Greetings from South Africa

[reklaw]

Greetings to all members, my name is Derek, I live in South Africa and I must admit that genealogy is not my strong point, but I am a believer in plugging away, flogging dead horses and banging my head against brick walls!.

My interest in my past family was curiosity mostly, and focused on my maternal grandmother who was "born within the sound of the Bow Bells". Unfortunately nobody new anything further than that! Since I started looking seriously at her family (which was Morris) I managed to get pretty far back, this branch of the family originating in Cornwall during the 1800's. Eventually they settled in Southwark and from there things become murky!

My current interest is in a few individuals, namely Rose Morris who was an opera singer who performed with Sadlers Wells and is listed in a number of programmes which I have spotted on the internet. From what I can see her career spanned roughly 1920-1946 and then she dissapears from history. Unfortunately I have had no luck tracing her birth, death, marriage or anything else.
The other branch that interests me is the Mott family, namely Eliza Ann Mott who gave birth to Emily Mott in the Union Workhouse in Poplar.
Naturally I would also like to know what happened to the balance of the Morris family from Southwark, there was only 1 son, Alfred John Morris and family lore says he was lost during WW1.
I have a lot of information on the Morris family as well as some of the offshoots (MARTIN, BRAND, SLABBERT, TURNER, HOSKING) and would really like to add to my information where possible.
The irony is that I have had much more success finding Victorian era family in the UK that I have with finding my paternal grandparents family in South Africa!
Enough waffling... I intend watching and reading through some of the many posts here, who knows, I may bump into a long lost relative!

[Bo Peep]

I am a believer in plugging away, flogging dead horses and banging my head against brick walls!.

A warm welcome to you Derek. Judging from the above, you really have chosen the right hobby! Hopefully, someone will be able to help with your research and lessen the head banging a little!

[kentish kate]

Hi reklaw welcome to the site. I don`t suppose you know the departure port of Jo-burg? my grandad was South African and came to England sometime around the 1900s.

[reklaw]

Kate, thats a difficult one because Johannesburg is over 500 kilometres from the closest port! However, there are 2 possiblities, one is Durban and the other is Lourenco Marques (now known as Maputo) in Mozambique. They are about equidistant from Johannesburg. Of course there would have been a pretty long journey by ox wagon to get to either of these. Of course if he was that way inclined he could have taken the long way via Cape Town which is over 1000 kilos away. No easy answer I am afraid.
Hope that helps.

Hi reklaw welcome to the site. I don`t suppose you know the departure port of Jo-burg? my grandad was South African and came to England sometime around the 1900s.

[derekwatt]

Annies surname is Turner, Derek

[reklaw]

Derek, my Turners seem to have originated in South Africa, living (possibly even born) in Grhamastown they are William Edward Turner and possibly Marion Charlotte Turner. I cannot prove it but they may have been born here, unfortunately their details are non existent and I cannot positively prove anything until I get a birth certificate from our equivalent of the GRO, and thats about as easy as finding a chocolate frying pan on the equator.

[kentish kate]

Hello again, thanks for that info there are loads of sites TO S.A. but few( if any )from. Geography is not my strong point, on the maps,th the coast doesn`t look that far! there`s a site another member of the forum told me about (lists from shipping papers) that I`m going off to look at. My surname interests in S.A. are Van der Velde and Mountford.