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From: "Bruce Werner" <>
Subject: Researcher in King William's Town - Eastern Cape Lutheran and German Baptist Records
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 16:42:50 +0200


Many of you might be aware of the research done and help provided by Stephanie Pienaar, the Curator of History, at the Amathole Museum. Stephanie's very large database of persons, particularly German Settlers is impressive, but she is limited to the contents of the Amathole Museum in her research.

For people with German Settler ancestry the German Baptist records at Bethany Emmanuel Baptist Church in King William's Town are a mine of useful information. Valma Meier and the secretary at the Bethany Emmanuel Baptist Church are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. The German Military Settlers of 1857 and Agricultural Settlers of 1858 were mainly Lutheran or German Baptist.

The other major source of German Settler records is the Lutheran Archive at St John's Lutheran Church in King William's Town. As smaller Lutheran churches were closed during the consolidation of the Ciskei in the 1970's and urbanization during the last century their records were accumulated in the regional Lutheran archive in King William's Town where wonderful preservation work has been done, almost single-handedly, by Mr. Balzer, the archivist.

Somine van der Merwe-Loubser, formerly the librarian at the Amathole Museum, has the approval of the Lutheran Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Africa (Cape Church) to undertake research in the Lutheran archives. Somine is an excellent researcher and I have always had excellent service and results from her work. She can be reached by post at P O Box 73, King William's Town, 5600.

I suggest an initial donation to St John's Lutheran Church sent to Somine for passing on to Mr. Balzer, in addition to her very reasonable fees.

If you have German ancestors from the "Border" region of the Eastern Cape you will be surprised what can be found about them in the Lutheran and German Baptist archives.

In addition, a check of the Presbyterian records in the Eastern Cape, is advisable for German Settler research. As per Somine van der Merwe-Loubser and William Jervois at the Albany Museum the Evangelical Lutheran Church in many states in Germany was a state enforced amalgamation of the Lutheran and Calvinist churches. The Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia were Calvinists while most of their subjects were Lutheran and they organized this amalgamation in many of the states they ruled. As William put it, "It is as though the Queen had ordered the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian - Calvinist) and the Church of England (Anglican - Lutheran) to unite." In Germany, even today, while they all belong to the same legal church many congregations still announce whether they are Reformerd or Lutheran.

Regards

Bruce


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