Family history and genealogy
January 9, 2026
South Africa’s first television broadcast was on 05 January 1976 at 18:00, with five hours of broadcasting. In her apartment in Yeoville, Johannesburg, Mrs Margaret BAIRD was trying to watch – more than 60 years after her husband invented television. Read more…
December 23, 2025
“Sarie Marais’ is a traditional South African folk song, created during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). In 1901 or 1902, in a farmhouse near Vryheid or Utrecht, soldiers of General Louis BOTHA’s commando gathered around a piano. The piano player was Read more…
December 8, 2025
Vic’s Viking Garage In 1957, Trek Airways introduced Skymaster aircraft, and three of its Viking aircraft became redundant: ZS-DKH (c/n 121), ZS-DKI (c/n 124), named Louis Trichardt, and ZS-DNU (c/n 118), named Piet Retief. A subsidiary company, registered as Protea Read more…
December 5, 2025
FIRE AT WAYLANDS FARM A wildfire destroyed a treasure trove of historical assets and documents belonging to the DUCKITT family of Waylands farm in the Darling district on Monday, 01 December 2025. A veld fire set fire to the thatched Read more…
November 15, 2025
The Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital is located between Club Street, the N3 highway and Modderfontein Road in Johannesburg. The hospital was built in 1895 and was initially known as the Rietfontein Lazaretto. It treated patients suffering from tuberculosis, leprosy and Read more…
November 13, 2025
The Two Minutes of Silence on 11 November at the 11th hour was the idea of Sir James Percy FITZPATRICK. He was born in King William’s Town in 1862 and died in Uitenhage in 1931, the eldest son of James Read more…
November 8, 2025
Gladys Agnes JOUBERT celebrated her 100th birthday on 23 October 2024 in Carletonville. She was born on 23 October 1924 in Johannesburg to Charles Henry ALLEN and Georgina Emily SCRIVENS. Her father was a mine detective, and the family lived Read more…
November 7, 2025
Sarah COPELOWITZ celebrated her 101st birthday on 29 March 2016. She was born on 29 March 1915 in West Street, Johannesburg, one of eight children born to Isaac KATZ and Leah Blumah FRIDMAN. Her father was a Torah scholar and Read more…
November 2, 2025
Georgina Mary HARWOOD celebrated her 100th birthday on 10 March 2015 by tandem skydiving to raise R30 000 for life-jackets for National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). She did her first jump at the age of 92, making this her third. Read more…
October 26, 2025
I originally researched this article in 2012 and published it online on 13 April 2012. Since then I have added more details. “They are trying to make Johannesburg respectable. They are trying to make snobs out of us, making us Read more…