Afrikaans Wikipedia

I think over time this will become an even more useful site for doing genealogy research on South Africa.
Like this article on the Cape Colony from 1806-1870.
The detail on locations are great. Lets all comtribute where possible!

Finding Records in Film

I was always frustrated at trying to find information  about my South African Ancestors. I felt like there were all these secondary sources eg South African Genealogies (Suid-Afrikaanse Gelagsregisters), Compiled lineages and biographies, but when it came to primary sources I was left to fumbled my way in the archives. I discovered NAAIRS (National Automated [...]

South African History Online

I discovered this site the other day while doing a research for one of my history classes. SA History is a wonderful site that I highly recommend. I love its layout too, very cool. This is a great place to start some back ground research on place or things in South Africa’s past. Make sure [...]

Resources & Digital Imaging Project

I came across the Stanford Library Resources site and they have a Guide to South African resources. It looks pretty good I haven’t had much use for it yet, but I am taking a History Writing class and I am going to be writing alot on South African history – by December I should have [...]

A History of South Africa

I am currently reading Frank Welsh’s book “A History of South Africa”. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am only in chapter 4 but I am hooked. It is wonderful to learn about South African in this way. Some concepts I knew but many are new to me. It is a wonderful book that I [...]

Birth, Marriage and Death Records

I am not really sure why, perhaps a reader could enlighten me, but South African “Civil Registration” is not available for public viewing. Basically that means no index or personal searching. However if you have sufficient information about a ancestor you can order a Birth, Marriage or Death Certificate from the South African Department of [...]

Database Managers

 One of the most commonly used database managers is PAF. It is available free from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is available for FREE. You can download version 5.2 from the following link.
To learn more about using PAF, students and professors at Brigham Young University (BYU) created a tutorial called… [...]

Beginning with a song… part 1

In the classic, The Sound of Music, Maria (Julie Andrews) sang: “Let’s start at the very beginning; It’s a very good place to start.”
I have been thinking about what I would advize as the ‘best’ place to begin doing South African genealogical research. It is an interesting thought that probaby has a different answer depending [...]

South African Immigrant Ancestors

Today I spoke at the annual Brigham Young University genealogical conference. My part of the presentation was directed at South African research, particularly looking at records to help in “Tracing the South African Immigrant Ancestor”. This was the title of the project that I have been doing since being awarded an ORCA Mentoring Grant, which [...]

More Beginning SA research!

I found another guide to beginning South African research that looks great to me, there is even some humour – and we could always use more humour in life! Its is called the “Absolute Beginners Guide” to South African Family History Research.