My experience is limited to the Cape Town Archives, which I visited during 2013, looking for information about my wife's family (Beelders-Fulton). The staff were affable and friendly, and tried hard, but the systems there are either shambolic or unintelligible to a new-comer and, by all appearances, to the staff also. If it hadn't been for Heather McAllister's sister who happened to be there when we were, we'd have got nowhere at all. This kind lady saw us in our state of helplessness, and accosted us, offering to take us to all the right places, help us navigate the Death Notices index, and provided other tips which got us quite a long way. Unfortunately a great many of those we already knew of from family folk-lore were either remiss in complying with the Administration of Estates Act and the preceding Roman-Dutch common law requirements, or too poor to require a Death Notice, even when the threshold was only 100 pounds. But the Western Cape Telephone Directory provided us with a lot of telephone numbers of people with the Beelders surname, and while we were there we took advantage of local call rates to follow up several of these names, though a number of them turned out to be dead, while others were not available in work hours. Still, we got at least as much out of that as from the Archives. It therefore doesn't surprise me that other Archives round the country show the same symptoms; indeed, we encountered similar failings in Government Departments and Agencies around the country, and the few efficient and hard-working officers we did encounter uniformly attributed the general malaise to rampant political correctness, reflected in the old joke about appointing "whoever is best for the job, provided she's black"! Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com On 14/04/2015, at 5:21 AM, Denise Igesund via wrote: > > The archives in Pietermaritzburg are very much open . I regularly do > research and document copying. I will check my details for their correct > email address. I think it has changed. I have a little booklet with their > contact details on. I have just moved so not really at my finger tips. I > will get it out tomorrow. > > -----Original Message----- > From: south-africa-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:south-africa-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Keith Meintjes via > Sent: 26 October 2014 04:14 AM > To: rayhayes@bigpond.net.au; south-africa@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Pietermaritzberg Archives - Have they closed or > do they not respond to emails? > > Ray, > > The eggsa service is probably the most reliable way to get photos of > documents. > > www.eggsa.org > > Keith > > ------ Original Message ------ > Received: 08:08 PM EDT, 10/25/2014 > From: Ray Hayes via <south-africa@rootsweb.com> > To: SOUTH-AFRICA-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Pietermaritzberg Archives - Have they closed or do > they not respond to emails? > > Hi, > > I sent emails to the addresses from their website, but each "bounced". > > I then sent an email to Enquiries2@dac.gov.za to ask how to obtain a copy of > a record held at Pietermaritzberg Archives. > > Someone called "Granny" replied and provided an email address, which was not > valid. I replied and asked for a valid email address and "Granny" > provided pmbarchives@kzndac.gov.za > > I sent my request to that email address just over a month ago but have not > received a response. > > Has anyone on the list had any recent successful contact with the > Pietermaritzberg Archives? > > Regards > > Ray Hayes > > Hobart, Tasmania, Australia > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >