Married in Durban, circa 1902

[Lenore]

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.

You'll know South African records better than me, but I have been pleasantly surprised at just how much information has turned up for this couple. I'll be posting that on my blog over the next few days.

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.

To be perfectly honest, I can't remember if I already have checked it or not, my memory being what it is, but it is timely that I should have another look at it.

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"

I expect it is too valuable a resource to disappear permanently. One of the big genie companies will snap it up, I would think.

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.

Thank you for those comments, they are very helpful. I'm not at all familiar with South African History, other than the broad outlines of the various wars, but those sorts of insights you have given are very useful. The Owens didn't stay overly long in South Africa. I still have to tease this out, but they were back in Australia by 1907 when they had a child in NSW. It may be that ostracism was one of the reasons - I'm doubtful that it was homesickness, because they didn't return to Victoria where Emily's family were. Whether Hugh had family in Sydney I have no idea.

Thank you for your interest.

Best wishes,

Lenore

[Lenore]

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.

That's an interesting question to pose. I had always just assumed it was a private home, because I had no idea where it was taken and assumed it was in Melbourne. But I note that the building material is stonework. I don't know what typical buildings look like in Durban. Perhaps the Royal Hotel might appear in some photos if I have a look. Thank you once again.

[kaigs]

Hello Lenore, the only Hugh Owens that I could find in the National Achives here in South Africa, died in the Cape around 1927 but there is no mention of his spouse.
Kind regards
Brian

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Christanel

[Lenore]

Hello Brian,

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to search for Hugh Owens and Emily. The Hugh Owens I am after died in New South Wales in 1947. This thread has become rather long, but I summarised what I found about Hugh and Emily in some blog entries earlier this year, commencing with the post below:

https://goldrushadventure.blogspot.co...adventure.html

I haven't done anything at all since the last post on that topic, having been otherwise occupied, but I'll have a think about how I might extend the search.

Best wishes,

Lenore