Passengers to Natal: Rochester 1862

Arrival of the barque Rochester at Port Natal, 17 November 1862

November 17 - Rochester, barque, Wm Bruce, 393 tons, from London 21 August

PASSENGERS

Cabin

Mr and Miss Atkinson

Mr and Mrs Crossley and 5 children

Mr and Mrs Cartwright

Mr and Mrs Williams

Rev and Mrs Guard and child

Mr Poole

Second Cabin

Nilson

Hodges

Eaglestone

Ferguson

Steerage

Mr and Mrs Henry

Messrs

Fulton

Ridsley

Mr and Mrs Durrant and 3 children

Mr Bremner

John and Samuel Pinder

Mary A Wrightson

Mr and Mrs Smith

Messrs

Lang

McLaren

Braid

Departure: Rochester

23 February for Singapore

PASSENGER

Mr Woody

Three masted barque similar to Rochester

Passengers to Natal: the Catherine 1862

Arrival of Catherine at Port Natal 8 March 1862

List of Government Emigrants per Ship Catherine, Captain R Pattie, 493 tons, departed London Nov 5, Portland Dec 3.

48 emigrants per list annexed. Departed again May 25 bound for Akyab.

Cabin passengers:
Mr and Mrs Eridge

List of Government immigrants per ship Catherine
 (here given as Catharine)
Natal, March 1862

Passengers: 
Black, William 
Black, Jane 
Bouham, Thomas 
Bouham, Emma 
Bouham, Tom 
Bouham, Mary 
Bouham, John 
Bouham, infant 
Cooper, Mark 
Hind, John 
Hind, Sarah 
Hind, Mary 
Hind, James 
Hind, C. Larison (?) 
Hind, John 
Hind, Charlotte 
Hind, William 
Hind, Arthur 
Fox, Edmund 
Fox, John 
Huggins,Thomas 
Huggins, George 
Huggins, Ellen 
Jones, Richard 
Magnus, John 
Magnus, Sarah 
Magnus, Sarah 
Magnus, George 
Magnus, Elizabeth 
Magnus, Harriet 
Milton, William 
Northern, William 
Northern, Emma 
Philliplis (?), Arthur 
Seymour, Cayo 
Seymour, Mary Ann 
Seymour, John 
Seymour, Charles 
Seymour, Eliza 
Seymour, Vincent 
Seymour, Henry 
Seymour, Arthur 
Stanley, Fred 
Walker, William 
Walker, Elizabeth 
Walker, Helen 
Walker, Mary Ann 
White, Jamey 
White, Mary Ann 

In all 48 emigrants.

Passengers to Natal: the D'Urban 1862

ARRIVAL OF THE BARQUE D'URBAN AT PORT NATAL 9 January 1862

January 9 - D'Urban, barque, Mornilyon, 391 tons, from London, November 17

PASSENGERS
Cabin
Burnhill
S Benboro
Messrs
James Brown
Wood
BJ Cullingworth
Betsy Ann Benboro
Varley
Baxter
Cullingworth
AC Hawkins
CG Hawkins
AC Hawkins
JC Hawkins
L Hawkins
E Hawkins
and 1 infant
Eliz Grice
J Stott
C Middleton
J Phillips
S Rolleston
C Rooke
Jas Crawford
S Rolleston
C Rooke
Jas Crawford

Second class
A Morley
Rowland
A Phillips
AR Ashe
D Tunmer

Private passengers:
W Bordedale
J Cruickshank
J Crawford
G Cooke
J Crossley
A Davidson
J Garbutt
J Green
F Hawksley
T Hunt
Richard W Moxon, Sarah Anne
Wm G Passmore, Anne, Evelyn, Edwin, Ellen, Annabella Passmore
R Roberts
J Robertson
J Shaw
G Smith, Herbert, Charles Smith
HS Williams
Lomsa (2)
Elizabeth Francis, Henry, Thos, William Williams
Fred, Wm, Emma, John Elizabeth Wilson

The barque D'Urban

Looking at some recent blog enquiries.

A blog follower was looking for the passenger list of the Haidee, arriving at Natal October 7 1850. See

http://web.archive.org/web/20100404084004/http://www.genealogyworld.net/rose/maritime/b_haidee.html

There's a blog dedicated to the topic at  http://haideesettlers.blogspot.com/

Tiyo Soga

There have been several requests for information on Tiyo Soga. Enter these two words on the search facility on this blog for various posts.

Similarly, for details on immigration or settlers to Natal or passenger lists use the search facility on the Blogger toolbar at top left hand corner of the blog page. For more successful results search on the words 'passenger lists' and 'immigration' etc rather than 'manifest/s'. 


Alternatively browse through the archived posts using the right hand menu. 

Numerous queries come in weekly re the Boer War and there is some information available on this blog; again, use the search facility. If you Google those two words you'll get a deluge of hits, of course; save time and go to www.angloboerwar.com/

Incidentally, for the record, Mole is not my surname but my nickname (digging in the records being what I do) so if you are looking for information on the surname MOLE you won't find it on my blog.

Also, if you spell a word incorrectly when using the blog search facility (e.g. recabite instead of rechabite) no references will be found. Stating the obvious? You'd be surprised at how often it happens.

Railways and Ships

In the late 19th c a network of railways was being developed in South Africa, opening up new areas and improving communications. By 1896, the railway line between Durban and Johannesburg was completed and the following year Cape Town and Bulawayo were linked by rail.

The railways offered employment opportunities and contingents of British railway workers arrived in SA, usually bringing with them wives and families. They travelled at the expense of the Government, on ships of the Union-Castle and other lines.

It isn’t easy to trace these railway workers at their arrival point. Some passenger lists for platelayers engaged by Crown Agents for service in the Natal Government Railways, occur in registers of the European Immigration Department (EI) held at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository. If the railway ancestor decided to settle, and eventually died in South Africa, there may be a relevant deceased estate file. Search NAAIRS index at www.national.archives.gov.za/

Immigration to South Africa continued in the 20th c after the disruptions caused by the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). My Hamilton grandparents emigrated from Ayrshire, Scotland, to South Africa in 1910, the year the Union of South Africa was declared. The Duke of Connaught travelled to SA on the Balmoral Castle to open the new Parliament.

There was a resurgence in immigration during the optimistic years following World War II. The Union Government sponsored a scheme to encourage skilled artisans, engineers and technicians from the United Kingdom to bring their families to South Africa.

As a result of this initiative, the Union-Castle Company Immigrant Service brought 28 000 British newcomers to South Africa between 1947 and 1949.

This Immigrant Service began with the departure of the Carnarvon Castle from Southampton in June 1947. The other two ‘settler ships’ were the Winchester Castle and the Arundel Castle. Accommodation for immigrants on board was austere: there hadn’t been time to reconvert the ships from their previous use as troop transports.

Did your ancestor emigrate to Natal?

In Natal, organized immigration from overseas began at the end of the 1840s. While the 1820 Settlers were coping with the change in their circumstances on the Cape frontier, Natal, on the south-eastern coast of South Africa, was in its infancy as a settler destination. A small settlement of hunters and traders had been founded there in 1824, mainly to establish trade with the Zulu.

It wasn’t until 1828 that an overland route was opened up to Natal,and another twenty years would pass before Natal acquired colonial status. Meanwhile, dissatisfaction with the Cape’s British government – especially regarding the abolition of slavery – led to an exodus of the Dutch community from that Colony: we know it now as the Great Trek of the mid-1830s. Some trekkers crossed the Drakensberg and established themselves in Natal, declaring their own Republic of Natalia in 1838. Conflict with the British at Port Natal followed in 1842, the Dutch moved on and Natal was annexed by Britain.

The white population of Natal had diminished after the trekkers’ departure, and immigration was the obvious solution. This coincided with a dramatic economic downturn in Britain – the ‘hungry forties’. Going to a new colony offered at least the hope of survival and perhaps even an opportunity to prosper.

As a result of the marketing efforts of Irish entrepreneur, Joseph Byrne, approximately 2200 British settlers headed for Natal between 1849 and 1851. Though Byrne’s Natal Emigration and Colonization Company ended in his own financial ruin, the concept provided an impetus for further private schemes to bring settlers to Natal.

Fortunately for family historians with Natal settler ancestry, this era is well-documented: more about sources in future posts.

See: Emigration from Britain to Natal updated at molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/emigration-from-britain-to-natal.html

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.