Hello All on the List One of the golden rules of genealogical research is that one should always consult 'primary sources' when gathering information for family trees. I give an example which turned up in my own research recently. I was researching the surname Van der Lith and read in "Die Groot Afrikaanse Familie Naamboek' by Cor Pama that Anthony Van Der Lith arrived at the Cape in 1727 and that he was the captain of a warship the "Ernst Casimir". Subsequently while reading a copy of the Van Riebeeck Society's book on Francois Valentyn which was first published in 1726, Valentyn makes mention of Van der Lith when writing about fine homesteads "worthy of the attention of a stranger". "That of the Heer van der Lith was called Koelenhof" In the footnotes edited by Serton, Raven-Hart and De Kock it would seem that Van der Lith was at the Cape long before 1727 - "Anthonij van der Lith, Captain of the warship "Ernst Casimir" ..... He was 'Heemraad' of Stellenbosch where he probably became a 'burger' in 1704. In 1704 he bought the farm Koelenhof from ds. Beck." The source for this information was the diary of Adam Tas (pg 53) who was more or less a contemporary of van der Lith. A bit of an eye opener - it just goes to show that we as family historians have to keep on reading up on the social history of our ancestors. As we search for clues we must verifying all our information. Regards Sharon Warr Scribes Ink. Publishing - South African Historical resources on CD Visit our website at www.genealogy.co.za/scribes.html