South African genealogy involves tracing one's ancestors living in the county of South Africa. South Africa has a rich source of historical documents for anyone doing South African genealogy research.
A brief history of South AfricaA brief history of South Africa
Cape Town viewed from Lion's Head, South Africa
South Africa is a country located on the southernmost tip of Africa. The Dutch settled in South Africa in 1652 in the Cape with the first Govenor, Jan Van Riebeeck[1]. On 31 May 1910, the Union Of South Africa was formed under British Rule, which consisted of four provinces, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, and Natal Colony. In 1961 South Africa became a Republic and was ruled by a President that was elected by a minority of voters. Apartheid was also introduced in South Africa which was an oppression of the majority of the South African population. In 1994 the South African people held elections to abolish apartheid and became a democratic country with the first democratic president, Nelson (Rolihlahla) Mandela[2][3]. South Africa celebrates Freedom Day every year on April 27. Today, South Africa has a population of approximately 60.6 million people. Its three capital cities are Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein. It comprises nine provinces and has 11 official languages.
South African recordsSouth African records
There are a number of different documents available that can help you with your South African genealogy research. It is good to keep in mind that records were not kept in South Africa from the beginning, and standard record-keeping was only introduced later on. Below is a table detailing when record-keeping began for each type of document in each of the following provinces:
Area of jurisdiction
Birth records
Marriage records
Death records
Cape Colony
1895
1700
1895
Orange Free State
1903
1848
1903
Natal
1868
1845
1888
Transvaal
1901
1870
1901
These documents include the following:
Group of People Waving South African FlagsBaptismal records - These records are useful as they usually contain information like the child's full name, date of birth, date, and place of baptism, and parents' names.
Marriage records - These records usually contain information such as full names of groom and bride, age, occupation, and place of residence.
Deceased Estate files - These files are very useful as they contain the deceased's death notice, will, correspondence, and any documents relating to the deceased's estate.
In South Africa, if you go back in your ancestral line you might sometimes find that an ancestor who came to South Africa and changed their surname — for example, Kroger became Kruger. After that the surnames usually stayed the same from generation to generation, with some exceptions where variations of the surname were used by the children — for example, the surname Grobbelaar might have a variation such as Grobler.
In South Africa, parents usually named their children in a pattern:
Child
Named After
First Son
Father's Father
Second Son
Mother's Father
Third Son
Father
Fourth Son
Father's Eldest Brother
Fifth Son
Mother's Eldest Brother
First Daughter
Mother's Mother
Second Daughter
Father's Mother
Third Daughter
Mother
Fourth Daughter
Mother's Eldest Sister
Fifth Daughter
Father's Eldest Sister
Sometimes when the firstborn was a girl, she might have been given her father's father's name or a female form of the name, for example:
Pieter would become Pieternella.
Abraham Lodewicus would be Abrama Lodewica.
Children were also sometimes given a second or third name referring back to the father, for example:
Pietersen meaning son of Pieter.
Sometimes the children received their mother's maiden name as a second name, for example:
The father is George Ruthven, and the mother is Engela Maria Koorts - the child is named George Koorts Ruthven.
