Hi All, I have just entered your circle of friends and I hope to stay with you coz I have two members of my family who ventured to South Africa and I am having the worst time trying to locate any detail for my records. I really need help with this lot. I will begin with the eldest brother of my maternal grandmother and the scandal that made it impossible for me to gain even the vaguest of leads, "We do NOT discuss such matters!" with the note of finality that makes a genalogist weep for lost stories. My grandmother, Madeleine, was an upper-class Londoner raised in an extremely strict Victorian manner. Her elder brother, Maudslay BAYNES was born in 1881 in London, the eldest child of Herbert Morton Walker BAYNES & Isabel JACKSON. Herbert wrote some 265 papers for religious institutions and several extremely highbrow books, also on religion. This is probably why three of their children rebelled, two being banished to South Africa, the third, my Grandmother being forced to marry her lower class lover and never receiving a penny of the amassed fortune. Ah, the upper class and their high morals, would they survive today, I wonder? Back to the story in hand... Supposedly Maudslay attended one of major colleges but I can find no record of him at Oxford University where he allegedly absconded with funds from the Social Club. I am assured that he merely borrowed the moneys and truly did intend to replace it all before he was caught!!! The social embarressment this caused my Grandmother's family must have been just intolerable because Maudslay was promptly packed off to South Africa "to a relative" to re-adjust his life etc. etc. Maudslay got bored with being a Remission man and started trecking the countryside. He became the first man to map the KUNENE River, from the Ruacana Falls to the Coastal Desert in 1911. The Germans of Zessfontein were so impressed with his feat that they named the great & unknown mountainous range in his honor, hence the BAYNES Mountains can be located on the Kunene River in Namibia. Thanks to a distant relative in London I am able to quote from a magazine story by Randolph Vigne of London who wrote of my Great Uncle when giving his opinion on a book by L.G.Green, "Lords of the Last Frontier" 1952. "Maudslay described the place as..."Gloomy and forbidding though it be, the wild Kunene has a rugged beauty and a clamant attraction where for a hundred leagues the tortured river writhes and boils through desert mountains to the sea; sanctuary of the mighty pachyderms, of moon shadows on falling water, and silent mountains under a field of stars." I somehow feel that the love for this place made up for his hasty departure from the grey misery and stench of London! My question is what record is there and where do I locate proof of such a feat? I have found the South African Encyclopedia which has a short paragraph about Maudslay. This should be enough for my records but I crave more. What shipping details would be available for a 1911 voyage? Is there other landmarks, hotels, schools, a town or something built in his honour? How do the South African history books refer to the BAYNES Mountains? Can anyone tell me where to look to gain further insight into the travels of this elusive Great-Uncle???? I thank you in advance, Seeya, Michelle <kahler@hypermax.net.au> from Ipswich, QLD, Australia. If you need a look-up for anything in South East Qld, give me a yell. Eng/Ire: Baynes/Coldstream/Francom/Helton/Maudsl*y/Memor(e)y/Soames. CON: Andrew/Baragwanath/Barkla/Barnicoat/Blackellar/Bosanco/Bosswasack/Caddy/Carn bellack/Cocke/Coombes/Coome/Curnow/Debell/Drew/Edmond/Gay/George/Harris/Heeg oe/Horsford/James/Jenken/Jennings/Jose/Lawr*nce/Maundison/Mildren/Mi(t)chell /Olivey/Painter/Paskowe/Philips/Polleow/Porter/Prous/Quick/Rayle/Reale/Reyno lds/Richards/Roberts/Rosewall/Roskilly/Skinner/Tbd/Tooker/Tremayne/Trengrous e/Trewhella/Tuckett/Watty/Wearne/Webb/Wills. CFHS #6392; QFHS #M2705; Woolwich&DFHS #1023.