Genealogical Society of SA, West Gauteng Branch: September 2008
Die Sjinese Afrikaan
NUWE WEERGAWES VAN TWEE DATABASISSE
MONTHLY MEETING: 20 SEPTEMBER 2008
34 PUBLICATIONS TRANSFORMED INTO 5 CD's
SAG-CD's IN 2009 BESKIKBAAR
Johann Prozesky van Astonbaai laat weet: My broer vertel my pas die storie van 'n Sjinees met die naam Sem Ting wat so met die draai van die 19e na die 20e eeu na SA gekom het. Hy meld toe by die owerhede aan en net voor hom, in die ry mense, was ene Khumalo. Dié se saak is afgehandel en toe die klerk vir die Sjinees om sy naam vra, sê hy "Sem Ting". Hy is toe as Khumalo geregistreer.Indien jy 'n Sjinese Khumalo sou raakloop, weet jy hoekom!
Are you interested in genetic genealogy? DNA?Blaine Bettinger is a leading genealogy DNA expert.He is author of a blog titled: The Genetic Genealogist. Click here to visit the blog.The site is also subtitled, Adding DNA to the Genealogist’s Toolbox.Blaine wrote an e-book,"I Have The Results of My Genetic Genealogy Test, Now What?"The e-book is available free of charge at his website. Click here to download the e-book.
300 000 GRAFTE SE DATADie Begraafplaasprojek (Cemetery Recording Project) van die GGSA het ‘n wonderlike mylpaal behaal: teen die einde van September 2008 sal dié databasis gegewens oor nie minder nie as 300 000 grafte in Suid-Afrika bevat.Dié aankondiging is Saterdag, 20 September 2008, deur Peter Moss (links) wat aan die stuur van die projek is, by ‘n vergadering van die Nasionale Uitvoerende Komitee (NUK) van die GGSA bekendgemaak.Die Wes-Gautengtak was die gasheer van dié vergadering.Volgens Peter sal die sewende weergawe van die projek by die GGSA se volgende Algemene Jaarvergadering in 2009 vrygestel word.Die omvang daarvan is nou van so ‘n aard dat dit waarskynlik nie meer meer op ‘n CD sal pas nie. Gevolglik sal dit op ‘n DVD vrygestel word.Die huidige sesde uitgawe bevat na raming 250 000 grafte se besonderhede (teenoor die 300 000 van aanstaande jaar se nuwe weergawe). Dit kan bestel word by André Heydenrych, nasionale tesourier van die GGSA. Sy epos-adres is: aheydenr@mweb.co.za. KLIK HIER as u nóú 'n epos aan André wil stuur.Vir die oningeligtes: die Begraafplaasprojek behels die optekening van grafte van veral plase en kleiner dorpies in Suid-Afrika.Bywerkings word deurentyd gedoen.400 000 PERSONE SE DATA‘n Tweede groot prestasie is die aankondiging van Lucas Rinken (links) dat elektroniese Suid-Afrikaanse Genealogiese Indeks (e-SAGI) se volgende weergawe 400 000 name sal bevat. Lucas is die man wat reeds jare lank aan dié databasis werk. Dit bevat data van feitlik al wat ‘n familie in Suid-Afrika is. Lucas is ook voorsitter van die Wes-Gautengtak.Dié databasis is eweneens nou te groot vir ‘n CD. Dit sal op DVD teen R120 plus R10 posgeld beskikbaar wees. Hierdie pryse is vir versending in Suid-Afrika. Versending na die buiteland sal groter posgeld meebring. Pryse moet met Dennis Pretorius bevestig moet word. Bestellings kan ook by Dennis geplaas word. Sy epos-adres is krugersdorp@pixie.co.za. KLIK HIER en stuur nóú 'n epos aan Dennis.Die doel van die indeks is om aan navorsers 'n betroubare databasis te voorsien wat deurgaans opgedateer word. Data word van 'n menigte bronne ingesamel en by bestaande data gevoeg. Lucas maak nie daarop aanspraak dat die data volledig en korrek is nie. Dit is nietemin 'n uitstekende bron vir diegene wat op soek is na vertrekpunte om familie te vind.Die databasis bevat sowat 144 000 families en sluit altesame 25 500 vanne in. Sommige vanne is egter gedupliseer as gevolg van verskillende spellings. As voorbeeld noem Lucas dat daar De Wet en de Wet is. Vir die rekenaar is dit twee verskillende spellings. Een van sy take is juis om al die data te standaardiseer.Een van die groot voordele van eSAGI is dat die data op 'n moderne rekenaarprogram (Legacy) geplaas is. Dit bring mee dat familieverbintenisse tussen mense met verskillende vanne geïdentifiseer word. Anders gestel: met die koppelings wat Lucas tussen families (met die rekenaar) maak, "ontdek" die rekenaar nog meer koppelings wat 'n mens andersins moontlik nooit van sou geweet het nie.Vergelyk dit met boeke wat stamregisters weergee. Boeke bevat hoofsaaklik die name en data van mense met 'n spesifieke familienaam (van) asook die persone met wie hulle getroud was. Soms word die ouers van laasgenoemde (m.a.w die skoonouers), genoem. Daar hou dit op.Met eSAGI word al die ooreenstemmende name van baie verskillende stamregisters gekoppel.'n Persoon se stamregister word dus aan die stamregisters van sy skoonouers gekoppel.Vir dieselfde persoon se kinders beteken dit dat hul stamregister aan hul oupas en oumas aan hul ma se kant gekoppel word.Sodoende kan 'n mens 'n baie meer uitgebreide familie ontdek -- en sodoende daardie voorouer of ander familie vind waarna al so lank gesoek word.Lucas bestee daagliks baie ure aan dié projek. Die opbrengs uit verkope gaan aan die Wes-Gautentgtak van die GGSA.Hierdie twee databasisse is van groot waarde. Menige genealoog het met inligting wat hierdeur bekom is, hul voorsate en waardevolle inligting gevind.
Date: Saturday, 20 SEPTEMBER 2008;Time: 14:00 to 16:00;Place: Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk), Ontdekkerskruin, Phillips Avenue, Discovery, Roodepoort (Map below);Subject: The History and Research at Braamfontein Cemetery;Presenter: Alan Buff, Regional Manager, Parks and Cemeteries, Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council.Short CV:Alan has the training portfolio at the Johannesburg Parks Department. He trained in the United Kingdom, specialising in Cemeteries. He has been responsible for the design of a number of our newer cemeteries and is an advocate of changing the concept of burial grounds as places for the dead to places for the living.Entrance Fee: R5,00 for refreshments.CLICK ON THE MAP TO ENLARGE(SOURCE: Mail and Guardian Online)
Last month we reported about Celia Baylis who did her genealogy manually, ending up with 34 publications.Bob Saunders, vice-chairman of the West Gauteng Branch, transformed this into five CD’s. Here he tells how he did it.Click HERE to view the previous report.My collaboration with Celia, demonstrates that, no matter how insignificant you view your own efforts, it is still very important. Vital facts and personal histories are lost (possibly forever) every time one of us or our family passes from this world without those facts being recorded and stored in a suitable repository, whether it be in the form of a journal to another family member, or as a slightly more “official document” presented to the society for safe-keeping.If you believe that your work is that insignificant that it cannot stand as a publication on its own, and is therefore not worth donating -- please think again. Those of us old enough to have learnt the three r's at school, notably reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic, will recall having to study poetry and learn said poems parrot-fashion. These poems were always in an anthology -- a collection of poems by numerous poets.We could do the same with smaller works and create compendiums of these donated works, properly indexed. Thereby two important objectives are achieved:• collecting important facts pertaining to families and• preserving them for future generations.The reality of “official” archive material disappearing forever is not that far-fetched. Besides gross insensitivity and ignorance, blatant disregard or disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, war), the greatest tragedy would be for a vital clue to be lost due to complacency by any one of us, here and now.I appeal to you not to underestimate the value of your personal knowledge of your own family to future generations possibly seeking that vital link, in much the same way you have found yourself frustrated in your own pursuit of familial links.Our blogmaster has asked me to report on the collaboration between Celia and myself.Celia had produced 34 publications on her greater family. I (amongst others) was instantly impressed with the volume and quality of work, and immediately identified the value of it to future generations of those families. I realised what a remarkable contribution to the branch this collection would be. Added to that was Celia’s desire to see her works in an electronic format that could possibly appeal to the younger set, and be that much easier to distribute within the family. Add to this my knowledge of and access to technology that could achieve Celia’s dream and simultaneously secure this great work for our own branch collection, and you end up with an offer that cannot be refused and a challenge to achieve that goal.For Celia, it was a relatively simple task: hand over the completed works, and finalise those that were still in production.For me, the task was to master the technology and faithfully reproduce her works in the shortest possible time, as she was packing up home to move to the Cape. I am happy and proud of the fact that we both achieved our goal albeit in the nick of time.In toto, I spent six weeks labouring on the copying (about six booklets a week = 1 booklet a day) scanning, collating and editing.After the first six books were done, there was an experimental production of a disc to assess whether or not I was on the right track, and whether my methods were accurately reproducing the originals. It would also serve to propose the presentation, i.e. disc content and labeling, and cover “artwork”. This trial run turned out rather well, as Celia was most impressed with what I had achieved and couldn't find any mistakes or omissions.There were however a few technical. I had compiled a couple of the booklets where some larger inserted items interfered with the flow of the document. When Celia highlighted this problem, I consulted with some more knowledgeable colleagues and a solution was found. I, on the other hand, could also see room for improvement and the need to restructure the works in a more logical and chronological fashion.A second meeting with Celia ensued and the improved disc was presented as a “final draft”. We finalised the composition of each disc chronologically within each family group with a rough chronology of the actual production of the series. With less than a week to go, the last two books were received for reproduction and inclusion in the set, and the final production of the artwork was finalised and reproduced.Then followed the cutting of two full sets (one for Celia and one for the branch) and 10 family specific sets for Celia to distribute as gifts to the families concerned -- a magnanimous gesture in my opinion. This was a total of 36 discs to be cut. A process which took 15 hours alone and caused me to miss the original (convenient) deadline, as I had grossly underestimated the time I would need to do this. Celia was sufficiently gracious to take this minor disappointment in her stride, and meet me the next day (on her way to dish out the first of her gifts), to collect the entire order.I am sure she was a worried lady as I received a call as I was making final preparations to leave home for our rendezvous, to say she had arrived at the meeting place early. This was the last thing I wanted to happen, my “client” arriving before me. Anyway, I still arrived late because I also underestimated the traffic on Witkoppen road on a Sunday morning -- could it get worse? Well, fortunately it didn't. I had all the goods, and was finally able to hand over the discs and the last two books that I had copied, plus two others that had to be recopied as I had misfiled the original scans first time round. Celia was suitably impressed and obviously relieved that I had not misled her. So all was well that ended well, and off we went in opposite directions to enjoy Sunday lunch with our respective loved ones.The 34 volumes translated into 4 833 pages to be copied -- thank heavens for technology and access to it. The only difficult task was to scan in documents larger than A4, as these had then to be patched together afterwards from a number of A4 parts. Thank heavens too for sophisticated software that literally did this seamlessly -- pun intended. Software also took care of a few printing errors, such as an upside-down page, and deleting a couple of duplications spotted after the scanning was complete. The set is called The Celia Bayliss Publications and each disc is simply numbered 1 through 5 and contains logical groupings of Celia’s works primarily by family.In the final analysis, Celia had achieved her dream of having an electronic version of her works, I had been privileged to help her realize this dream and be party to the final “product”. The branch has seen yet another contribution to the collection of personal works initiated by Japie Bosch and augmented by Lucas.I believe I have scored the most out of the deal, as I learnt to operate two new computer programmes in the process, have my own copies of these marvelous works, and last but by no means least, I have gained a new friend. What a bonus from a self-imposed challenge.I urge you to take a look at the set, borrow a disc or all five, and just browse through them. They will give you many ideas as to how you could present your own collection of history and fact, and perhaps inspire you to finish off some project you may have started years ago and just never finished. Don't be daunted by the size of Celia’s project. It is not how much you can present or complete, but how much you save from being lost to future generations by adding what you have as part of a greater collection. 0
Suid-Afrikaans Geslagregisters (SAG) se volume 17 (die laaste vanne tot Z) behoort teen November 2008 te verskyn;
Die vrystelling van SAG-CD's sal hopelik in die eerste helfte van 2009 realiseer.
Hierdie goeie nuus het prof Christo Viljoen, onder-voorsitter van beheerraad van die Genealogies Instituut van Suid-Afrika (GISA), gisteraand aan die Wes-Gautengtak bekendgemaak.
Hy was genader na aanleiding van 'n berig wat hy op 28 Augustus 2008 op SAGEN geplaas oor die omvattende werk aan SAG waarmee GISA tans besig is. Daarin het hy 'n perspektief oor SAG uiteengesit.
Prof Viljoen het hy soos volg geskryf:
"Wanneer die laaste volume van SAG is, is die reeks vanaf A tot Z voltooi. Dit is 'n mylpaal wat geen ander land nog op die gebied van die genealogie bereik het nie.
"Die eerste vier volumes van SAG (dws vanaf vanne A tot K) is nie deur GISA uitgegee nie, maar deur die Raad op Geestelikwetenskaplike Navorsing (RGN) in Pretoria voltooi, met wyle dr JA Heese as redakteur.
"Nadat die RGN sy Afdeling Genealogie gesluit het, is GISA tien jaar gelede gestig en het dit vanaf volume 5 (L - M) aan die SAG reeks voortgewerk.
"Dr Heese se oorspronklike doelwit was bloot om die bloedsamestelling (afkoms) van die Afrikaners vas te stel. Vir daardie doel het hy net belang gehad by die eerste tweehonderd jaar ná die volksplanting. Dit is waarom hy van die kerkrekords gebruik gemaak het en die reeks in 1850 afgesluit is. Die uiteindelike uitgee van die SAG reeks was 'n uitvloeisel van sy oorspronklike oogmerk
. Vóór die rekenaar
"In die dae voor die rekenaar was alles eers noukeurig op indekskaartjies aangeteken en vandaar per hand in geslagregisters gegiet -- voorwaar 'n monumentale taak wat jare in beslag geneem het. Ek het oneindig baie waardering vir wat wyle dr Heese vermag het met dit tot sy beskikking.
"Dit moet onthou word dat die eerste vier volumes van SAG byna uitsluitlik uit die handgeskrewe Heese-manuskripte saamgestel is -- natuurlik ook met uitsonderings. Wyle dr Heese het buiten De Villiers & Pama se drie dele hoofsaaklik gebruik gemaak van die Kaapse NG Kerk rekords, dws dope en huwelike tot om-en-by 1850 (wat saamval met die Groot Trek). Dit verklaar ook waarom daar so min sterfdatums in die eerste vier dele voorkom. Hersiening
"GISA se beheerkomitee het besluit dat, sodra die SAG reeks voltooi is, daar met die hersiening van die reeks begin sal word, ook met die oog op die eventuele beskikbaarstelling daarvan via elektroniese middele. Die afsnydatum sal ook later wees as die aanvanklike 1850, dws tot vroeg in die 20st eeu -- ongeveer 1930. Die aanvoorwerk met die hersiening is reeds aan die gang met SAG-1, dws vanne wat met "A", "B" en "C" begin.
891 bladsye se B-vanne
"Die werk is nog lank nie klaar nie. Een voorbeeld illustreer die aansienlike uitgebreidheid van die hersiene reeks: einde Julie vanjaar (toe die De Beer inligting nog nie afgehandel was nie) het die "B"-vanne tot by Bosman 'n allemintige 891 bladsye beslaan. Vergelyk hierdie omvang met die oorspronklike totaal van 428 bladsye met "B"-vanne in SAG vol. 1.
"Die bygewerkte "A"-vanne op GISA se databasis staan nou reeds by nagenoeg 250 bladsye (en word nog daagliks bygewerk tot 1930 en aangevul met bydraes uit die publiek en ander ongepubliseerde bronne).
"Die "C"-vanne het in SAG volume 1 uit 168 bladsye bestaan. Die bygewerkte databasis van "C"-vanne staan reeds op 795 bladsye en nog is dit die einde nie.
"GISA is 'n nie-winsgedrewe organisasie en ontvang geen subsidies of staatsteun nie. Ek hoop dat hierdie inligting 'n beter perspektief sal gee op die goeie werk wat met min personeel en fondse vermag word."
Johan Pottas van die Vrystaattak het verlede maand op Rootsweb South Africa en Buitenposten soos volg berig:Ons het by ons maandbyeenkoms (in Augustus 2008) vir Elria Wessels van die ABO-projek by ons gehad en het sy amptelik aan ons tak die volgende webwerf bekend gestel:British Concentration Camps of the South African War 1900-1902 (Klik hiernaas)Die inleiding tot die webtuiste lees soos volg:The camps were formed by the British army to house the residents of the two Boer republics of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. They were established towards the end of 1900, after Britain had invaded the Boer republics. This database was designed to investigate mortality and morbidity in the camps during the war.Although it includes everyone listed in the registers during the war, it usually excludes returning prisoners-of-war and men who came back from commando at the end of the war, as well as the considerable movement of people which took place after 31 May 1902, when families were repatriated to their homes.Johan skryf voorts: "Dit is 'n databasis met al die kampe nie net die Vrystaatse kampe nie. Daar is selfs ook inligting oor die Kroonstad kamp se inwoners, wat hulle uit ander bronne kon opspoor, aangesien die "oorspronklike" kampregister nie by die VAB ooit uitgekom het nie. Niemand weet wat daarvan geword het nie".Die projek het onder leiding gestaan van Elizabeth van Heyningen. Haar besonderhede is:epos: evh1@iafrica.comPosadres:Boer Concentration Camp Project, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700 South Africa.