Hi to all Listers, Wow! This List is certainly livening up. Let's keep up the momentum. Well, I have come to many dead ends right now. Over the last few weeks, after tidying my desk (weird behaviour), I started sorting computer files and taking stock of what I have gleaned so far. This lead to me once again reading over the Death Notices I have from the Cape Archives searching for any more clues or hidden agenda that I may have missed earlier. Decided to look at ancestors and their occupations etc. and realised that at least 3 Cape relatives I know of had worked in SW Africa (now Namibia) at various times. One had been involved in Fishing (pilchards, if I remember correctly but could be wrong) around Walvis Bay, another is said to have been a Guano collector (another smelly business) on Ichaboe Island and recently from a DN of a possible rellie that worked and died on Halifax Island. My grand uncle Johnny (grandfather's older brother by 18 years) apparently spent some time on these islands in the earlier part of 1900's. What he did I am not sure (probably part of the Guano "rush") but we seem to have the most photos of him, very well attired and posing with flashy cars and even a race-horse. I've heard that he 'did alright' and even had a bus service going at one time. I feverishly trawled the Internet for anything I could find, becoming side -tracked many times by information on Birdlife and Travel, but managed to get quite a bit of History as well. <<As early as 1828 an American captain Benjamin Morrel reported in great detail on the marine wealth of our coast which included ''whales, crawfish, scalefish, sea-bird eggs and seals''. Of Ichaboe island he writes ''The surface of this island is covered with bird manure to a depth of 25 ft''. Ichaboe is the best known of 14 off-shore islands with interesting names like Possession, Plum Pudding, Roast Beef, Halifax, Pomona, etc. on which bird and seal colonies exist, but it was only in 1844, after the worth of guano had become fully acknowledged in Europe, that the ''rush'' began. It is estimated that on Ichaboe alone 700 000 - 800 000 tons of guano were removed in a few years and that at times 300 ships were active among the islands. The guano layers were broken up and crushed by labourers, who at some point counted over 2000, loaded onto flat bottom rowing boats and transported to the ships anchored out at sea. This was arduous, dangerous work and at times squabbles broke out to the extent, that the British Navy had to dispatch a warship from Cape Town to maintain law and order. In 1867 the islands were incorporated into the Cape Colony and Britain even retained ownership after Germany colonised the mainland. Not until 1994 did South Africa hand over the islands to Namibia, together with the Walvis Bay enclave.>> I also noticed a DN was signed by the Superintendant at Government Guano Islands Office, Cape Town in 1912. I wonder if it would be possible to obtain documents from Cape archives or if there was a List of Men from Cape Town who were recruited in Guano-collecting. Any enlightenment would be appreciated. Regards, Elva

Hello Elva Gee this is a real stinky subject - as far as I know they used to collect Guano from Robben Island and I think they collect it still from places like Lamberts Bay where there are tens of thousands of gannets that sit and poo on the harbour wharf. My ancestors lived in the hell hole of a place Port Nolloth in the 1800's commonly know as "port dump" - it is a town made of tin house's a bit like and an Victorian squatter camp !! Not that far away from South West Africa kind regards Heather Heather's South African Genealogy Help List at www.genealogy.co.za is soon due to be re-vamped and re-launched. This web site will have more content and more surprises.......please keep watching my home page for the latest announcements. Join the Cape Town Family History Society www.genealogy.co.za/society/socweb.htm Join the Cape Town Mailing list at http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/ZAF/SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elva Hanly" <theaviary@bigpond.com> To: <SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 6:03 AM Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] SW Africa-NAMIBIA connections Hi to all Listers, Wow! This List is certainly livening up. Let's keep up the momentum. Well, I have come to many dead ends right now. Over the last few weeks, after tidying my desk (weird behaviour), I started sorting computer files and taking stock of what I have gleaned so far. This lead to me once again reading over the Death Notices I have from the Cape Archives searching for any more clues or hidden agenda that I may have missed earlier. Decided to look at ancestors and their occupations etc. and realised that at least 3 Cape relatives I know of had worked in SW Africa (now Namibia) at various times. One had been involved in Fishing (pilchards, if I remember correctly but could be wrong) around Walvis Bay, another is said to have been a Guano collector (another smelly business) on Ichaboe Island and recently from a DN of a possible rellie that worked and died on Halifax Island. My grand uncle Johnny (grandfather's older brother by 18 years) apparently spent some time on these islands in the earlier part of 1900's. What he did I am not sure (probably part of the Guano "rush") but we seem to have the most photos of him, very well attired and posing with flashy cars and even a race-horse. I've heard that he 'did alright' and even had a bus service going at one time. I feverishly trawled the Internet for anything I could find, becoming side -tracked many times by information on Birdlife and Travel, but managed to get quite a bit of History as well. <<As early as 1828 an American captain Benjamin Morrel reported in great detail on the marine wealth of our coast which included ''whales, crawfish, scalefish, sea-bird eggs and seals''. Of Ichaboe island he writes ''The surface of this island is covered with bird manure to a depth of 25 ft''. Ichaboe is the best known of 14 off-shore islands with interesting names like Possession, Plum Pudding, Roast Beef, Halifax, Pomona, etc. on which bird and seal colonies exist, but it was only in 1844, after the worth of guano had become fully acknowledged in Europe, that the ''rush'' began. It is estimated that on Ichaboe alone 700 000 - 800 000 tons of guano were removed in a few years and that at times 300 ships were active among the islands. The guano layers were broken up and crushed by labourers, who at some point counted over 2000, loaded onto flat bottom rowing boats and transported to the ships anchored out at sea. This was arduous, dangerous work and at times squabbles broke out to the extent, that the British Navy had to dispatch a warship from Cape Town to maintain law and order. In 1867 the islands were incorporated into the Cape Colony and Britain even retained ownership after Germany colonised the mainland. Not until 1994 did South Africa hand over the islands to Namibia, together with the Walvis Bay enclave.>> I also noticed a DN was signed by the Superintendant at Government Guano Islands Office, Cape Town in 1912. I wonder if it would be possible to obtain documents from Cape archives or if there was a List of Men from Cape Town who were recruited in Guano-collecting. Any enlightenment would be appreciated. Regards, Elva ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== Cape Town Family History Society www.genealogy.co.za/society/socweb.htm ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237