We have a growing selections of Databases for both Free and Paid Members at Ancestors South Africa and over time these sections will increase.
Our free section are databases that have been donated for free individual and private usage and we welcome any genealogy related databases to add to the FREE Members section. If you have any databases that are your own copy-write and wish to host them with me, please feel free to contact me.
The Subscriber section is for PAID members only. These database have taken considerable time to digitize and to make them available in a searchable format and this also covers the costs of web development, website hosting and web upgrading costs.
Click here to go to the main Database Home page.
See lists below for the available content …….
| Link to Database | Content Description |
| Baptisms | |
| Namaqualand baptisms These baptisms records have been transcribed from the original registers of various Anglican churches in the Springbok and O’Kiep areas. They cover the years 1856 – 1880. St. Johns Clanwilliam These baptisms have been transcribed from the original register of this Anglican Church and covers the years 1858 – 1933 St. Peters Mossel Bay These baptisms have been transcribed from the original register of this Anglican Church and covers the years 1855 – 2007 Wupperthal Baptisms 1830 – 1965 These baptisms records saved from the fire of 2018 have kindly been provided by Dr. Mark Bilbe |
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| Cemeteries | |
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Commercial Road Cemetery is a historical cemetery in the sense that there are so many famous people buried there yet many of them forgotten. This cemetery has been highlighted in the news several times for its vandalism and neglect but luckily the headstones have been photographed by various institutions such as the Natal Inland Family History society as well as being transcribed for posterity. |
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| Death Notices & Indexes | |
| This database content contains Clanwilliam Civil Death records that have been transcribed from 1895 onwards. These records provide full names of deceased, age, gender, race, residence, place of death, date of death, intended place of burial as well as cause of death. | |
| This database content is selected transcribed death notices. | |
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The Deceased estates Index is an index of references to deceased estates in the Cape Town Archives covering the years 1834 – 1951. |
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The Eastern Cape Deceased estate index is a database on how to get actual documents online for deceased estates that were lodged in the Grahamstown Master of the High Court. |
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The Transvaal Deceased Estate Index (MHG) is a database for references to Deceased estates housed in the Pretoria Archives (TAB) |
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The Western Cape Deceased estate index is a database for references of deceased estates that were originally lodged in the Cape Town Master of the High Court but are now housed in the Cape Town Archives. Contact me if you would like a quotation for copies. |
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| Marriages | |
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These marriages records are transcriptions of Marriage certificates in South Africa by Ellen Stanton which have been carefully captured for your convenience. These marriages are copies of the original marriage certificates which were sent to Home Affairs and then later sent to be housed at the various Archives around the country. Many of these records have links to online images of marriage certificates. As new records are received, they will be added. |
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The Wupperthal marriage records saved from the fire of 2018 have kindly been provided by Dr. Mark Bilge. In December 2018 a fire broke out in this remote and historic town of the Moravian Mission Station. An estimated 53 homes and 8 buildings were lost and 200 people displaced. The town sustained more than R20 million in damages. Read more … |
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| Miscellaneous | |
| The Constabulary Database content contains over 10 000 South African Constabulary Records are now available using newly digitized and transcribed attestation records, we provide a detailed description of the composition of the South African Constabulary, a volunteer force of mostly English recruits during and after the Second South African War. These records contain personal particulars, such as age, country of origin, occupation and religion, for 10 399 service terms. We also match these attestation records to the delistment records for each recruit, providing evidence about cause of exit and length of service. The records not only provide a wealth of genealogical data, but also inform our understanding of comparative living standards in the colonies. With kind acknowledgements to Department of Economics at SUN | |
| The Courts of Justice documents found the in Cape Town Archives fall under the section of Archives of the Secretary of the Council of Justice (CJ) The Council of Justice was called into being in 1656 to take over the judicial obligations of the Council of Policy. All documents pertaining to the judicial affairs dealt with by the Council of Policy from 1652-1656 are also stored in the Archives of the Secretary of the Council of Justice. As far as the genealogist is concerned, the most important documents in the Archives of the Secretary of the Council of Justice are the wills and codicils drawn up by the Council. There is a card index to this series in the reading room. Copies of many of these wills are in the Archives of the Master of the Supreme Court. The judicial rolls, court documents and sen-tences in connection with criminal and civil lawsuits handled by the Council of Justice provide valuable information about the people involved in them. |
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| Domestic Announcements are important research tools that provide unofficial clues to births, marriage, deaths and other family announcements that were usually published in newspapers and magazines. These transcripts have been provided by Ellen Stanton from the “South Africa Magazine” from digital images of the original magazine from the Library of Congress in Washington DC. These magazines were published weekly since 1889 and was originally published to report on the mining industry in South Africa, so there is a lot of mining and business reports that were skipped over. Do read the whole page as there are some very interesting other articles as well that have not been transcribed. |
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| These miscellaneous records are made up of: Queenstown Title Deeds 1858-1860 Rotary Club Members 1952-1992 Author Lawrence Green Index Cullinan Mine Staff Wages. |
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| A list of names of teachers and pupils who attended SACS (South African College school) from 1814 – 1949 published in the book “The History of the South African College Volume 2” by Prof. W. Ritchie. | |
| Slave Records | |
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These database records form part of Changing Hands and many of the primary documents for foreign, upcountry or dis-abled researchers of the Cape are inaccessible because of their location, or difficult palaeography. The series we present here is a selection of those documents which we have found most useful in our own work on the colonial Cape. The 180,000 documents included here comprise perhaps less than 1% of all documents in the Cape archives in this period so there is no pretence at completeness. The documents are loosely unified by a theme of ownership and/or change of ownership, hence the title, Changing Hands. |
| Link to Database | Content Description |
| Biographies | |
| Collection of Biographies from the Jewish Year Book of 1929. Click here to view the Introduction. |
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| The Precis of the Archives or otherwise known as Requesten (Memorials) 1715 – 1806 is a transcript of of the original record and contains volume One which forms a section of the Annexures to the Minutes of the Council of Policy. Click here to view the Introduction. |
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| This wonderful collection of Biographies has been salvaged from a very old book. Unfortunately a few of the pages of biographies namely pages 90, 351 and 422 as well as the introduction to his book are missing. If you have a copy of this book and can supply us with the missing pages we will be very grateful. Please contact us |
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| Cemeteries | |
| This database content contains transcripts of headstones from Maitland Cemetery as well as St. Peters Cemetery in Observatory.
Tombstone transcripts and images of several cemetries in South Africa. |
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| Deceased Estates References (Government Gazettes of South Africa) | |
| This database contents are full extracts of the legal advertisements from the Government Gazettes for Notices to Creditors in Deceased Estates and Liquidation and Distribution Accounts in Deceased Estates Lying for Inspection.
The information is given in the following order: Estate Reference number, surname and christian names, date of birth, identity number, last address, date of death; surviving spouse’s names, surname, date of birth and identity number; name and address of executor or authorised agent, period allowed for lodgement of claims if other than 30 days. |
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| Immigrations | |
| This database gives a brief account of the arrival and settlement of the French Refugees at the Cape in the seventeenth century. Their coming was of some importance to the Colony, especially with regard to farming operations. They brought with them a knowledge of viticulture which in no small measure helped to promote and advance the prosperity of the Cape of Good Hope. Further, they were an aid to the general colonization of the place. The Refugees came when there was a want of men with a knowledge of the manufacture of wine and brandy and of the cultivation of olives. The Dutch East India Company had no definite scheme of colonizing its various possessions, but an exception was made as regards the Cape. Emigrants were sent out from time to time during the seventeenth century, and Netherlanders came here at the same time as the French. | |
| Personalia of the Germans at the Cape 1652-1806 by Dr J Hoge’s was published in the Archives Yearbook for South African History in the 1946. Read more … |
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| Naturalizations and immigration records are an extremely valuable part of any application for Ancestry Passports or VISA’s. Naturalizations were published in the Government Gazette after their arrival in South Africa. Read more … Please note that these records are for personal use and not for multiple lookups as this is against the terms and conditions of this website. |
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| Military | |
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The Boer War Casualties consists of over 20 000 casualties from the 2nd Boer War (9th October 1899 to 31 May 1902) of men that died mainly from diseases such as enteric fever, wounds, malaria and dysentery. |
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The Rhodesian Rebellion database is an extract of names of policeman who died or were wounded during the Native Disturbances od 1896 – 1897 of the British South African Company. In the B.S.A.C publication “The 1896 Rebellions : The British South Africa Company Reports on the Native Disturbances in Rhodesia, 1896-97”. Earl Grey, the Administrator of Rhodesia cites two principle causes of the rebellion in Matabeleland: First, the incompleteness of the conquest of the Matabele Nation in 1893 and second, the incapacity of a warlike and aristocratic race to give up their old habits and to accept their natural place in the peaceful and industrial organization of a settled civilized community. |
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The Cape Town Guard, formed to defend the town, which had been denuded of troops who had been dispatched to the front, mustered nearly 10,000 men. Originally formed as a Town Guard of Cape Town during the Second Anglo-Boer War, this regiment was listed as a volunteer unit in 1903 and became the Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment, Cape Peninsula Rifles. The unit was incorporated in the Active Citizen Force in 1913 and disbanded in 1926. The name Cape Peninsula Rifles was adopted in 1941 by the 2nd Battalion, Reserve Brigade, which was dissolved at the end of the Second World War. This database contains a list of the various companies with their officers and men. As well as groups of photographs. |
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| Personalities | |
| This database content includes full images of the book and transcript of the publication from 1908 which cover over 3000 personalities. Information included besides first names and last names can include: date and place of birth, occupation, father’s names, spouse’s names, marriage date, spouse’s father’s names, source and other information such as – Came to Cape in 1880 and Johannesburg 1886. 7 children. | |
| The compilation of this biographical dictionary was commenced in March 1931.
It is a personal reference book concerning the people of Natal – Leaders in Commerce, Industry, Farming, Politics and of those associated with the Arts, Professions, Public Servants, Social Leaders, prominent sportsmen and Colonists etc. It is a social mirror of the time and readers will get a sound idea of what Natalians were doing and thinking up to 1933. |
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| Men of the Times Old Colonists of the Cape Colony and Orange River Colony. This collector’s item is an important retrospective biographical biography of 1200 prominent men in South Africa from a rising generation in the faculties of Law, Religion, Science, Art, Sport and Commerce, while many of the most memorable deceased men also find a place in these pages. We hope that these simple and un-ambiguous sketches my prove both interesting and useful to family historian and genealogists and among those have either personal, official or commercial associations with the Cape Colony. Published in 1906 by the Transvaal Publishing Company. |
| Sports and Sportsmen of South Africa is a rare publication of over 525 pages covering various aspects of sport in South Africa and includes biographies of leading personalities of the time. Horseracing and horse-breeding, cricket, football and rugby are covered.
These sportsmen are not necessarily sportsmen in the physical sense but also successful businessmen in the sporting industry. The spirit of these men has been imbued by their progenitors for our future generations whether they were of Voortrekker or Pioneer settler descent. Their indomitable spirit has been deep-rooted in the hearts of these gallant men. They are men from many different walks of life and makes this publication representative during this time in South Africa. This book was compiled and edited by the Cape Times and printed by Atkinson and Partners (S.A. Limited) in 1926. |
| Personalities in Motoring and Aviation in South Africa is a rare publication of biographies of over 650 pages dedicated to those pioneer men and women, whose vision, faith and pertinacity, surmounting all obstacles, have given to posterity the freedom of utilitarian benefits of the highways and skyways of Southern Africa.
In the years preceding the Great War there was an ever-increasing numbers of motor vehicles and aeroplanes as medium of transport and the community interest grew enormously in these spheres of sport transcended all barriers known to man. It is fitting that these men and women’s achievements, accolades and contributions to motoring and aviation in South Africa be made available for posterity. This book was a limited edition and was published in 1941 by the Knox Printing and Publishing Company of Durban. |