12 January 2009 - 176 000 Gravestones on the web site!

The total number of gravestone pictures in the online Gravestones in South Africa collection has now passed 176, 000.

We are constantly receiving more photographs. All the captions are done by volunteers online. If you would like to assist us, please contact Alta Griffiths at alta@pinnaclespot.co.za

23 December 2009 - South African Commercial Advertiser extracts complete to 1850

Sue Mackay's most recent transcripts from the South African Commercial Advertiser 1850 have joined the large collection of her transcribed extracts from a early Cape newspapers from the originals located in the British National Archives at Kew.

The extracts are mainly of items to do with individuals, such as births, marriage and death announcements, as well as other interesting snippets such as the reports of the Veldcornets in 1837 of the families leaving the Eastern Cape for the interior.

These transcripts are available in the eGGSA Library - Newspaper section where a search facility is available to search through all these newspaper extracts.

Our grateful thanks to Sue for the enormous amount of time and effort she has devoted and is still devoting to this very valuable project and for making it available to all.

NEW! The Du Toits of South Africa.

This new publication, in both book and CD format, contains the Family Register of the South African Du Toit Family, published by the Genealogical Society of South Africa.

Although the family is one of the best-known and largest in South Africa, no comprehensive family register has previously been published.

In 1989 Alexis Charles Fuchs began to assemble details of the Du Toit ancestors of his mother, Hester Susanna du Toit. He collected so much data that he decided to produce a full Du Toit genealogy and has now done so with the co-operation of many other researchers.

The Du Toit Family in book form consists of two volumes, 2458 pages in total. There are no illustrations. The books are hard backs and sewn. The introduction and contents pages can be downloaded here: Introduction to Die Du Toits van Suid-Afrika

Orders are now being taken for the print run. The price of the two printed volumes is R1300-00. Postage and packing is extra, the amount dependent on the destination.

For ordering and further details please contact Hendrik Louw at the GSSA using this email address: secretary@ggsa.info

The CD format is available to order from the eGGSA online shop priced at R340-00 plus postage.

Document Ordering Service

We are able to organise the photographing of documents from the South African Archives at Pretoria (TAB), Bloemfontein (VAB), Pietermaritzburg (NAB) and Durban(TBD).

Please read the FAQ for more information.

The eGGSA Library

houses a collection of photographs:

South African  gravestone photographs.

Family Bible inscription pages

Postcards

South African Archive Documents

eGSSA serves its members by:

• providing genealogical skill development through information, publications, research education, and networking opportunities.

• establishing important links with other groups world-wide.

• increasing public awareness of opportunities for discovering family history.

• promoting interest in the fascinating field of genealogy.

• promoting a number of projects aimed at expanding the availability of South African genealogical sources online.

For many years, there have been people who, for various reasons, could not join a regular GSSA branch. Some of these reasons include living too far from a branch or living outside South Africa. These people still have a need to belong to a branch and to enjoy the benefits of GSSA membership, such as receiving GSSA's journal, Familia. eGSSA has been established to meet these needs. This is an ideal opportunity to become part of GSSA and to step into this exciting era.

At eGSSA we have an online shop where you can buy the various publications of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, as well as a number of other genealogical, historical and cultural items.

There are indexes to the articles in Familia, the quarterly journal of the GSSA and those in genesis, journal of eGGSA itself. In addition we now have a download library with some free books in pdf format, a number of documents from the South African Archives as well as photographs of graves in South African cemeteries.

Check out the benefits of becoming a member!