Navigating Mole's Blog

Mole pops up to respond to some of my blog readers who tell me they now ‘can’t find older posts’ which they had visited before.

There are several ways of navigating the blog. You can use the search facility at the top left of the page, entering particular keywords e.g.  emigration, immigration, passenger lists, death notice etc.

Another option: go to the Blog Archive and choose a title of a post; where the titles of older posts are not shown, click on the month e.g. February, to browse through all posts for that month.

Let me know if any other difficulties are encountered.

Emigrant Governesses

Not all emigrant females came to South Africa accompanied by a husband and children. Among the unattached women looking for better lives in the colonies were governesses. This occupation was one of the few open to educated, single women of limited financial means. 'Distressed gentlewomen' was a phrase commonly-used in the 19th c to describe this echelon.

In 1862 the Female Middle Class Emigration Society (FMCES) was founded. The Society’s goal was to provide loans enabling such women to emigrate where employment prospects for governesses were believed to be more favourable.

(Engraving shows the main room at the Female Emigrants' Home, Hatton Garden, London 1853; women would be accommodated here before embarking for the colonies.)

There was a ready response and FMCES emigrants were soon on their way to South Africa. Several went to sugar-planter families in Natal, some to Dutch farmers and others to teaching posts in schools.

The idea was a good one but the demand for governesses in the colonies had been exaggerated. The women were in debt to the Society for their fare and had to repay that money. In the 1860s, prior to the discovery of diamonds and gold, SA was in the grip of recession. Women found themselves in a foreign country where it was difficult to obtain suitable work and if they were lucky enough to find employment the salary was so low that they couldn’t afford to repay the sponsor Society.

Emigrant governesses wrote plaintively of their predicament:

‘The lady who wishes to teach in a family had better not come out – she can have no conception of what life is on a Dutch farm – a girl must have an immense amount of energy, health and spirit with inexhaustible resources in herself to be able to bear it.’

‘Governesses do not seem to be in requisition nearly as much as servants … females become delicate after having been here a short time …’

The colonies did not appear to want women of refinement, especially British females brought up in a class system and who felt themselves to be above household duties.

Some of these emigrants remained in SA, frequently becoming colonial wives (a dubious alternative though it was seen as a welcome escape) or starting their own schools. Others, overcome by heat, fatigue and general loneliness, died or eventually returned to their country of origin.

Advertisement from the Natal Mercury, 6 March 1863:

GOVERNESSES


Two Ladies are expected by the ‘Durban’ who wish for engagements on arrival.
One is qualified to teach French, German and Music, besides the usual branches of an English education, and has had much experience in tuition. The other is not so accomplished, but can teach English thoroughly, and the rudiments of Music, Singing and Dancing, and is prepared to assist in Household duties if required. These Ladies bear high testimonials, are healthy, and determined to give satisfaction. Parties requiring the service of either of the above are requested to communicate with the undersigned, stating their requirements and amount of salary etc. … and on arrival of the vessel further communication will be made.

J Brickhill.

Further reading: The governesses, letters from the colonies 1862-1882 by Patricia Clarke (Hutchinson, 1985)

Marriage in a South African colony

Marriage was a lottery in the colony: a breadwinner might suddenly die of fever, in an accident or as a casualty of war. The woman and her children would more often than not be left in desperate straits.

Natal colonist Marianne Churchill (see photo right) had borne six children and was pregnant with her seventh when her husband died after a fall from his horse. Fortunately, Marianne’s brother and his family were also living in Natal and could provide help and support.

When William Dixon Smith died of enteric fever (typhoid) the widowed Charlotte, with three young children by William as well as several older offspring from her first marriage, hired labour to plough her neighbours’ fields on a contract basis.

Because white women were in short supply there was a good chance that a colonial widow would re-marry even if she had children and was only passably good-looking. A trooper of the 45th Regiment in Natal remarked that ‘when the first shipload of emigrants came, the women were worshipped – it was so long since we had seen an Englishwoman we were all off our heads.’ Moreland, Byrne’s agent reported that ‘women are more in requisition’ than men and that ‘a freight of 100 respectable young women would do well.’

The scarcity of women was a problem in most colonies. In February 1850 the Natal Witness newspaper carried the following item:

‘Cargo of Ladies for California … a merchant advertised for 200 young, white, poor and virtuous girls of average prettiness to be taken to California and there honourably married to the thousands of North Americans who, having made their fortunes at the mines, are now anxious to throw themselves at the feet of the first passable specimens of womanhood whom fate and a happy wind may cast upon their shores.’

South Africa also resorted to the expedient of shipping in single women in a bid to redress the balance of the population. It was equally desirable for Britain to offload those who were a burden, and between 1840 and 1870 approximately 50,000 women living in Irish workhouses were given assistance to emigrate to various colonies, mainly to America. A small percentage, however, did undertake the voyage to South Africa, an example (not a particularly successful one) being the women brought out on the ship Lady Kennaway (mentioned elsewhere in this blog).

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

The Emigrant Wife

The ‘Hints for Emigrants’ Wives’ (posted Monday 8 March 2010), said to have been written ‘by a Lady’, paints a picture of colonial life which seems idyllic - from a masculine point of view. There’s a suspicion that the author may have been a man e.g. hard-working husband comes home after long hot day in the fields to find evening meal perfectly prepared by wife ‘who has the temperament and bodily strength … to enable her to find pleasure’ in her domain, the home.

This was far from reality. Nothing the emigrant wife had experienced previously could help her adjust to her changed circumstances in the colony. ‘Housekeeping’ took on a new dimension: multi-tasking would be a more accurate term.

Eliza Feilden, who came to Natal with her husband in 1852 left us a detailed account of her ‘African home’.* Originally written as letters to her family in England, she later compiled them into one volume, illustrated with her own sketches:

‘I am learning to become a Jack-of-all-trades and master of none. I bake very good bread (in an outdoor oven), mix a capital meat pie … the oven part is the worst. A bake-pan is placed over a fire of wood in our oven and wood is put on the lid. This fire has to be constantly watched … to keep it at the right temperature or your loaf gets burnt to a cinder in the lower crust half an inch thick, and your pie-crust is sodden when the meat is baked hard. The lessons I am learning in cookery, however, will never come amiss.’

Needlework was not of the decorative variety. Apart from sewing her own clothes, a colonial wife had to learn to ‘turn’ a man’s suit to make it last longer, or cut it down to fit a growing son. In spite of the sub-tropical heat, cumbersome crinolines and tight-lacing continued to be worn. Examples of women’s typically close-fitting bodices, now preserved in museums, show small padded pieces sewn in the armpit, presumably an attempt to prevent damp patches and staining of the garment.

* My African Home: or, Bush Life in Natal when a young colony 1852-7 by Eliza Whigham Feilden (Sampson Low, 1887) 

Hints for Emigrants' Wives

By a Lady    1859

Wives who are on the point of emigrating to Natal, cannot too soon be aware that in all young, hard-working colonial communities there is very little room for the display of drawing-room graces and accomplishments. The wife, in Natal, is either a "help-meet" in the fullest and strongest sense of the term, or a hindrance and a draw-back to her husband. The colonial wife commonly needs to be, as well as companion and adviser, the instructor of children, the cook, baker, laundress, gardener, farming bailiff and often tailor. For these duties, solid and sterling qualities are required rather than refinements and elegancies.

In the choice of articles of dress to bring out to Natal, regard should first be had in all cases to utility and strength. The heat of the climate makes it desirable that the quality of strength should be combined with that of lightness. Thus, dresses of cool, light material, such as print, gingham (1), muslin, barege (2) and llama cloth (3) are most suitable, the two latter not requiring washing must be considered the most serviceable of all.

A large stock of well-made substantial but again not over-stout, underclothing will be found invaluable, since needle-work is not only dear in the colony but difficult to get done. In addition to this, pieces of long-cloth (4), holland (5), print (6), and in short, of almost any kind of cotton fabric used for clothing, may be brought out, and will prove of great worth at the beginning, when colonial supplies and colonial prices are most likely to be felt disappointing and disheartening by the new colonist.

A good stock of boots and shoes should be included in the outfit and these, like other articles of dress, require to be well made but not too heavy. There is one particular in which the boots now in common use by ladies in England, are unfit for colonial wear. It is in having only the part that covers the toe made of leather, while the rest of the boot is of cloth or cashmere. In the rough paths and roads of Natal this is an insufficient defence for the foot, besides being ruinous to the pocket. It is desirable to have boots that are "galoshed", as the trade expression is, all round, that is, which have the leather carried on from the toe, in a strip all round the sides and heel.

The same rule should be observed in choosing furniture as has been recorded for clothing. Strength and not style is the great desideratum. A piece or two of chintz (7) is sure to prove a good store ... (for) neat covers and simple curtains made of this material. The iron bedstead is in most common use on account of the ease with which it can be taken to pieces or put together and also for lightness of carriage. Horse-hair or spring mattresses are most desirable during the 5 or 6 hot and the 3 or 4 warm months of the year ... Bolsters and pillows will be found no ill store, though after 2 or 3 years residence in the colony the colonist's wife may have a large stock of them at pleasure, from the pluckings of the innumerable fowls that are a staple commodity of a South African country table. A good supply of bed and house linen (the former of cotton), of blankets and light counterpanes, is desirable.

Any one of those useful and portable machines, lately invented to save manual labour (are a good addition): a meat-chopper, a washing machine, a small patent mangle. Here washing is performed principally by male (native servants) at the river's side, and these make up for their want of skill by a double exercise of brute force, and by the employment of boards and stones as aids in the work. The consequence is that any articles of clothing of tender nature barely survive their first ablution in the Natalian streams. Ironing is generally dispensed with, in the case of all but the garments which require to be starched, and its place will be supplied by a process of stamping, which is also accomplished by the native servants. The result is more satisfactory than might be expected; still an English housewife will be very glad to have her preferences for perfectly smooth linen indulged, as it can be, when she possesses a patent mangle.

Complete dinner and breakfast services of enamelled crockery will soon pay their price twice over, for everything of earthenware is so sure to suffer breakage, sooner or later, in the hands of the servants, that the replacing of losses thus experienced becomes a heavy item in household expenses.

The iron baking-pot or camp-oven is the article most commonly employed in the colony for cooking. In it meat is roasted, bread, cakes and pies are baked, and irons are heated. It is placed over the wood fire, on bars of iron provided for the purpose. It is an inconvenient article for the service it has to do, both on account of its size and weight, and of the difficulty of regulating the heat that is applied to it. Some sort of stove that will burn wood - and excellent ones are manufactured now - will be a very serviceable addition to the domestic outfit.

Soyer's Shilling Cookery Book is a useful manual to be provided with, because it gives directions for so many different ways of dressing the same articles of food, such as beef and fowls - which are the two chief, nay almost the only kinds of animal food to be had in many parts of Natal. The multiplicity of ingredients mentioned in some of these receipts need not discourage the colonial housekeeper. Carrots and turnips may be scarce, but pumpkins and sweet potatoes will fairly supply their place, particularly when seasoned with a few ounces of goodwill and when the eater brings with him the sauce of a good appetite. This seldom fails to accompany the colonial husband, who returns to his evening meal after a day's work in the field, at the arrow-root mill or in the sugar-house.

Seeds of cabbages, lettuces, endive, carrots, turnips, celery, beet-root, radishes and cress will be found valuable ... there being nowhere in the colony a regular market for the supply of vegetables. Provision for the kitchen-garden may seem to come rather within the husband's province than the wife's. But in reality the care of that useful portion of the homestead is very likely to fall to her share since the labour of the husband may be entirely required and more profitably engaged in the plantations or farming pursuits in which the seed of his future prosperity is, with God's blessing, to be sown. The garden may become a pleasant portion of the wife's daily work, in a country where the climate, especially in the morning and evening, is so agreeable for out-of-doors occupation, and where the plants that will grow, grow so rapidly.

The colonist's wife should know how to cook and bake, and how to iron and get up linen: she should be able upon a pinch to clean and place in order the sleeping and dwelling-rooms of the house; and she should be well-skilled in the use of her needle.

Besides all this, she should have the temperament and bodily strength which will enable her to find pleasure in these household engagements. The delicately-nurtured lady, who can do none of these things, should on no account be transplanted to what must necessarily prove to her a sadly ungenial soil. In Natal she can find, at present, nothing but vexations, hardships, sorrows and regrets.

[Originally in: The Colony of Natal: An Account of the Characteristics and Capabilities of this British dependency published under the authority of the Government Immigration Board, for the guidance and information of emigrants, by R J Mann, London, Jarrold & Sons 1859]

Footnotes
1 Cotton cloth, at first striped and later checked.

2 A thin silky material, similar to gauze.

3 Shirting material of wool or cotton made in plain twill and in stripes.

4 Close-woven plain cotton of fine combed yarns; so-named as it was one of the first fabrics woven in a long piece.

5 A fine linen first manufactured in Holland.

6 Printed calicoes, used in SA throughout the 19th century as suitable for climate.

7 By the 19th century a glazed calico printed with flowers and other designs in colours.

Getting the Low-down on SA Passenger Lists

There has been a spate of queries on the knotty topic of passenger lists and how to find ancestors on board ship emigrating – or even just travelling – to South Africa (from Britain or other ports in Europe).

Use the search facility on this blog, entering ‘passenger lists’, or go to ‘passenger lists’ in the Labels cloud (below left on this page), or browse through the archived posts. One or all of these methods should bring you to the relevant posts.

Some basic truths about SA passenger lists:

 If an ancestor was part of an organized emigration scheme, there’s a good chance of finding out more about him – or about them, if the entire family emigrated together.

If an individual passenger wasn’t part of an organized group but paid for his own passage and was free to settle in whatever part of the country he chose, his arrival is usually less easy to trace. In some cases it may be more sensible to check for a deceased estate file for the ancestor - if he eventually died in South Africa.

There has been no coordinated programme to transcribe South African passenger arrivals (or departures) in bulk. Consequently, one cannot speak in terms of accessing ‘South African passenger indexes’ or registers.

Instead, zoom in on what you believe may have been the ancestor’s port of destination: Cape Town? Durban? One of the smaller coastal ports in-between? Much depends on what records are available for these different points of entry. If there is no clue where he might have disembarked or finally settled, you're in for an extended search.

The other important aspect is the date parameter: the narrower the better. Attempting to trace an arrival on the basis of an entire decade is nothing short of masochism.

Generally, the closer we get to the 20th c the more difficult it becomes to find individual passengers. This is partly due to the increase in volume of shipping to South African ports as the turn of the century approached. Record-keeping was inconsistent; newspaper shipping columns couldn’t keep up with all the incoming ships and passengers; port registers that were kept often showed only first- and sometimes second-class passengers’ names; also, not all kept registers have survived.

If your ancestor sailed from Britain to South Africa after 1890, your best bet is the passenger search facility at http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/ powered by findmypast.com

UPDATE 2012:  eGGSA's Passenger List Project is a work in progress: explore what has been done so far at  http://www.eggsa.org/arrivals/eGGSA%20Passenger%20Project.html

Births, Deaths and Marriages at Sea: UK sources

From 1854, registers were compiled from ships’ official logbooks of births, marriages and deaths of passengers at sea. All these were recorded from 1854 to 1883, births and deaths only from 1883 to 1887 and deaths only from 1888 onwards. They are held at The National Archives (TNA), Kew in Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers at Sea (BT 158).

Masters (captains) of vessels were required from 1874 to report births and deaths at sea to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and these records are at TNA. Registers of Births of British Nationals at Sea are in BT 160 and Registers of Deaths of British Nationals at Sea in BT 159.

For the period 1891 to 1964, BT 334 at TNA contains Registers and Index of Births, Deaths and Marriages at Sea. These include death registers of the passengers and crew of the Titanic and Lusitania.

The location of a death at sea may be given in latitude and longitude. Other details offered in these records include name, occupation, age or date of birth, address, date and cause of death, and port of registry of the ship.

Passports
I’m often asked about passports as a possible source of information. Before World War I there was no requirement for travellers to obtain a passport when leaving Britain and few emigrants bothered to apply for one. Foreign Office Passport Registers (TNA in FO 610) are indexed by name, giving date of issue and serial number of each passport between 1851 and 1862, and 1874 and 1898. There are registers in chronological order going back to 1795. Passports as we know them didn’t come into being until 1921.

Update:

TNA, Kew, has now (March 2010) released records at sea online at http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/
The records cover over 150, 000 individuals (previously only searchable on microfilm) who were born, married or died on ships between 1854-1908.

Also see on this blog: http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/10/births-deaths-and-marriages-at-sea.html
How to find UK Maritime BMD on FamilySearch.org partnered by findmypast.com

Wreck of the Birkenhead Anniversary

158 years ago, on the night of 26 February 1852, the Birkenhead, a British troopship commanded by Captain Robert Salmond, was wrecked off Danger Point, Cape, while on a voyage from Simon’s Town to Algoa Bay and East London.

She was transporting men, mainly of the 73rd Regiment of Foot, for service in the 8th Frontier War. Also on board were some officers’ families. The iron paddle steamer struck an uncharted rock near Gansbaai, tearing a large hole in her side.

The sea almost immediately flooded the forward part of the ship and engine rooms, drowning 100 soldiers below decks. The lowering equipment for the lifeboats would not function, possibly due to lack of maintenance. Two cutters and a gig were launched and the women and children rowed clear of the wreck. Horses were cut loose to swim ashore if they could. Troops assembled on the stern deck, maintaining calm and discipline under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Seton of the 73rd Regt, until the ship broke into two parts.

Minutes before she finally sank, despite the opportunity offered to save themselves, the men stood fast to avoid swamping the boats carrying the women and children. This heroism coined the phrase ‘the Birkenhead Drill’ i.e. ‘women and children first’ – though this was nothing new in maritime history: a similar protocol had been observed in previous shipwrecks, including that of the Abercrombie Robinson in Table Bay, ten years earlier. Of approximately 640 souls on the Birkenhead, 445 were lost. Many drowned, others were taken by sharks.

A court of enquiry into the incident was held on board HMS Victory at Portsmouth, 8 May 1852. In 1936 a plaque in memory of the loss of the Birkenhead was placed near Danger Point lighthouse. The inscription states:

‘Nine Officers, Three Hundred & Forty-Nine of Other Ranks and Eighty-Seven of the Ship’s Company Lost Their Lives. Every Woman & Child Was Saved.’

For lists of those on board the Birkenhead go to:
http://web.archive.org/web/20100922122853/http://www.genealogyworld.net/cape.html

http://lighthouses-of-sa.blogspot.com/2006/12/danger-point-lighthouse_28.html 
photo of Danger Point Lighthouse by Joe Viljoen

Renovations at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, Natal

The South African National Archives and Records Service (NARS) offers a pdf file concerning the current extensive renovations at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, and consequent implications for users of the Reading Room.

To access this information, go to the Home Page of the NARS site at

www.national.archives.gov.za/   


or go direct to the pdf file at

www.national.archives.gov.za/website_notice_Pietermaritzburg_Archives_Repository_renovation%20_2_.pdf