Lynn Couperthwaite has update the listing of articles in genesis, eGGSA's quarterly journal cum newsletter so that it now runs from the first issue of 2004 up to the last issue of 2022: Genesis - contents of the issues to date

Sue Mackay writes: . At the end of November I gave a zoom talk to eGGSA on the UK origins of the 1820 settlers, and was asked a question about John MONTGOMERY. This caused me to look at my eGGSA page on him, where I discovered I had previously noted the issues of The Friend containing his Reminiscences. I then realised that these years (December 1868 to July 1870) had already been covered by Lynn Couperthwaite’s transcriptions, but as Lynn scans the online papers for BMDs and obituaries she would not have realised the importance of these closely typed (and sometimes barely legible) articles. I found them, and decided they really should be transcribed. Once again I was able to enlist the invaluable help of Geoff Chew, not only for his knowledge of South Africa, but his proofreading and uncanny ability to decipher elusive words. I have added the transcriptions to The Friend extracts on eGGSA at https://www.eggsa.org/newspapers/index.php/the-friend (1868 December to 1870 July)

The archives of the Dutch United East India Company, abbreviated to VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie), held at the General State Archives in The Hague in the Netherlands, extend over 1277 metres of documents. The impressive quantity of documents not only provides information about the commercial, financial and diplomatic activities of the Company, but is also very significant for the history of the Netherlands and for those countries and regions in Asia where the VOC was established. It covers the period 1602 to 1795, and for a Java up to 1811.

This archive holds amongst others, the letters and papers received from the various establishments. Each year copies of the administration and other documents from the Governor-General and Council in Batavia and from the other establishments in Asia and the Cape of Good Hope arrived on the return ships. 

The Letters and Papers received from the Cape of Good Hope covering the period 1652 to 1795 are of particular interest to researchers and genealogists researching South African history and genealogy. They contain a vast amount of valuable material. 

A typical year would contain:

Generale missiven (general letters) plus enclosures,
Resoluties (proceedings),
Dagregisters (diaries),
Journals,
Documents concerning the conduct of business,
Documents from the Raad van Justitie (Court of Justice),
Muster-rolls and other documents.

This series of Letters and Papers received by the Heren XVII and the Amsterdam Chamber from the Cape of Good Hope, 1651-1794 is composed of 374 volumes. To find one's way through the hundreds of thousands of folios of this series, indexes of the tables of contents need to be made and published.

This section of the South African Records Transcribed website is an attempt to create such indexes. The indexes start off with the year 1652 and as each yearly index becomes available it will be published here.

These indexes are being transcribed directly from images of VOC archives housed in the General State Archives in The Hague, and in particular from the inventory numbers 3988 to 4360. 

The transcriptions that were done under the auspices of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, Natal Midlands Branch and members of the Natal Inland Family History Society, have now, with their agreement and co-operation, been added to the eGGSA Burials database and can be searched online. There are also a number of Maps that were drawn up at the time of the transcriptions.

photo: Eckhard von Fintel.

In the usual layout of Voortrekker towns, we find the cemetery situated on the perimeter of the town. Pietermaritzburg was no exception and the early Voortrekkers buried their dead in what is now known as the Voortrekker section of the Commercial Road Cemetery (the old Grey’s Hospital side.)

Unfortunately, the names and dates of early settlers buried before 1889 (when the cemetery registers were started) (5) and who did not appear in a church burial register, or have stones erected in their memory, are now lost to us. The earliest inscription on a tombstone is that of Hendrik Van den Berg, who was born 1.3.1785 and died 5.9.1839 in the City at 54 years. (He was a Voortrekker whose burial took place within a year of the founding of Pietermaritzburg.)
It would seem that from the earliest times, the cemetery was divided up according to various religious denominations – Anglican, Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian and Wesleyan. In Bishop Colenso’s book, “Ten Weeks in Natal”, (published 1855), he mentioned how on 7.2.1854 “we rode over the bridge …. and passing the burial grounds (where differences which separate Christians during life are still permitted to part their bodies after death) we entered the broad streets of the City.”

It was as early as the year 1860 that the City Council appointed a Public Cemetery Committee, one reason being to decide on the best site for a cemetery and the amount of land required. In 1883 and 1885 the area was fenced and the Municipality employed a caretaker who supervised the maintenance. (4). In 1918 the Anglican Church required more land for burials and purchased it from the Dutch Reformed Church. Thus Anglican graves can be found on both sides of Commercial Road.

In 1948 the Municipality took over the churchyard and it was close for burials except in exceptional circumstances. At a later date, the Municipality handed over all registers and maps regarding the Commercial Road Cemetery to the Natal Society Library for safe keeping.

From: The KZN Family History Society Website, author: Diane Scogings 2/4/1992

There are, so far as is known, no Commercial Road Cemetery burial registers dating from before 1860, for any of the churches. I don’t really know why but apparently the Municipality kept the registers up to 1860, despite the various cemeteries being owned by the churches (and my understanding is, being maintained by the churches). I don’t know what happened in 1860 and why it changed, but from that date the municipality no longer kept registers, and these were the responsibility of the various churches. Unfortunately, the municipal registers up to 1860, like all municipal records in Pietermaritzburg, were lost when the first City Hall burnt down in 1898.

So for all the cemeteries any records of deaths or burials prior to 1860 in the attached lists are what were taken from the actual tombstones.

From 1860 to 1948 the cemeteries were administered by the churches, who all kept registers EXCEPT apparently the Roman Catholic church. With the exception of a list of the indian people buried in the Catholic section, there are no registers for the Catholic section, and as far as can be ascertained, there never were. Personally, I find this hard to believe, but that is what the records in the Bessie Head Library tell me. Why they would have kept a list of the indian people but no others, does not quite make sense, but there It is.

In 1948 the Catholic section was “cleaned up” by the municipality following their takeover (with, apparently, the agreement of the Catholics) and all broken tombstones, etc removed. This list is therefore probably a long way short of being a complete list of persons buried in this section.

The municipality wished to “clean up” the other sections as well, but could not get the agreement of the churches so to do.

Notes from Neil Bloy, 2022 November.

ANGLICAN Section

Registers from the Natal Society Library were consulted. Burial registers of the Anglican Church were also examined. These records can be located in the Natal Diocesan Archives at the Cathedral Centre in Pietermaritzburg. Maps of the cemetery are available. Some of the graves which are listed have been badly vandalised, but we were fortunate to be able to piece together some of the broken stones and record them.

All graves researched and checked by the members of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, Natal Midlands Branch, and members of the Natal Inland Family History Society. The list was compiled by Mrs D Scogings and Mr M Scogings.
JANUARY 1993

CATHOLIC SECTION of the Commercial Road Cemetery, Pietermaritzburg
Researched and compiled by Jennifer G Duckworth - 1984

This is a list of graves with tombstones existing in 1984. As There is no plan or register of the Catholic cemetery, nor does there appear to have ever been one, and the graves themselves are unnumbered and randomly arranged, I have divided the cemetery into 6 rough blocks as indicated in the accompanying sketch.

Some of the stones are covered completely by earth and grass and may have subsequently disappeared once more.

There is also a list of Indian plot owners which is a bit unsatisfactory as the original compiler of the list seems to have been only semi-literate. Most of the Indian and Black graves are in Block F which has very few gravestones.

Blocks A, B, C & D are parishioners' graves. Block E was used by the religious orders of priests, nuns and brothers.

HISTORY: The burial ground was granted to the Roman Catholic community in 1850. At this point it measured only 1 acre 30 perches. An extension was granted in October 1884 which doubled its size. The earlist gravestone surviving in the cemetery is that of Sarah Doyle who died on 18 June 1854 aged 37. She was the wife of Dennis Doyle, an ex-45th Regiment soldier.

DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH and PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH sections

This list of graves has been compiled by D & M Scogings from registers held by the Presbyterian Church, Longmarket Street Pietermaritzburg and the Dutch Reformed Church at their archives in the Synodale Sentrum in Burger Street, Pietermaritzburg. Dates in the Presbyterian section have been checked by Mrs S Spencer.

All graves researched and checked by the members of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, Natal Midlands Branch, and members of the Natal Inland Family History Society in 1992.

WESLEYAN CEMETERY, Commercial Road, Pietermaritzburg

All Wesleyan graves researched, transcribed ad checked by Mr. D. Buckley, senior librarian in charge of special collections, Natal Society Library, Pietermaritzburg and the Map of the Cemetery was also drawn by Mr. D. Buckley.

Index compiled by Mrs D. Scogings and Mr M. Scogings.
MARCH 1993

It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that Judi has passed away after a short illness. When we got the call this morning we had no words and were not ready for this farewell.

Judi joined eGGSA in 2009 and straight away volunteered to take on the role as GENESIS editor. When we started our Facebook page, she was the first to put her hand up. From the beginning Judi became an integral part of our management team.

Judi will be remembered for her joy for life, her passion for genealogy, her positive attitude, her willingness to help others with their research, her readiness to take on the next challenge and always being prepared to help. Judi we are going to miss you. We have today lost a respected genealogist, team member, friend and confidant.

Our sincerest condolences to her husband Jan, the children, grandchildren, family and friends. 

All at eggsa.org

Michael Scogings has now completed his indexes of BMDs from the Natal Witness for 1846-1885 inclusive, which are the issues he has access to.

He will now turn his hand to the early issues of the Natal Mercury, to further fill in the gaps until the start of civil registration in Natal in 1868.

A huge vote of thanks to Michael for this mammoth task.

Following a talk she gave on researching in South Africa, Sue Mackay was contacted by a lady in the UK who had taken possession of two old diaries written in the 1870s by a relative, John Thomas Davis Harcourt (b1851 in Birmingham), who went out to join the Frontier Police. The diaries were acquired from a South African who no longer wished to be responsible for them, and they found their way to Jane Milne in the UK, who was known to be “the family historian”. With them were several WW1 diaries written by the son, William Douglas Harcourt, and these have drawn the interest of the Imperial War Museum, but Jane was keen that the two older diaries should also have a wider audience.

I suggested that the diaries themselves might be offered to the National Archives, but Jane was willing for them to be photographed and published on eGGSA, so that historians at the Cape could access them. I offered to transcribe the diaries, as I have experience of reading old handwriting following my transcriptions of the 1820 settler correspondence, and I enlisted the help of Geoff Chew in London, a retired South African academic, who has a greater knowledge than I have of South African history, and who was also familiar with most of the places mentioned in the diary.

It soon became apparent that Harcourt was present at many important meetings with tribal chiefs and that the diaries were very interesting historical documents, so thanks are due to Jane Milne for ensuring that they were not lost.

The Diary images can be seen HERE

During 2020 the Nationaal Archief (National Archives) in The Hague, Netherlands, started making their documents for the period 1652 to 1794, available for online research. (https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/).  I was initially introduced to this new treasure trove of data by Corney Keller, an expert in old Dutch records and transcriber of many of the very old Dutch documents, vrijluiden (free settler) registers and many more on the eGGSA SARecords web site.

To navigate the new Archive Search facility does take some time to get used to but, with Corney’s help, I was able to navigate and trace some amazing documents and plenty of new and additional information that is now available electronically. The information is organised into various sections, and the most relevant section for South African documents can be found in the inventory of series 1.04.02, Inventaris van het archief van de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), 1602-1795. (This article originally published more fully in eGGSA's quarterly magazine genesis, March 2021)

Cornel has generously allowed eGGSA to add to the eGGSA web site his list of Muster Rolls which includes those he has located on the Nationaal Archief site - eGGSA Muster Roll Listing,

These are being made available, where possible, on eGGSA's YouTube channel.

Rob Smith has donated transcriptions made of correspondence to, about and from settlers in the Nottinghamshire contingent of the 1820 settlers which he has gathered while researching for his book Nottinghamshire Settlers and Locations in the Eastern Cape of Good Hope  (Footprint Press, Hermanus, Western Cape).

Most of the correspondence was addressed to Edward Smith GODFREY, Clerk of the Peace for Nottinghamshire, who was in charge of the selection of the Nottinghamshire settlers on the emigration scheme. He was assisted by the Rev. J.T. BECHER of Southwell.

These are now available on the 1820 Settlers section of the eGGSA web site.

Lunette Lourens has added a further part to her interesting and useful article, discussing Packaging requirements and options for your family archives.  This article is intended to provide simple and practical guidance to anyone who is looking after their family heritage. 

1 What are family archives?
2 What to keep
3 Taking care of the physical condition of the archives
4 Packaging requirements and options for your family archives
5 Storage environment for your family archive
6 Arrangement of your family archives

The collection of books formerly housed in the Genealogical Society of South Afric at Stellenbosch, was moved during 2019 to the Library of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (KSUT/CPUT), Pentz Street, Wellington. Microfilms that only GISA had are also part of the collection donated to CPUT.

The library has extended hours with plenty of parking outside. It is important to note that the library staff will assist researchers in finding a specific item on the shelf but they are not available to do the actual research. If you cannot visit in person, contact one of the private researchers.

The message to take home is that there is life after GISA. In fact, the CPUT Library in Wellington took the challenge on and raised the bar! The GISA collection is being taken care of and treasured. I did not hear of one person at the meeting who was not impressed with what was achieved in such a short time. They all seem to agree that it is the right place for the collection. Best of all, there is no more “you are not allowed in there” – we can now explore, scratch and discover at leisure!

 Books transferred to CPUT from GISA
 CPUT-Local History and Genealogy new additional material

Genealogy Books: Alta Griffiths has made a list of books now available on the FamilySearch web site - please see Books online in the Links to useful websites section of this web site.

Cemetery registers On FamilySearch have been added to Graves and Cemeteries in South Africa
  Images from the City of Cape Town, Cape Metro Cemetery Records, 
  to search: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2790463
  includes:
  Maitland cemetery in Cape Town 1886-2007
  and
  Plumstead Cemetery - Record of Interments - May 1959 to Jan 1977 

To coincide with the bicentennial of the arrival of the 1820 settlers in the Eastern Cape, Sue Mackay has made the master file of her Grahamstown Journal transcriptions for 1832-1890 available on the 1820 Settlers section of the website as a downloadable PDF file.

This is on the 1820 section of the website rather than the newspaper section, as all the transcriptions are already on the newspaper site in quarterly files with an improved search engine. The transcriptions make numerous mention of 1820 settlers and their descendants and it is hoped that the master file will be useful to those wishing to trace settler lines without having to open nearly 300 individual files and to those whose broadband is unreliable during these troubled times.

Our online shop is available for purchasing downloadable items and membership.

In fact our stock has been re-organised so that most (but not all) items can now be purchased as downloadables, including the Cemetery DVD, but it will, unfortunately, not be possible to post any CDs, DVDs or books during the current Corona-virus lock-down.

The Archives are closed and our photographers in lock-down so document photograph orders are also suspended. 

The Fort Beaufort Advocate and General Advertiser, first published on 23 July 1859, was a weekly publication produced on Saturdays.

Nadine Van der Merwe realised the potential interest of this publication for genealogists, especially in the run up to the bicentennial of the 1820 settlers, and began to take pictures in her local library with a view to transcribing them. She then realised what a large project this was, and also that many issues were missing, so she approached eGGSA for help. The eGGSA management committee agreed to buy digital scans of the newspaper covering the period 1859-1874 from the SA National Library, and these are now being transcribed by Nadine Van der Merwe and Lorraine Beechey. Sue Mackay started adding them to the eGGSA website on 1 March, and these can now be seen in the eGGSA Newspaper Extracts section.

Because the entire paper has been scanned, the transcribers were not under the same time constraints that I was when photographing extracts from the Grahamstown Journal and other 19th century newspapers in London with a digital camera, when I could really only focus on BMDs. These new transcriptions contain all sorts of interesting snippets, advertisements, shipping news and sometimes the downright bizarre! Many of the 1820 settlers moved into the Fort Beaufort area, so in this bicentennial year we should be especially grateful to Nadine and to eGGSA for making this project possible.

As part of my contribution to the bicentennial of the 1820 Settlers, I have collected as many photographs as I can of British and Irish locations relevant to the 1820 settlers. These can be found on the eGGSA website, arranged by county, on the 1820 Settlers section of the eGGSA website. Where the photographer’s name is followed by a CC reference, this is a Creative Commons Licence enabling me to copy photographs which appear on http://www.geograph.org.uk/ or selected other internet sites.

In the early months of 2020 I shall be posting Albums on the eGGSA Facebook pages arranged in Party groupings. I am trying to add an album each day. For those with access to Facebook, the Albums already posted can be found all together on the eGGSA Facebook page. For those who are not on Facebook, the pictures are all on this site, arranged according to county. Follow the link at the top of this notice, or put the name of the settler you are researching into the Search Box in the 1820 Section.

Johan Diedericks has extracted from the data at National Archief at the Hague, 123 more of these VOC employees who settle at the Cape of Good Hope, and made them available onthe eGGSA web site. They have now joined those previously extracted by Lizette Svoboda, on the Stamouers.com section of our web site. Our thanks go to Johan and Lizette for making their hard work available. 

VOC (Dutch East India Company) Accounts from Ships' Pay Ledgers, 1662-1805, contain information about many of its employees who settled at the Cape. Below are a number of excerpts from the online links to the Nationaal Archief (The Hague, Netherlands) web sites gahetNA and VOC - Opvarenden which seem likely to refer to those settlers. If you have any to add, please copy to a Word document and email them to the Stamouers editor.

The Nationaal Archief is making a huge effort to digitize the complete collection of the VOC and they hope to have it completed by 2017.

As of May 2016 almost all the Zeeland accounts have been digitized and put online, a large number of the Amsterdam ledgers are currently being scanned and should be available at the end of May or early June; the next batch is already planned.

For an introduction to these Ships' Accounts (soldijboeken) please see Corney Kellers' explanation on the Rekeningen uit de Scheepssoldijboeken 1662-1805 page.

Congratulations to Riana le Roux and her team of volunteers for this outstanding achievement. It is the product of many years of hard work, patience and dedication.

A big thank you to all of you going out to the cemeteries to take the photos, to those of you doing all the uploads onto the website, indexing the photos and cemeteries, maintaining our website. The project is extremely valuable to us and we appreciate your contributions.

The project is growing so fast that we are looking forward to the next milestone.

Archival terminology is a flexible group of common words that have acquired specialised meanings for archivists and provides a useful and necessary means of specialised communication within the archival profession. Since researchers communicate with archivists it will be to their benefit to familiarise themselves with the basic terms to facilitate their research experience. Listed below is a few of the most frequently used archival terms and their definitions:

I am at last in a position formally to reveal a project on which I have been working single-handedly for the last two years, as my contribution to the 1820 Settler Bicentennial. As my husband and I enjoy touring the country I rather rashly agreed to take as many photographs as I could of British Settler locations prior to 1820 so that they could be added to a new section on the eGGSA website.

I have indeed taken hundreds of photographs, but it was soon borne in upon me that I couldn’t possibly visit every location, and also that in many cases, particularly in cities like London and Bristol, many buildings with settler ties simply no longer exist. In the latter case I have tried to include historical pictures where possible, and where I have not been able to take pictures myself I have added pictures from www.geograph.co.uk, which can be used under a Creative Commons Licence. Where the photographer’s name appears as a clickable link followed by a CC BY-SA 2.0 reference, the original photo can be viewed together with other photographs of the surrounding area.

I have uploaded over 1300 photos to the new site (with thanks to Richard Ball for his help and patience in setting it all up), and these are currently arranged by county for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, with separate sections for the cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Nottingham. London has been further sub-divided into Boroughs so as not to have too many pictures in one file.

The pictures appear as small icons with a brief title. Clicking on them will reveal a larger picture with text explaining the link to one or more settlers and a credit to the photographer. Clicking on the + sign will further enlarge the picture to full screen (use ESCape to exit full screen mode), and the photographs can all be downloaded from the site.

During the bicentennial year I hope to upload a series of Photo Albums to the eGGSA Facebook pages in Party Groupings. In the meantime, if you wish to see if there are photos relating to your particular settler ancestor, go to https://www.eggsa.org/1820-settlers/ and type in the settler’s name in the Search Box in the top right hand corner, then scroll down the list of hits. Links to the relevant photographs should appear at the end of the list. It is also linked from the Photograph Collections button on the banner across the top of the site.

This has been a one woman show, and so it would be amazing if I have managed to complete the project without typos or broken links. Please let me know if you find any, and if you can add any further UK photos to the collection which are not copyright then they will be gratefully received.

These books literally cover anyone involved in the service of the VOC at all of their posts including the Cape. Those listed include officials, the military, burghers, surgeons, church leaders and court officials. In some places there is more detail on officials than others. The books also include the names of people that died and those who had returned or were being sent out to posts. Of particular interest is that ranks (and the date they were achieved) were listed so that one can follow a person’s career even if some books are missing. Searching the books also allows one to follow the career of a person if they were stationed at various places.

The spelling of the books varied and included Naamboek, Naamboekje and Naam-boekje.

The earliest I have found online is from 1729 and the latest 1801. Each contained a very detailed front page of their contents!

The title page in the 1729 book contained the following information:

NAAMBOEKJE
Van de Weled. Heeren der
HOOGE INDISCHE REGEERING,
Gequalificeerde Persoon, ens. Op
BATAVIA
Mitsgaders
De Respective Gouverneurs, Directeurs, Commandeurs en Opperhoofden of de Buyten-Comtoiren van Nederlands India; gelykze in wezen zyn gewest to primo Maart 1729
Als mede alle Gouverneurs Generaal, t’sedert den Jaare 1610
A later one in 1766 was even more explicit about its contents:

NAAMBOEK
Van de Wel-Edele Heeren der
HOOGE INDIASCHE
REGERING,
Zoo tot, als buiten,
BATAVIA
Mitsgaders van de Politique Bedienden, die van de Justitie, de Kerk, Burgery, Zeevaart, Militie, Arthillery, Chirugie, &c., zoo als dezelve onder medio September 1766. Alhier in weezen zyn bevonden;
ITEM
Der Gouverneurs, Directeurs en Commandeurs, mitsgaders verdure Opperhoofden en mindere Bedienden, op de respective Comptoiren van Indie
NEVENS
Een Lyst van de Personen, die repatrieeren zullen, een van die naar de Buiten-comptoiren vertrokke zyn; en een van de overledenen.
A 1798 book explicitly includes the Cape of Good Hope :

NAAMBOEK
VAN DEN
HOOG EDELE GESTRENGEN HEEREN
COMMISSARISSEN GENERAAL
Over geheel Nederlandsch Indie en Kabo de Goede Hoop
ITEM
Van de Wel-Edele Heeren der
HOOGE INDIASCHE
REGERING,
Zoo tot, als buiten,
BATAVIA
Mitsgaders van de Politique Bedienden, die van de Justitie, de Kerk, Burgery, Zeevaart, Militie, Arthillery, Chirugie, &c., zoo als dezelve, onder ultimo December 1798, alhier in weezen zyn bevonden;
VOORTS DIE
Der Gouverneurs, Directeurs en Commandeurs, mitsgaders verdure Opperhoofden en mindere Bediendens, op de respective Comptoiren van Indie.
NEVENS
Een Lyst van de Persoonen, die naar de Buiten-comptoiren vertrokke zyn, en een van de overledenen.
All the name books listed below are online and are downloadable as a pdf. The pdfs are in black and white and sometimes it is easier to read some type on the jpeg versions on the sites.

The following sites have links to the books but not all are to be found on the same sites. Many except for Google Books contain links to the National Library of the Netherlands and most have search engines. They are also a good resource for finding other books, documents, maps and pictures of the VOC, the Cape and South Africa

If you are searching the sites make sure you use the various names for the Naamboek as some are only found by using the variants.

http://www.earlydutchbooksonline.nl/nl/edbo

https://www.europeana.eu/portal

https://www.delpher.nl

http://www.omnia.ie/index.php

https://books.google.com.au

https://books.google.com

The books:

Data from the Drakenstein baptismal register from 1694 to 1744 is now available in the eGGSA BDM database. 

Lizette Svoboda has transcribed the section 1702 to 1732, Corney Keller the section 1733 to 1755 and Richard Ball the section 1694 to 1713. Cornel Viljoen has transcribed from 1756 to 1799 and provided the links to the LDS online copies of the original registers, G1 8/1, G3 3/1, G3 3/2, G3 3/3 and G3 3/4 which are housed and maintained by the NGK Argief, Stellenbosch .

In order to access the LDS images you will need to be registered with FamilySearch.org.

Photographs are important sources of information for researchers in all study fields, including genealogical research. We are all aware of the necessity of preserving documents, since archives have an important cultural value for the protection of our identity and collective memory. Photographic materials are therefore key sources for historical research, especially for the study of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The amount of information and detail that can be seen in photographs is what makes them a uniquely rich historical resource.  They can show exactly how a person, place, item, building, clothing, etc. looked at a specific time.  Therefore, photographs should not be considered as purely supplementary material but instead as illustrative “windows to our past”.

At present the Western Cape Archives and Records Service (WCARS) has about 90 000 photographs in the various collections in stock. The photographic section also houses the negatives of most of these photographs. The descriptions of most of the photographs, negatives and colour slides are already available on the internet databases. The photographs that accompany this article were chosen from the collections due to the buildings shown being subsequently demolished, replaced, restored, neglected, deserted or changed as a result of development. Therefore, although the buildings are not there anymore, the images are proof of their history.

The following is a list of some of the various photographic collections and the where they can currently be accessed:

Keith Meintjes writes: When I visited the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk Archive at Stellenbosch in 2016, Isabel Murray gave me a tour of all the stuff in their basement. They have all manner of things in addition to the church registers - 370 years of church history. One thing that caught my eye was a pile of Bibles since many people wrote their family information in their Bibles. Isabel told me they had many Bibles, all uncatalogued, that no one had ever looked at.

So, we cooked up a project. Isabel found a student, and I bought them a camera, lenses and a tripod, and paid for the student's time to catalog and photograph the Bibles. The outside, the title pages, and any handwritten notes or newspaper clippings.

I supported the student's time, and he spent his senior year doing the work. Towards the end, he was being interviewed on TV and radio about the importance of preserving the archives and family history.

He photographed and catalogued 375 Bibles, of which 58 had inscriptions of some sort. Of those 19 had family information and those 19 have been added to the eGGSA Bible Collection, with grateful thanks to Keith for his project and enthusiasm, to Isabel Murray and Andrew Kok and to the anonymous student who did the work.