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From: "Pat Brown" <>
Subject: History of SA gold mining [Re: [ZA] Re: SOUTH-AFRICA-D DigestV03 #652]
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 08:58:50 +0200


Hi Maureen,
The first gold nugget was discovered in the Knysna area in 1876 and
by 1879 there was a thriving goldrush on the go. Unfortunately (or
fortunately for the forests) by 1890 barely a ghost town remained. When
you stand on the site of the old town at Millwood you can feel the
ghosts and it is easy to draw mind pictures of a hustling, buslting town
with the usual hard working goldseekers, the drifters, the business men
all hoping that this will be THE gold strike. Would that we could go
back in time and just observe.

All the best,

Pat

>>> "Editor" <> 24/11/2003 09:26:13 >>>
Hi Jill, Sarah

What many people don't know is that there was a very short-lived gold
rush
along the rivers running through the Knysna forests, but I don't have
dates
to hand (the books I read years ago were from the Knysna Public
Library).
Today, a small ghost town still exists as a tourist attraction, as well
as
old adits (opening or passages into mines).

The first important gold finds were not in or near what was to become
Johannesburg. From about 1870, there was a huge rush to Pilgrim's Rest
in
the Eastern Transvaal, which turned out to be part of an extensive
goldfield
around the Pilgrim's Rest, Lydenburg, Barberton area, first alluvial,
then
surface, then mining proper -- for instance, Sheba Mine near Barberton
(town
founded 1884). About the same time, gold was found in today's Zimbabwe
in
the Tati area. Prospecting along the Witwatersrand started in 1883, &
the
Main Reef was found on the farm Langlaagte in September 1884 (source
Rosenthal's "Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa").

Many foreign miners travelled by ship to the Eastern Transvaal via
Delagoa
Bay (today's Maputo in Mozambique) & from there via Komatipoort along
the De
Kaap valley by ox waggon. I recently learned that a lot of silver
miners
from America came here to mine for gold because the bottom had dropped
out
of the silver market.

For Kimberley, the port of disembarkation may have been Cape Town, but
many
more would have chosen to go via Port Elizabeth (estab 1820) or East
London
(estab 1845), which shortened the overland trip by several hundred
miles. In
those days, you would have wanted to keep your overland travel to an
absolute minimum -- it was extremely slow & arduous, no StarStops or
motels
back then! For Johannesburg, Port Natal (Durban estab 1824), even
Delagoa
Bay, were closer. The route via Delagoa Bay, however, ran through
fever
country, infested with malaria & tsetse fly.

I read something interesting about the alluvial gold in the De Kaap
valley -- the rivers didn't hold as much of it as the miners expected
from a
completely unexploited area. This is because African tribes in the area
had
been collecting the alluvial gold, & also mining on a small scale, for
some
centuries. This is the legendary gold of Monomotapa that was traded
with
Arabs via places like Mapungubwe & Great Zimbabwe to Sofala (modern
Beira in
Mozambique) on the coast in exchange for goods from India, China. When
Vasco
da Gama reached Quelimane and Sofala in 1498, he discovered Arab
settlements
that had been there for hundreds of years. Early Arab trade down the
East
African coast dates back to about 600 AD, but not all the way down the
coast
to Sofala -- it was a slow process that took generations. I think
Swahili is
a language that evolved from contact between Arabs & Africans, a
lingua
franca along much of the coast.

Regards
Maureen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Fulguirinas" <>
To: <>
Sent: 24 November 2003 02:15
Subject: [ZA] Re: SOUTH-AFRICA-D Digest V03 #652


> Dear Jill
> I looked up in Naairs for McElvenny (and as many variations i could
> think of) but could find none. The major port would have been Cape
> Town, with perhaps a stop at Port Elizabeth or Durban. Most people
going
> to the gold or minefields would have gone to Cape town and then gone
up
> probably by train or oxwagon to Kimberley or Johannesburg. For
diamonds
> then I would try Kimberley, perhaps the curator of the museum there
may
> be able to find something, or a researcher. Gold wa up in the
> Witwatersrand and the place would be Johannesburg or some of the
towns
> around it in the new province of Gauteng.
> Diamonds
> http://www.kimberley.co.za/
> http://www.southafrica-travel.net/kalahari/e6ofs09.htm
> http://www.bdb.co.za/kimberley/diamonds.htm
> http://www.bdb.co.za/kimberley/diamonds.htm
> http://www.places.co.za/html/bighole.html
> goldmines in Witwatersrand., Gold is found in the Free State but
this
> was found later.
>
> How common is MCELVENNY, I could only find one in the white pages,
may
> be a link if rare. I tried that with BURTLES and it was the
> greatgrandson of my great-grandfather, the only son's grandson, but
of
> course may not be related at all. I do not know about jewellers but
I
> would imagine that Johannesburg would have been the best place to
go.
> Sarah
> http://www.joburg.org.za/facts/gold.stm
> http://www.southafrica-travel.net/north/a1johb04.htm
>
>
> ==== SOUTH-AFRICA Mailing List ====
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Try Cyndi's List for all the genealogical links you will ever need:
> http://www.CyndisList.com/
>


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