19th December 2011 - an appreciation from Dianne Dever:

I am the niece of a '19 year old lad' from Manchester England who found himself in a war and a country I am certain he had little knowledge of. He tragically lost his life in January 1943 and is buried in Stellawood Cemetery, Durban. His name is Bernard Vaughan Healey, born to impoverished parents who had 7 children to feed and clothe. His childhood was miserable and before he had a chance at making a better life for himself, lost that life at such a young age. He was buried thousands of miles from home and of course no family members ever visited his grave. He has been long forgotten, his parents and siblings all long dead. I never knew him, being born 15 years after he died.

But because of the fantastic work you all have done, including those who tend and care for the graves, Bernard Vaughan Healey has been cared for more in death than he ever was in his short sad life.

He is 'at peace' in a beautiful corner of the world being watched over by angels who at the least deserve heartfelt thanks and praise for the dedicated work you all do. I will always think of you all with gratitude and praise.

Yours sincerely
Dianne Dever
Manchester

1st December 2011 - GSSA Voters Roll Project - Letter S complete

When the eGGSA branch first started on Project S (the transcription of the whole of the letter S in the 1984 South African Voters' Roll, 296 668 names and addresses) we were simply just going to type forever!! You must know when the S's first arrived at my desk, I sommer put the computer off for 2 weeks, not knowing where to start. eGGSA's initial plans for handling the transcriptions were also put to bed and we had to come up with a new approach. The simplest for us was to approach anybody with even the remotest interest in the S-surnames, family and friends were also not safe.

The first of the S's were typed with the start of the Soccer World Cup in 2010. In the first quarter of this year we set ourselves a deadline for completing Project S by the end of December 2011. We typed right through the Rugby World Cup and today we won the S-CUP!!! The transcription of the letter S is now complete - 31 days BEFORE the deadline!!

Thank you so much to everyone who put so many hours into the project. We really appreciate your time, dedication, patience and friendship! I really enjoyed working with you guys! A big thank you to the S-pensioners who have offered to continue transcribing other surnames.  Alta Griffiths.

The Roll of Honour ( transcriber and number of names transcribed ):

Alet Swanepoel, 4200
Alta Griffiths, 26504
Amanda Stander, 4033
Annette Goussard, 3801
Carmen van de Riet, 3570
Carol Beneke, 10542
Celeste Rachman, 20055
Dalina van Zyl, 4242
Dan Strydom, 5271
Deirdre Eygelaar, 7519
Erna Buber-de Villiers, 715
Fay Lea, 588
Frans Rudolph, 28603
Gert Schepers, 106
Glynis Millet-Clay, 1053
Hannetjie Riekert, 76550
Heleen Nel, 11602
Hobbie Stoffberg, 4819
Jacobus Swanepoel, 7119
Jacqui Foster, 273
Judi Meyer, 5271
Karn Kruger, 1764
Kobus Snyman, 3507
Lee Marais, 273
Levien Smuts, 13399
Melanie Smit, 5271
Minnie Pretorius, 2814
Paul Bosman, 819
Paxie Kelsey, 3261
Richard Atkinson, 5271
Richard Wolfaardt, 26355
Straffen Short, 462
Swannie Swanevelder, 1197
Talita Lofty-Eaton, 1764
Tanite Smart, 1029
Tobie de Villiers, 421
Wolfaardt familie, 2625 (Richard Wolfaardt, Dalina van Zyl and Henry Wolfaardt)

18 September 2011 - 350 000 Gravestones on the web site!

The total number of gravestone pictures in the online Gravestones in South Africa collection has now passed 350 000 thanks to all those who have generously donated their time to the project.

Donations of appropriate photographs can be sent to Alta Griffiths at cemphoto@ggsa.info

Berlin Cemetery Register re-discovered

For some months now I have been nagging them at the Cambridge Cemetery Office for the Burial Register of the Berlin (Eastern Cape) Cemetery.

The lady at the Berlin Office. whom I know personally and who has lived in Berlin all her life, tells me that some years ago someone from the Town Office (Buffalo City) sent a courier out to collect the register, which now appeared to be lost?

Quite by chance, about three weeks ago, I mentioned this to a staff member who happened to be at the Cambridge Office. He told me he was sure he had seen the Register at the Mdantsane Office, just outside East London, and gave me the cellphone number of one of the supervisors whom he knew out there, I contacted the man and made arrangements for the register to be brought to the Cambridge Office.

Berlin is about 40 kilometres from East London. on the road to King William’s Town. It became part of East London in 1973, until which time it had its own Village Management Board. It was well populated with descendents of early German Settlers (hence the name).

There are very few descendants of the original German settlers now living permanently in Berlin but I am told that some of those who once lived there, when they pass on, are having their ashes, together with a Memorial Stone, placed on the grave of their parents.

I have now photographed and transcribed the register. The transcript can be searched on the eGGSA Burials page.

Brian Barrett

27 July 2011 - Church Register Transcript updated:

Grahamstown, St George - baptisms now transcribed 1823 to April 1901 - transcribed by Lynn Couperthwaite, and marriages 1823 to 1834, transcribed by Lynn MacLeod.

These can be searched on the eGGSA BDM project.

4 March 2011 - Family Roots - Host:Natalie da Silva.

Radio Today's Family Roots is a programme about genealogy which is hosted weekly on Thursdays at 10h45 (GMT +2) by Natalie da Silva, Chairman of the Johannesburg Branch of the GSSA.

Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 AM in Johannesburg, on DStv audio channel 169 & streams on www.1485.org.za.

To access the podcast.

1. Go to Radio Today's website at http://www.1485.org.za
2. Enter the website
3. Select the Podcast button (Top Row -fourth from the left)
4. Scroll down (alphabetically) to required podcast :

Select Listen or Download to your PC/MAC

11 February 2011 - GSSA receives Cultural Awards

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport held its Western Cape Arts, Culture, Museum, Language, Heritage, Libraries and Archives Award 2010-11 ceremony on the 11th of February 2011. The gala event took place at Kronenburg, Paarl.

The GSSA received 2 nominations.

The GSSA Western Cape Branch Exhibition team was nominated for the category: Best individual / institution that promotes the Archive Service to the public through published articles and physical visits.

And the Cemetery Project was nominated for the category: Contribution towards public awareness / documentation of our heritage resources.

Both nominations won their categories

From left to right: Simone Kay (GSSA WC), Dr Ivan Meyer (Minister of Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation), Alta Griffiths, Dr Andrew Kok (Chairman GSSA WC) and Mariana Olivier (GSSA WC)		The Trophy won by the Cemetery Project

10 October 2010 - South African Commercial Advertiser extracts complete to 1856

Sue Mackay's most recent transcripts from the South African Commercial Advertiser 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 to this very valuable project and for making it available to all.

27 April 2010 - Familia Subject Index Updated

Thys du Preez has brought the Familia Subject Index, the quarterly journal of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, bang up to date - it now covers 1964 to 2009. The collected edition of Familia (on CD) or individual back copies can be purchased from the eGGSA online shop or from the GSSA Treasurer. For information on joining the society please see the Membership FAQ.

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

Church Register Transcriptions

Newspaper Extracts

1820 Settler Correspondence

To search the web site, use Search

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!