Emigration to South Africa

[Nodrogw]

I am trying to find out some history of my great aunt, Agnes Skilling. She was born in 1876 in Newbie Barnes, Annan, Scotland. She married Malcolm McPhail in Leominster, Herefordshire, in 1902 and I believe they emigrated to South Africa at some stage after their marriage. Can anyone tell me how I can go about finding out when they left UK and what records from South Africa I might be able to access. Any help will be very much appreciated.

[kylejustin]

i don't think you will have much luck finding records in south africa. i have an uncle who fought in the boer war, and settled in south africa. i have not been able to learn anything since.

the archives may be of help: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/

[Christine in Herts]

It might be worthing checking here, in case anyone has turned up a resource about which you haven't heard before:

http://www.familytreeforum.com/content.php/441-South-Africa

Christine

[LaurenS1990]

You could try searching the Passenger lists leaving UK 1890-1960 on find my past

[MyAinFolk]

I checked NAAIRS (the National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System for South Africa) at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm This isn't the easiest database to use as it uses a lot of acronyms, although there are explanations given.

I found a couple of possible references to Agnes and Malcolm. Firstly this for Malcolm dated 1907-1908:

DEPOT NAB SOURCE MSCE TYPE LEER VOLUME_NO 0 SYSTEM 01 REFERENCE 30/250 PART 1 DESCRIPTION MCPHAIL, MALCOLM. (S/S AGNES). STARTING 19070000 ENDING 19080000 REMARKS IO269/1907

I'm not exactly sure what this record is but S/S Agnes may mean Surviving Spouse, indicating that Malcolm had died.

There is also a deceased estate file (probate documents) for an Agnes Park, formerly Skilling:

DEPOT NAB SOURCE MSCE TYPE LEER SYSTEM 01 REFERENCE 731/1951 PART 1 DESCRIPTION PARK, AGNES. (BORN SKILLING) BORN IN SCOTLAND. PRSP. PARK, JOHN. EST. NO. 270/1951. DECEASED ESTATE. STARTING 19500000 ENDING 19560000

Perhaps if Malcolm died, Agnes married John Park and this is her? I'm not certain if I'm interpreting these records correctly so maybe someone with more experience in South African research can help.

Kirsty

[MyAinFolk]

Another thought: http://ancestry24.com/ claims to be "The largest online archive of South African genealogy records" although I don't know if it actually has many records and there are a few South African collections on FamilySearch - see https://www.familysearch.org/search/...&region=AFRICA

Kirsty

[Nodrogw]

Thanks for all the information. I will try the links you have suggested and let you know whatr I find.
Regards
Gordon

[dreen22]

South Africa-Accessing Records

Hi,
I have only just found this section on South Africa having recently discovered that my Gt.Grandmother's brother and his sons were involved in The Boer War
one being killed in the early days at The Battle of Colenso. Until now I have not had to search for information because it all dropped into my lap courtesy of
a relative in Australia. However, I had got the impression that the national archives are not easy to access unless, of course, you live on the spot. The
family in Australia have all the information on their involvments in the war, plus their families. However, there is a 2nd marriage missing and when I tried
online I realised it would not be easy.

I have tried the link given by Kirsty but found it rather difficult to know where to go with it in relation to marriages and births.

dreeny 22

[PhotoFamily]

I think there are more specific ways of doing geographical searches of the FHL catalog - if you know the geographic area to look in.

From www.familysearch.org, select catalog. The next screen will default to place-names search - enter the town/region/country that you are researching. The categories of records appear - click on the ones of interest. Most people stop at church records. I noticed under "Cape Town", then "Biographies", there is a book of 4800 British Cape residents from 1795-1819.

Familysearch is working its way thru the records that they have to index them, and even put some online. It's all in how long you want to wait...

Another catalog search option is to search by keyword. There are 265 entries for the keyword, "Boer", including this book on Australians and the Boer war (Dreeny, you don't say where the g'grandmother's brother was living at the time of his enlistment):

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fcatalog-search-api%3A8080%2Fwww-catalogapi-webservice%2Fitem%2F1014914

Most films can be brought to your local FHC for viewing. I don't believe books travel, however.

[dreen22]

South Africa

I think there are more specific ways of doing geographical searches of the FHL catalog - if you know the geographic area to look in.

From www.familysearch.org, select catalog. The next screen will default to place-names search - enter the town/region/country that you are researching. The categories of records appear - click on the ones of interest. Most people stop at church records. I noticed under "Cape Town", then "Biographies", there is a book of 4800 British Cape residents from 1795-1819.

Familysearch is working its way thru the records that they have to index them, and even put some online. It's all in how long you want to wait...

Another catalog search option is to search by keyword. There are 265 entries for the keyword, "Boer", including this book on Australians and the Boer war (Dreeny, you don't say where the g'grandmother's brother was living at the time of his enlistment):
www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fcatalog-search-api%3A8080%2Fwww-catalogapi-webservice%2Fitem%2F1014914

Most films can be brought to your local FHC for viewing. I don't believe books travel, however.

My Gt.Grand Uncle John Gage (alias Ames) was born in London, Stepney, he signed on in 1858 and had a long army career through to the late 1890's. I obtained his army record some years ago but apparently there are pages missing. He had 3 sons all in the army (Royal Dublin Fusiliers) and I have 2 army records supplied to me by the family. The other son James C.V. was sadly killed in 1899 at The Battle of Colenso and all his records were destroyed.

What I am seeking is a 2nd marriage of the eldest son John EF Gage who apparently re-married in Natal in 1916. His 1st marriage was in 1904.

dreen22

[PhotoFamily]

Apparently there was civil reg in Natal during 1916

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fcatalog-search-api%3A8080%2Fwww-catalogapi-webservice%2Fitem%2F720589

It is on film, and can be requested to your local FHC

[PhotoFamily]

Dreeny -
Familysearch has started to index its South Africa records. I just indexed records for Frankfort district, Free Orange State, SA. There were two other index projects labelled "South Africa".