Mad Dogs & Englishmen ...

Envying someone else’s family tree is clear evidence of an unbalanced mind, but that’s how I felt reading Mad Dogs & Englishmen*, an expedition round my family. The author is Ranulph Fiennes, whom the Guinness Book of Records described as ‘the world’s greatest living explorer.’

The story of ‘his unconventional, exceptional family’ goes back to 715 and includes Charlemagne (768-814) as well as Charlemagne’s grandfather, Charles Martel. Numerous skeletons fall out of the cupboard in Fiennes’s narrative but the author flincheth not: Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, was hanged at Tyburn for poaching and murder. Prior to this, he’d sat on the jury at Ann Boleyn’s trial and been a pall-bearer at Jane Seymour’s funeral.

After that it’s almost an anti-climax to mention that a lady named Elizabeth Fiennes was a second cousin of Jane Austen.

There’s a remarkable drop-line tree at the beginning of the book and glancing at the famous personalities peering from its branches it’s hard to believe that this wasn’t simply a name-dropping exercise but a real family, generation after generation. If you’ve ever wanted an example of how to compile an informative but immensely exciting, honest and readable account of your ancestry, this book has everything, including wonderful illustrations.


Published by Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 9780340925034

*Noel Coward wrote:

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,
The Japanese don’t care to, the Chinese wouldn’t dare to,
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one,
But Englishmen detest a siesta …

 

HAMILTON of Stevenston: February Anniversaries

Remembering HAMILTONs of Stevenston, Ayrshire today, especially:


Cathrine Gibson Hamilton

b 23 February 1914, daughter of Joseph Hamilton and Annie nee Gibson.


Alexander Hamilton

b 15 February 1884, son of William Hamilton and Elizabeth nee Smith.

Top row L-R: Elizabeth ('Beth') Smith Hamilton; Annie Hamilton nee Gibson with daughter Beth; Hamilton group including Elizabeth and William Hamilton, Jim Hamilton seated in front, Nell, Nancy and others; Cathrine Gibson Hamilton on her wedding day with her father Joseph Hamilton; Bottom row L-R: Elizabeth and William Hamilton; 'Bill' Hamilton; Alexander Hamilton; the matriarch, Elizabeth Hamilton nee Smith - my maternal great grandmother.

Click on the collage for closer view of the photos.

For more information on the town of Stevenston, go to www.threetowners.com/Stevenston/stevenston.htm
The Dynamite Factory - or 'dinnamit' as the locals knew it
www.threetowners.com/Ardeer%20Factory/ardeer_factory.htm

Also see post on this blog 25 January 2010 entitled Diversity, dynamite & decisions.

February Anniversaries & the Great War

February is an interesting month for anniversaries, whether those of personal or global importance. For family historians, anniversaries are often useful pegs on which to hang a family narrative or to fill in those awkward gaps where, according to public records, the ancestor doesn’t appear to have done anything at all for five, or even ten, years. Whatever else he was doing, he is likely to have read the newspapers and perhaps been affected by the national or international events reported.

On 11 February 1905 two Frenchmen made aeronautical history by landing in a hot-air balloon at Crystal Palace, London, after crossing the English Channel.

On the same day in 1913 the Daily Telegraph, London, announced ‘the most tragic story in the annals of Polar exploration’, referring to news received of the death of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and other members of his party. After reaching the South Pole on January 18, 1912, they were overwhelmed in a blizzard on their return journey; all perished. Scott’s companions were: Dr E A Wilson, Lieut H R Bowers, Capt L E G Oates and Petty Officer E Evans. Eleven months before the Scott tragedy, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s conquest of the South Pole – he reached it on 14 December 1911 - had made the headlines.

In 1915 on 4 February, the UK announced 104 000 casualties of World War I – so far – and on 18 February the planned Berlin 1916 Olympic Games were cancelled. Closer to home and a month earlier, South African troops had occupied Swakopmund in German South West Africa.

A new book by Edward Paice, Tip & Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa is a must-read for this period. In his introduction the author mentions that ‘far from being the rapid and immediately profitable pushover envisaged by British imperialists, the conflict cost … over 200 million pounds (about 2 billion in today’s money), involved the mobilization of more than 400,000 British and Colonial troops and left South Africa in ruins … The bill was fully ten times the value of the output of the Transvaal gold mines for 1899; British casualties exceeded even those of the Crimean War half a century earlier and the toll wrought on Afrikaner and African alike was immense.’

[Published by Phoenix; ISBN 9780753823491]

For casualties of the Great War: http://cwgc.org/

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established by Royal Charter on 21 May 1917. Its duties are to mark and maintain the graves of the Commonwealth forces who died during two world wars, to build and maintain memorials to the dead whose graves are unknown and to keep records and registers. The cost is shared by partner governments – Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and UK – proportionately according to the numbers of their graves.

The Debt of Honour Register, a database searchable by surname, was launched in November 1998 via the Commission’s web site (URL shown above). The database provides known details of the casualty as well as the name of the cemetery or memorial, directions on how to find it, and the exact row, plot, grave or memorial panel reference to locate the burial or commemoration place.

More 19th c German immigrants in South Africa

A group of 74 Germans, mainly vine-dressers and wine-makers selected by the Cape Emigration Commissioner, Mr Field, were among other emigrants who sailed to South Africa on the ship Aurifera. This was during the era of assisted emigration to the Cape between 1857 and 1862. These German passengers’ names are given in Esme Bull’s book, ‘Aided Emigration to the Cape’.

Just under a decade after the Bergtheil Settlers arrived in Natal, German Military Settlers were sent to South Africa. These men had been recruited for service with British forces in the Crimean War (1854-6) and were stationed in England. From here it was intended they should sail to South Africa but the war ended before their departure. The soldiers (2362 in all) were instead sent to the Cape as settlers, arriving in East London in early 1857. It was suggested that the men marry, with the incentive being free passages for wives, resulting in last-minute weddings at the quayside. For names of those who married in England, on board ship or on arrival in South Africa see the free site:
www.sagenealogy.co.za/German%20Military%20Marriages%201857.htm

The Indian Mutiny which broke out in 1858 tempted over a thousand of these German soldiers to volunteer for service in the Indian Army. Those who remained settled in various places in the Cape and Natal, including King William’s Town, Hamburg, Potsdam, Stutterheim, East London, Marienthal, Greytown and others. The women brought out on the Lady Kennaway (discussed in a previous post on this blog) were destined to be wives for any single men among the German military settlers but this idea was not a resounding success.

At about the same time, i.e. 1858, 1600 German settlers arrived in East London under a contract arranged by Sir George Grey. It was proposed that these immigrants, who did not receive free passages, would settle in the area known as British Kaffraria and add to the numbers of the German military settlers. Most of the Kaffraria Germans were farmers.

In another scheme, Germans were brought to settle in the Eastern Cape. One group arrived on the Wandrahm in March 1877 and a second in 1883. Due to the continuing troubles on the eastern frontier, these immigrants were at first settled near Claremont, Cape Town and eventually made their permanent home in Philippi.

Joachim Schubert's indispensable website for descendants of German immigrants can be found at www.safrika.org/  for example:
http://www.safrika.org/Names/schiff_03.html  for passengers per Wandrahm, departed Hamburg 22 August 1858, arrived East London (Kaffraria) 8 December 1858.

This site includes passenger lists from Hamburg as well as an extended register of names mentioned in the book Deutsche Wanderung nach Südafrika im 19. Jahrhundert by Werner Schmidt-Pretoria. The book covers German immigration to South Africa during the 19th Century.

German settlers in Natal

In the 1830s there had been a few individual German arrivals at Natal but no organized immigration from Germany. When the Dutch trekkers established their community in Pietermaritzburg, living among them were several Germans, but the trekkers were beginning to move away from Natal after the conflict between British and Dutch at the port in 1842 and the subsequent annexation of Natal as a British Colony.

This situation left Natal with a reduced white population as well as numerous large farms which could be acquired cheaply by settlers.

It was against this backdrop that a group of German immigrants came to Natal in 1848 The scheme was that of Jonas Bergtheil, a Bavarian who had settled in the Cape in 1834. He and several others founded the Natal Cotton Company in 1847 with the aim of growing cotton in Natal, and they purchased a tract of land for this purpose.

Bergtheil, having failed to interest British authorities in the venture, went to Bavaria and eventually found a starting point in Bramsche, where a textile industry flourished. Here Bergtheil was successful in attracting would-be colonists, and in March 1848 a group of about 187 men, women and children arrived in Natal on the Beta. This group is now generally known as the Bergtheil Settlers.

The definitive volume on the Bergtheil Settlers is: The Cotton Germans of Natal [Die Baumwolldeutschen von Natal] by Walter V. Volker, published by the author in 2006. ISBN 0 620 36298 7 This book includes detailed genealogies of the Bergtheil Settler families, comprising over 80 000 names.

Did your German ancestor emigrate to SA?

There have been Germans resident in South Africa from the start of the Dutch era at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th c. Most were not emigrants as such, but worked for the Dutch East India Company, perhaps initially in Holland and then sent to the Cape.

German missionaries established themselves at various centres in South Africa. The earliest efforts were made by George Schmidt, a Moravian whose work was carried on in the late 18th c by other Moravians at the famous Genadendal Mission Station.

The Rhenish Mission Society began their work in 1829 at Stellenbosch and Tulbagh among slaves and later penetrated Little and Great Namaqualand, working with the Namaqua and Damara peoples and others. Surnames such as Luckhoff, Esselen, Kleinschmidt, Hahn, Roth and Kolbe were among those famous in the Rhenish Mission.

The Berlin Mission sent missionaries to the Cape in 1834, founding Bethany station among the Korannas. Then, when the latter roving people moved on, the Berlin missionaries worked among the Bechuanas. Dohne was the pioneer of the Kaffrarian Mission of the Berlin Society, founding Bethel Mission Station in Xhosa territory. He was joined by Schultheiss, Liefeldt and Posselt.

The so-called War of the Axe (7th Frontier War 1846-48) intervened, when many mission stations were burned to the ground. Dohne, Posselt and Guldenpfennig started a mission in Natal, named Emmaus. By the 1850s the Berlin Mission had six stations, in the Cape, Orange River Sovereignty, Kaffraria and Natal.

Later, in the 1860s, the Berlin Mission sent Merensky and Grutzner into the field, at first ministering to the Swazis and afterwards to the Transvaal Basuto. Then, with Endemann and Nachtigal, to the Bapedi in the north.

The Hermannsburg Mission, led by Ludwig Harms, intended to start a colony of missionaries among the Galla peoples, but when this venture failed the missionaries went to Natal, founding Hermannsburg Mission Station in 1854 in Umvoti County, east of Greytown. An offshoot of this group was the Hanoverian Mission, led by a brother of Harms.

Descendants of many German missionary families still live in South Africa.

A Whale of a Time in Natal

In 1907, two Norwegians (Jacob Egeland and Johan Bryde) started whaling off the coast of Natal, with a factory sited below the Bluff in Durban. It was to become the largest land-based whaling operation in the world.

Two steam whale catchers were brought out from Sandjefjord in Norway and whaling began on 3 July 1908 when the first whale, a 40 foot Humpback, was brought in to the port. The company was named the South African Whaling Company.

Objections were soon raised about the site of the whaling station, which was then moved to the sea side of the Bluff near Cave Rock, but the penetrating smell of the operations at the factory remained a problem for residents on the Bluff. The station was moved again, towards the South West, where the winds carried the smell in a different direction.

Egeland and Bryde's partnership came to an end in 1909. With a cousin, Abraham Larsen, Egeland then formed the Union Whaling and Fishing Company in 1910. By 1912 thirteen whaling companies were registered in Durban.

Union Whaling Company came into being in July 1920, formed by Larsen and Egeland who had started the Union Whaling and Fishing Company, and was to last to the end of the whaling era, merging with the Premier Whaling Company in 1954 and operating the largest shore whaling station in the world. By 1960 850 people were employed in the Company. Coastal whaling ended in 1975.

Thanks to the efforts of David Asgeir-Nilsen it’s now possible to take a Whaling History Tour, visiting what remains of the factory and viewing a large collection of photographs, newspaper articles, whaling artefacts and memorabilia. For more information see:

www.whtd.co.za/

Further reading: African Keyport by Capt Tony Pearson, pub Accucut Books 1995

Norwegian Emigration to SA

Immigrants from countries other than Britain also chose South Africa as their destination.

In 1879, the year of the Anglo-Zulu War, a group of 47 Norwegians left Bergen to establish a colony on an atoll in the Indian Ocean, Aldabra. The Debora Expedition, as the venture is known, didn’t work out as planned; some of its members remained in Madagascar and others decided to settle in the British Colony of Natal. They were the first Norwegian immigrants to settle at Port Natal (later called Durban).

You can read everything there is to know about the fascinating Debora Expedition at
http://salbu.co.za/debora/ Also visit companion pages at http://salbu.co.za/

Until about 1880, America had been the favoured destination of Norwegian emigrants, but reports sent back by Norwegian missionaries in South Africa encouraged interest, particularly in the Colony of Natal. The farming community around Aalesund, Norway, made contact with the Natal Immigration Agent, Walter Peace, in London and a scheme for government-assisted immigration was set in place.

This resulted in 32 families sailing first to England from Norway in July 1880, then continuing on to Natal on C.H.M.S. Lapland. They were settled on land between the Umzimkulu and Izotsha rivers on the south coast of Natal.

Although some of these immigrants found conditions in Natal disappointing, later returning to Norway, many remained to form the nucleus of a thriving community. Descendants of the Marburg settlers, as they are generally called, still live in Natal. So do descendants of early Norwegian missionaries to the Colony.


www.norsettler.co.za/history.htm Norwegian Settlers Association of Marburg

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.

Mining ancestors: diamonds and gold in SA

By 1875 there was a comparatively small European-descended population in South Africa of about 328 000. By 1911 this had grown to 1 276 000.

A significant factor in the increase was the discovery of diamonds and gold stepping up the pace of immigration in the 1870s and 1880s. People from all over the world flocked to the diggings and mining towns like Barberton sprang up overnight, some to disappear almost as quickly and become ghost towns. But while it lasted, gold and diamond fever caused an electric shiver of excitement that was hard to resist.

It wasn’t necessary to be a prospector in South Africa ‘pegging a claim’ to be part of the boom. British investors clamoured for shares; hundreds of mining companies – many of them entirely bogus - came into being offering share certificates and there was some heavy plunging on stock markets; fortunes were made and lost.

Natal settler Sydney Turner wrote from Ladysmith to his mother in England:

Everyone here is either on the move or has shares in some Gold Company or other, every man, woman and child seems to me to have gone crazy …I could mention fifty that went up next to penniless twelve months ago and are now millionaires …Of all the motley crews one ever saw or heard of … All the scoundrels of Africa, as well as professional men, soldiers, sailors, tinkers, tailors, poor men, rich men, beggars and thieves are on the march up, and I hear from friends …that Barberton is a Hell-upon-earth …*

After the first rush to Barberton around 1884, richer deposits of gold were found on the Witwatersrand in 1885; Johannesburg was founded.

www.mpumalangahappenings.co.za/barberton_personalities.htm read about Cockney Liz, French Bob, Tom McLachlan and other colourful characters of Barberton in the gold rush days.

*Source: Portrait of a Pioneer, The Letters of Sydney Turner from South Africa 1864-1901, ed. Daphne Child, Macmillan SA, Johannesburg 1980. The original letters are held in the Local History Museum, Durban, Natal.