Family history and genealogy
October 13, 2025
The present-day Hermanus area was originally a summer grazing area for livestock in the early 19th century. It was frequented by shepherds, who could live off the fish caught at Walker Bay. By mid-century, a small fishing village named Hermanuspietersfontein Read more…
October 7, 2025
08 October 1902 – Captain John MARRIOTT, D.S.O., of the 2nd Norfolk Regiment, and Cordelia Caroline NEVERS were married at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Pretoria. At the time, John was stationed in Potchefstroom, and Cordelia was living in Pretoria. Read more…
September 26, 2025
Visitors to South Africa are usually shocked to find monkey gland steak or sauce on some menus. Fortunately, it doesn’t contain any parts of a monkey. It is a mixture of chutney, tomato sauce, sugar, garlic, and spices, and it Read more…
September 24, 2025
The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre (JHGC) has an odd item on display: Adolf Hitler’s typewriter, which he had before becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933. In the early 1930s, he used it for personal correspondence while living in Braunau, Read more…
September 8, 2025
Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra PESSOA was born on June 13, 1888, in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, and translator. He is regarded as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century. Read more…
September 6, 2025
Miriam NDWANDLE was a Zulu woman from Orlando, Johannesburg. She gave birth to quadruplets on 24 July 1948. This occurred at Bridgman Memorial Hospital in Brixton, Johannesburg. She died in December 1948. The three girls and a boy had four Read more…
September 3, 2025
Hester Susanna Catharina MULLER was born on 29 May 1869 in the Potchefstroom district, the daughter of Hendrik Joseph MULLER and Johanna Margaretha Dorothea VAN TONDER.She was baptised on 10 January 1870 in the NGK Rustenburg.She died on 21 November Read more…
ZIPRA terrorists shot down Air Rhodesia flight RH825, a scheduled passenger flight, on 03 September 1978. The Vickers Viscount YP-WAS, named the Hunyani, was flying the last leg of Air Rhodesia’s scheduled service from Victoria Falls to Salisbury, via Kariba. Read more…
August 24, 2025
A newspaper article with South African origins circulated widely around the world in the early 1900s. The first one I found was in January 1911. It was a popular story because the subject was a much-married woman who was “mother Read more…
August 20, 2025
Levi David JONES was born in Eglwys Fair, Carmarthenshire, Wales, on December 16, 1884. His birth was registered in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, in the second quarter of 1886, according to civil registry volume 11a, page 555. He lived in Trecynon Read more…