Married in Durban, circa 1902

[Sedgepea]

Hi Lenore, I am from Durban and I can tell you that doing research in SA is not easy. The census records are not available to the public. The official BMD records are only available from the Department of Home Affairs if you know the exact date and details but in 1900 you are more likely to find church records and some of these have been filmed by the Family History Centre. They also have directories and voters rolls but if I remember correctly I do not think they were filmed.There is a SA site Ancestry24.com who have some records. I am also looking for the reason my grandmother came from Australia and married in Cape Town Regards sedgepea

[Lenore]

Hi Sedgepea,

It certainly looks difficult, but the folks at eGSSA - the virtual branch of the Genealogical Society of South Africa seems to be doing a good job and have some great stuff to look at online at
https://www.
eggsa.org/
Not that there was anything much there for Durban, but I was at least able to confirm the people I was after were in South Africa in the time-frame, so I am happy with that for now. I don't have sufficient connection with South Africa to warrant a further subscription to a paid service, but that would be an option if I did. I am going to start another thread on a related topic, because I will be getting off topic if I go on, so stay tuned. Thank you for your input.

Best wishes,

Lenore

[Tinker]

Lenore
I found your Hugh Owen and Emily Frances Griffith's marriage on the Family Search site while searching for rellies of mine. They wed on 2 June 1903, in St. Paul's, Durban. I'll PM you the details shortly.

[Tinker]

Out of curiosity, I googled for Owens connected with Potchefstroom, because sometimes when I'm really stuck, it kicks up useful clues. I came across an old Rootsweb post for a Frederick Owen, born 1872, Geelong, Victoria who married an Adrienne Rapkins, in 1898. He and his family moved to Potchefstroom, South Africa in 1903, the year Hugh and Emily married. Now, this might be a long shot, but given Hugh's estimated year of birth and the connections with Victoria and Potchefstroom, could he and Hugh be related? On Hugh's marriage certificate, his place of residence is given as Potchefstroom, so he may only have been in Durban for the wedding, then returned there with his new bride. Procat may be able to check whether Frederick had a brother called Hugh.

[Lenore]

Out of curiosity, I googled for Owens connected with Potchefstroom, because sometimes when I'm really stuck, it kicks up useful clues. I came across an old Rootsweb post for a Frederick Owen, born 1872, Geelong, Victoria who married an Adrienne Rapkins, in 1898. He and his family moved to Potchefstroom, South Africa in 1903, the year Hugh and Emily married. Now, this might be a long shot, but given Hugh's estimated year of birth and the connections with Victoria and Potchefstroom, could he and Hugh be related? On Hugh's marriage certificate, his place of residence is given as Potchefstroom, so he may only have been in Durban for the wedding, then returned there with his new bride. Procat may be able to check whether Frederick had a brother called Hugh.

A very good idea. I have had a look for the births of Frederick and Hugh in Geelong, or Victoria, or practically anywhere in Australia, but no luck with that. I think Hugh was born in England, so I may be able to pick him up in inwards passengers. I'll keep looking. Thank you very much for your help.

[Tinker]

Emigrating ancestors are always a nightmare to trace unless you have both ends of the thread, so I sympathise with you, Lenore. One of my ancestors is a Scot who ended up in Durban by chance, when the ship he was a crew member of was wrecked on the Bar at Port Natal, and I'm never likely to know his exact place or date of birth, or his parentage, unless there's a miracle!

Email me so that I can send you that image!

[Lenore]

Emigrating ancestors are always a nightmare to trace unless you have both ends of the thread, so I sympathise with you, Lenore. One of my ancestors is a Scot who ended up in Durban by chance, when the ship he was a crew member of was wrecked on the Bar at Port Natal, and I'm never likely to know his exact place or date of birth, or his parentage, unless there's a miracle!

Email me so that I can send you that image!

I assure you I already did email you, so I don't know where that first one got to. I've now emailed you again - perhaps you should check your spam if it doesn't turn up before this one.

Thanks for persisting with me.

[Lenore]

The marriage with which I began this thread was very cleverly and kindly discovered for me by Tinker, in Durban in 1903, in Family Search records. I have decided to record the various things found for Emily Griffith and Hugh Owen in a blog I began a while ago about Emily's father's adventures in the New Zealand goldrush. The material I have located on Emily's time in South Africa have been entirely due to the assistance of various people on this Forum, and I thank them all most sincerely. If you would like to see a photo of the wedding, please have a look at the blog. https://goldrushadventure.blogspot.com.au/ I will be following up with posts on the various records located.

Best wishes to you all,

Lenore

[Hilda Woodley]

Hi Lenore, I live in South Africa and tracing families here is just about impossible.
NAAIRS is only useful if someone was adopted, divorced, a criminal or their estate was registered before 1975 - then photo copies can be bought very cheaply - none of which appear to apply to your Hugh Owen since you have already looked.
Have you tried the Anglo Boer War website? he may very well have been an OZ soldier here in SA this site is very good and very helpful.
Also, for your interest and others - Ancestry24 is closing down at the end of February, at this time it has not been announced to where their vast amount of data will be "sold" or "transferred"
Potchefstroom - after the Boer war ended had a large contingent of soldiers (mainly for so-called peace-keeping) many of whom married Afrikaans speaking girls, remained in SA and continued working in their trained profession hence today you have many families with English surnames but Afrikaans is their home language. Such marriages were not popular and the couples were very often ostricised - again this does not apply in your case, just some interesting info.
Good luck with your SA rellies

[Tinker]

I've just had a look at your latest blog posting, Lenore. What a lovely photo! It would be interesting to know whether that was taken on the verandah of St. Paul's Church, a private house, or the local hotel. Perhaps someone with knowledge or old photos of early Durban can enlighten us. I came across quite a few grooms giving their place of residence as the Royal Hotel (presumably for the duration of the calling of the Banns), while searching through the marriages, and many of the earlier weddings were held in private houses, often that of the bride's parents. I found your couple by working backwards from where I found my great-grandparents' marriage, which took place in 1906. Your post originally caught my eye precisely because I'd been looking through those registers, in fact.