South African research

[africanrose]

Hi everyone

New to this forum and relatively new to genealogy. Born in Africa and am now trying to trace my UK origins. I have managed with my mothers family (Maiden) to go back as far as 1700, but no luck with my fathers side (Stokes) I know where and when my paternal grandfather was born in South Africa, and I know that he served in the merchant navy from 1918 to 1923 but I cannot find any online documentation/records for him and all I have for his parents are my great grandfather's initials and that he worked at one time for the lighthouse service in South Africa. I have no idea where my great grandparents were born, but think it is the UK.

How does one go about confirming if an ancestor ever held a British passport for instance?

This is very frustrating and I welcome any advice on what to do next

[christanel]

Welcome to British Genealogy africanrose

I have no experience with researching in South Africa but can understand your frustration.

Knowing where and when your grandfather was born should make it easier to discover where to order his birth certificate. Sue Mackay, another moderator, gave this advice just yesterday to another member looking for SA records.
https://www.british-genealogy.com/for...fricam+records

I have to leave this for now (business) but the above may help until someone else comes along.
You can also google Cyndi's List and see what links it gives to researching in SA.

Oh and I have moved this thread to the South Africa forum, for now, as it has already turned in to a research request.

Christina

[geneius]

Hello

Can you post information you have of Mr STOKES, to include full name / year of birth / siblings etc

You could look at this site:

https://www.ancestor.co.za/search_beta.asp

ancestry .com is adveretising that it will launch SA records soon, it bought the site ancestry24 last Oct.....

Try the site familysearch.org

[Lesley Robertson]

Maybe you can find a useful source in Sue's message on SA resources stuck at the top of this forum?

[Sue Mackay]

Hi and welcome! My fellow moderators have already said it all - I have only just come in as I have been at Kew all day photographing more old South African settler correspondence to transcribe.