used this example before, but it’s a good one: nobody could describe themselves as a descendant of the poet John Keats, who had no children and therefore has no descendants. Ergo, a person descended from Keats’s brother cannot refer to Keats as his ancestor nor to himself as a descendant of Keats. (With apologies to Terrick FitzHugh for mangling his perfect prose.)

Did your mid-19th c female ancestor emigrate to SA?

If the answer to the above question is ‘Yes’, there are some excellent sources available for placing your family history narrative in context.

Eliza Feilden, in her collection of diaries and letters, later published as ‘My African Home’, describes a typical day in her colonial life:

William and Margaret get the breakfast ready, turn out the horses, fowls etc. and sweep the floor. Porridge forms their own breakfast and I begin mine with a small plateful and treacle. Then we have coffee, eggs and cold meat and any vegetable, if a suitable one was left for warming up. This morning we had beans and bacon; eggs are very scarce. We do not care much for beef this very hot weather, it will not keep well. After breakfast I make our own bed and attend to the room generally; but as we have no fine furniture or ornaments, very little dusting serves. The dewdrops form on the upper lip and I am glad to be quiet during the heat of the day …

The main living area of the Feildens’ house (on their farm 'Feniscowles' seen above) had windows at each end, the walls being papered in white, but there was no carpet on the board floor. A yellowwood table stood in the centre of the space, and there was a ‘Scotch cupboard’ containing crockery, bottles, raspberry vinegar and other items. Under a side table stood bottles of porter, ‘and our bread in a great mug’.

In April 1853 Eliza noted that glass was at last available in the colony and ‘we hope soon to get some to replace our calico windows, which, besides shutting out the light, show stains of rain. Our winter is coming on, and calico alone between us and the weather will be rather cold. The broad verandah has hitherto protected us … but on one or two occasions doors and windows … have been blown about, and rain has been very troublesome. Our books, occupying some very unprotected shelves, had to be removed in a grand hurry.
At this stage the only way of reaching the upstairs room in the house was by ladder for ‘the staircase is still hanging only half up and we cannot get the joiner to work steadily at it to finish. … It is surprising how safe we feel in the bush, so very slightly protected: neither bolts nor bars, and calico in our window-frames. I shut the door by means of a pair of scissors stuck under.’

In fact, the settlers and their families were far from safe. Their backyard was the indigenous bush – or in some areas, the veld; wild animals roamed about carrying off domestic livestock and posing a threat to humans. Snakes were plentiful and a constant danger, especially to children. A bite from a venomous snake generally meant death as there was no serum at hand.

Another early colonist, Ellen McLeod, wrote in 1850 to her sister from the Byrne valley in Natal*:

‘There are a great many snakes. Georgy trod on one the other day. Fortunately it did not bite him but went back to its hole very quickly.’ Some colonists’ children were not so lucky.

Most women diarists mention the enormous variety of insects. Eliza Feilden writes: ‘the air teems with them, and the white ant, great enemy of the colonist, devours anything in the shape of wood or paper. Alas for our books – half were mutilated.’ Fleas, ticks and mosquitoes were other constant companions and there were frequent locust invasions, destroying crops.

The weather was an endless topic for discussion in letters home. Eliza complains of the sudden and heavy rain storms: 'the houses were all so slightly built and thatched that the rain frequently penetrated the roofs and sides of a dwelling, creating a general rush to save books or other articles from being injured.'

Despite seasonal rains it was difficult to obtain fresh drinking water. Enteric fever (typhoid) and other water-borne diseases were rife, and a contributory cause of the high mortality among settler children.

Later the same diseases would take their toll of military men fighting in colonial wars in South Africa, including the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 - but that's a subject for another post.




* Dear Louisa: History of a Pioneer Family in Natal 1850-1888; Ellen McLeod’s letters to her sister in England from The Byrne Valley ed by Dr R E Gordon (T W Griggs, Durban 1970) 4th ed. ISBN 0620 25285 5

Predicting file contents in SA family history research

There are instances where it may be difficult to predict file contents: NAAIRS offers the references but these need to be interpreted and sometimes the only way to do that is to access the original documents.

The code PWD (Public Works Department) doesn't sound promising for family history information, yet records concerning alterations to a bridge included a letter giving the ancestor's year of arrival in South Africa, previously unknown. This detail made it feasible to search passenger registers for that date parameter.

However, frequently the index reference may be all you need to establish what an individual was up to at a particular point in his South African career. A memorandum filed under CSO (Colonial Secretary's Office) could reveal that on a certain date the ancestor applied for an appointment in the civil service. In such a case, the file contents could add little to the index reference: it might be better to consult published civil service lists for the appropriate period.

It really depends on how lucky you are with finding references to your ancestor/s on NAAIRS. Where only one reference occurs it hardly matters what type of file it may lead to: at that stage it's a matter of leaving no stone unturned.

SA Immigration forms (PIO) 1904-1967

PIO files (Archives of the Principal Immigration Officer, Cape Town) contain passengers' declaration forms for the period 1904-1967.

These records are extremely useful for family history: immigrants arriving at South African ports had to complete a form giving their name, age, birthplace, nationality, occupation, marital status, age and birthplace of spouse, reason for entering the country, port of embarkation and the name of the ship on which they arrived.

If a PIO file for your ancestor turns up on NAAIRS, it's a valuable find and should be accessed.

A good rule when searching NAAIRS is: don’t hit everything that moves on the index. A well-chosen list of references will keep costs down (if you’re delegating to a researcher), speed up the process and ensure that you make the most of available sources.

File types useful in SA family history research

Divorce records provide addresses, career details, names of children and who received custody and reveal financial and other circumstances of both plaintiff and defendant. If the cause of divorce was adultery, another person's name may be cited in the proceedings: this could lead to finding a spouse's later change of surname and from there to a deceased estate file for a second husband.

Perhaps the most useful aspect of divorce files is that a copy of the marriage certificate may be found among the documents. The term 'illiquid' (illiquidation) cases is applied to divorces, but can also refer to the dissolution of business partnerships. The latter may offer addresses for the ancestor concerned and tell us more about the rise or fall of his fortunes at that point.

Divorce records are indexed under the archives of the Supreme Court in each province: in Natal the code RSC applies, in the Cape CSC, in the Transvaal WLD and in the Orange Free State, HG.

Though divorce files can be either depressing or intriguing, depending on your point of view, they are certainly worth accessing.

Getting the best out of NAAIRS

Though NAAIRS has become increasingly well-known to family historians researching South African ancestry, many aren’t sure how to use the index to best advantage. This is partly because of uncertainty as to what they’re likely to find in the various available file types.

Which files offer the most useful information for family history purposes? Public records naturally weren’t generated for the benefit of genealogy research. How to discriminate between the types of records, pruning your list of references, saving time and expense and achieving optimum results?

Read the list of source codes used at each repository: these are a vital aid in understanding what sort of files you’ve turned up during a search of the index. See the source codes for SA archives repositories at:
www.national.archives.gov.za/sourcesindex.htm

One of the most informative sources in the South African context is the deceased estate file and will be discussed in future posts. In Natal, deceased estate files carry the code MSCE (Master of Supreme Court Estates). This is not to be confused with an insolvent estate, coded MSC in Natal. Insolvent estates can provide useful detail and shouldn’t be overlooked; they may include an inventory of an ancestor’s possessions e.g. in 1849 items listed in an insolvent estate were:

‘gunpowder, shott, caps, 1 pistol, boots, 2 waistcoats, velvet coat, handkerchiefs, socks and shirts, bed linen, tools, a trunk, a pair of moleskin trousers, 1 toilet glass, books, knives, forks, silver spoons and 1 lot of doctor’s instruments …’

A few lines giving a glimpse into this man’s life in the colony: perhaps the most revealing and personal description his descendants are ever likely to find.

Hiring a researcher in South Africa

Lists of professional freelance researchers for each province are given, with contact details, on the NARS (National Archives of South Africa) website.
www.national.archives.gov.za/
Note that these details are not regularly updated as they should be.

If you decide to delegate to a local SA researcher, it speeds things up if you’ve done your homework first and are able to provide full source references from NAAIRS, copying and pasting these from the Results Details (not Results Summary) section of the index.

If you haven’t been able to find a relevant reference to your ancestor on NAAIRS try to give the researcher a reasonable amount of family history detail as a starting point: not your entire family tree going back to William the Norman, but somewhere between that extreme and minimal information.

Questions to ask (other than the important matter of costs and preferred method of payment) include whether the researcher will provide information as transcripts or as digital image files. Photocopying – on a flatbed copier – is not permitted in deceased estate material, and is in any case often impossible due to the size and binding of older volumes.

For preservation reasons, access may be denied to files (of any type, not only deceased estate files) which are in a fragile condition. So, don’t shoot the messenger if a researcher reports that a required file cannot be ordered.

More tips for finding SA ancestors on NAAIRS

Getting back to using NAAIRS for South African family history research: a common mistake amongst first-time users of the index is placing two search terms on one line of the search form. Detach surname from forename and enter the words on two separate lines of the form. Also make use of the Beginning and Ending features at the foot of the form to give a date parameter for your search: this helps limit unnecessary hits, especially if the surname is commonly-found.

If you’re looking for a deceased estate file for your ancestor, remember that if he died in South Africa comparatively recently, say within the last 30 years, the estate reference would not be reflected on the index e.g. in Natal deceased estate files up to 1974 are shown on NAAIRS.

There are two non-archival databases on NAAIRS: the Bureau of Heraldry (HER) and Gravestone Inscriptions recorded by the Genealogical Society of South Africa (GEB). Under the MAN database are National Registers of Manuscripts (NAREM) and Photographs (NAREF). On these you can search libraries and museums as well as archival repositories. NAREM could lead you to a shipboard diary: first prize would be one written by your own forebear but accounts by contemporary travellers can be useful. NAREF could help you locate a photograph of an ancestor.

Correct spelling of the word Genealogy

Mark Howells writes:
One of the most common mistakes made by beginners in the hobby of family history is to spell genealogy incorrectly. Nothing shouts out ‘I don't know what I'm doing!’ louder than the misspelling of this pivotal word in our hobby.
Typically, most failed attempts at spelling genealogy put the letter ‘O’ where the letter ‘A’ belongs. Like this:

geneology

Because this misspelling is such an endemic problem, I devised a little memory aid to assist in remembering the correct spelling of the word. The first letters of each word in this very true sentence combine to form the correct spelling of genealogy. Remember the sentence and you'll be able to spell the word correctly every time.

Genealogists Examine Needed Evidence At Lots Of Grave Yards

www.oz.net/~markhow/writing/spelling.htm

Mark, I couldn’t agree more.
P.S. I see that one of the advertisements shown on my blog contains the word ‘geneology’: I did not write this ad.

Seeking SA ancestors on NAAIRS

For family historians who haven’t used NAAIRS before, it’s well worth reading the on-site introductory pages which explain information categories, source codes, acronyms and tips for structuring searches. The Help pages give user-friendly instructions for Getting Started, Searching, Selecting a Database, Saving Queries etc, plus a list of FAQ.

Before you begin the search, have some basic family history details handy: the ancestor’s name, location if known (i.e. Cape, Natal etc), an approximate date parameter, and any extra facts which would assist in identifying an individual on the index, such as an unusual middle name or a spouse’s forename or maiden name. This is essential when looking for a John Smith or Joe Brown, to avoid an avalanche of hits. As with any search, always try variant spellings of a surname.

If you find no reference to your ancestor on NAAIRS don’t jump to the conclusion that he never came to South Africa. He may simply have remained invisible as far as public records were concerned. Possible reasons for that are many and varied.

The colonies often provided an opportunity to turn over a new leaf and an emigrant may have used an alias. This would effectively mask his identity in the records and imaginative search options might be needed: e.g. he could have taken his mother’s maiden name.

Access NAAIRS at www.national.archives.gov.za/

Genealogy, Family History & Surnames

I’m sometimes asked what the difference is between genealogy and family history. These terms are used as if they’re interchangeable but strictly speaking genealogy refers to the tracing of particular lines of descent. Family history indicates a wider focus of research: uncovering the details of the ancestors’ lives and times. The phrase ‘putting flesh on the bones’ is overworked; nevertheless it’s what the family historian is attempting to achieve. Theoretically it might be possible to be a genealogist without being a family historian – but not vice versa.

Returning to the subject of surname distribution and frequency, the name Swires – my paternal grandmother’s maiden name – is far from commonly-found: only three instances per million people in the UK, the current total number with that surname being 130. At the time of the 1881 Census there were 106 individuals named Swires in Yorkshire, pointing to a concentration of the surname in my grandmother’s family’s county of origin. In comparison with this rarity of occurrence, Gadsden - my father's surname - crops up 12 times per million people in the UK, and is most numerous in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Gadsdens are very thin on the ground in South Africa, but there are thousands in the US. Variant spellings of Gadsden cause complications: GADSEN, GADSON, GADESDEN etc.

For a specialist’s view of the topic and some remarkable nuggets of information, I recommend Colin D. Rogers’ book, The surname detective: Investigating surname distribution England, 1086-present day.

A peal of Bells

There's no such thing as plain sailing in family history research. It's not an ideal pursuit for the perfectionist, as research never ends and there will always be gaps and brick walls to contend with. There may be unexpected complications, too. For example, I found that the surname Bell occurs in my maternal and paternal lines. William Bell the mariner (see picture left) was my paternal great great grandfather, but there was a whole raft of other Bells who cropped up in my maternal ancestry.

Bell is a commonly-found name in UK: according to some sources it occurs 1669 times per million people (in the British Isles). It is prevalent in Cumberland, which was William Bell's place of origin. However, there are thousands of Scottish Bells, too, and that's where the Bells of my maternal line originate.

Some recent members of this line were keen to establish a connection with Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone (among other things). Trying to trace forward from a famous individual in the hope of linking him/her with your own family tree is an endeavour doomed from the start. Far better to plod backwards, beginning with yourself (the known), through each generation establishing as much documentary evidence as possible for every individual. So far, I have found no such evidence that my maternal Bells are related to Alexander Graham Bell - though I am keeping an open mind.

Exploring the meaning and etymology of a surname can be rewarding, as well as giving clues as to a family's geographical origins. I've found Reaney and Wilson's Dictionary of English Surnames very useful.

These Forgotten Things

Why do we research our ancestry? I suspect the reasons vary from individual to individual. Terrick FitzHugh, in his excellent book How to Write a Family History, quotes the opinion of an author of yesteryear, John Aubrey:

'The retrieving of these forgotten Things from Oblivion in some sort resembles the Art of a Conjuror who makes those walke and appeare that have layen in their graves many hundreds of years and to represent as it were to the eie [eye] the places, Customes and Fashions that were of old Times'.

Any family historian who has attempted to make their forebears 'walke and appeare' by finding out more about them and the times in which they lived, will agree that there is a magical element in such a task. But what is it that produces our initial stirrings of interest in the topic?

Readers of Thomas Hardy's novels will remember that, in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the heroine's father caused anguish and tragedy through his search for noble ancestry. This sort of 'snobbish' approach to genealogy is now considered old-fashioned. Most of us are content to accept our 19th c ag labs and are thrilled when an ancestor happens for some reason to stand out among the crowded branches of our family tree. We also realise that there's no such thing as an 'ordinary' ancestor: every ag lab has his story too.

I was fortunate enough to be encouraged from an early age by my mother to take an interest in family history. Another helpful aspect was my unusual surname, Gadsden - though I would discover later that it wasn't nearly as unusual as I then thought it was. Perhaps the most significant bit of luck was the fascinating local hero, a mariner named William Bell who occurred in my paternal line: lucky, because he had achieved recognition as a result of a brief moment of glory in our home town, so a certain amount of information about him had appeared in print. Even more intriguing, that glorious moment had been captured in a painting by a famous artist, featuring a depiction, centre-stage, of our mariner's ship. It was an irresistible combination of events and circumstances.