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Chance discovery about South Africa

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by DaveMBA (U1360771) on Thursday, 8th September 2005

  A little story to inspire anyone bogged down a bit, especially with relatives in the old colonies. Many years ago, I discovered that my g-g-grandfather had left home at 16 to join the Cape Mounted Rifles in SA - fortunately, a friend of mine turned out to be an expert on the CMR. My g-g-grandfather had married in SA and by checking the census for when they returned to UK, it turned out that she was from Dublin, which seemed to be the end of the road as most of the Irish records have been destroyed. I spent quite a lot of time trying to get information in SA in the mid-80s as I assumed the whole family had moved out there a few years before the wedding, but nothing seemed to be showing up. Likewise, my gggrandfather's records seem to be missing from the CMR boxes at the PRO.
  
  Knowing how the Irish tend to be about families, I was also surprised that she might have left SA to come back here, when she and my g-g-grandfather could have stayed in SA to join the growing European population around King William's Town.
  
  Just last Saturday, I was in Kew looking at completely different papers, but while waiting for the boxes to come up, I browsed the main ref room and found a book on UK settlers assisted in going to SA in the mid-19th century. I loooked through and noticed a couple fo possible families, although the children were not mentioned and as the surname is Welsh, their leaving Plymouth by ship meant there was no definite Irish connection. Turning ona bit further, I came across the passenger list for a quite well-known vessel, the Lady Kennaway, which had sailed to SA in late 1857 with 153 Irish girls from the whole island and some English families (to maintain moral standards!!). They were recruited to go to East London and work in the area as servants for the European settlers as well as providing wives for the German Legion troops, disbanded and shipped out after the Crimean War (as women were in short supply). There on the list was my g-g-grandmother! It was a curiosu thought that had either she or my g-g-grandfather not taken a chance and gone to SA< I would have been a different eprson.
  
  If you are having a problem with Irish ancestry, which may be linked with this period, try my next discovery on the Net:
  
  
  
  Just shows - you never know when something will turn up!

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