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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 1998-08 > 0902464444


From: mansell upham <>
Subject: Re: SOUTH-AFRICA-D Digest V98 #250
Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 04:34:04 +0000


> Subject: Myburgh, etc.
> Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 22:34:39 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Sonia van Heerden <>
> To:
>
> Mansell

> Re: ELSJE CLOETE's death date. We seem to be writing about
> different women. I would agree with you that Sophia Raedergortz
> died on 28 May 1685. But I was referring to Elsje Cloete's death
> date. I have after 1700. Would you agree?

I have no date of death for her, but I would agree with after 1700.
>
> Re: DR. GEORGE MCCALL THEAL - We Canadians have something to be
> ashamed of. Do you know that no Canadian genealogist, other than
> those of us who are doing SA Afrikaaner research, knows of Dr.
> Theal's genealogical work in SA? I don't think he did any
> genealogy work in Canada.

You should find the following to be of interest:Christopher Saunders:
"The Making of the South African Past: Major historians on race and
class" (David Philip, Cape Town & Johannesburg 1988). Theal is
covered extensively from the beginning of the book...and his legacy.
>
> Can anyone advise us if this problem of all slave and aboriginal
> baptisms was corrected in the Heese/Lombard series?

The late Dr J.A. Heese incorporated all information available to him
at the time he worked on updating of De Villiers/Pama. He included a
great deal of his own findings of the early period but the main focus
of his work was to take De Villiers/Pama up to the 1830s. This meant
including all baptisms and marriages of the Dutch Reformed Church
(DRC) thoughout the country, but not necessarily those of any of the
other churches. He included what he had and what was available to
him. Whatever he could gather on slaves, English(-speaking) families
and so-called 'Coloured' families he included. When still a student,
I visited him regularly at his home (and later at the Old Age Home) in
the Strand and helped a little with the transcription of some families
completing all the families beginning with P for him - just before and
also after his death. He was a warm and generous man - always open to
suggestion and genealogical enquiry. Just updating De Villiers/Pama
in terms of DRC records was a major task and his contribution to
genealogy in South Africa has yet to be given greater recognition.
Unfortunately, Dr Heese was already an old man when he tackled this
laborious project and he died before his work could be finished.
Genealogies were being copied out in longhand!

Heese still, however, relied heavily on De Villiers/Pama, correcting
whatever discrepancies he could find. There was no time, however, to
recheck all the baptisms and marriages covered by De Villiers/Pama -
especially the very early period. When comparing early baptisms with
De Villiers/Pama, I am constantly amazed at how many children have
been left out and how many of the published dates are incorrect. The
focus of CC de Villiers and Theal was more on obvious family units
where illegtimacy and colour (understandable for the time perhaps)
were played down. Furthermore, trying to piece together all the many
slave children minus fathers would have proved to be an almost
impossible task.

What needs to be done is the transcription and publication of the
baptismal entries verbatim so that the missing ones can be
highlighted. I have already transcribed the original baptismal
register for Cape Town for the period 1665-1675 and have shed many a
tear trying to read the entries - the handwriting of ministers at the
time is particulary untidy and the worst I have had to deal with thus
far.
>
> re: DE VILLIERS/PAMA - I would be interested in knowing more
> about Wiederholt and Wittebol surnames. Have they been published
> anywhere?

No, not yet, but I know of a few people who are working on these
families including myself.

Mansell Upham (Simon's Town)

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