I joined this mailing list today, so let me quickly introduce myself. I am Willem Nabuurs, from the Netherlands, have been researching my own family tree and ancestry for about 25 years now, and would like to extend my research to my wife's ancestry. My wife was born in the Eastern Cape, in East London; her grandparents' surnames are Jegels, Du Preez, Rondganger & Boesak. Questions that I have: - does anybody on this list know if these families have already been researched? If so, is it possible to get contact info for the researchers, or references to the research results? - is it possible to do any research via digital sources from the Netherlands, or is physical presence in South Africa itself the only way to find out more about my wife's ancestry? - if physical presence is required, then where do I start? I'll be in South Africa early next year (in Cape Town and East London) and might have some free time? Can anybody on this mailing list point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance, Willem Nabuurs

Hi Willem, Certain digital research is possible. Can I suggest you go to http://www.eggsa.org Click on LINKS and you will find suggestions on South African research. Regards, Rob -----Original Message----- From: south-africa-eastern-cape-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:south-africa-eastern-cape-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Willem Nabuurs Sent: 09 December 2012 08:36 PM To: SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-CAPE@rootsweb.com Subject: [ZA-EC] Introducing myself - and initial question I joined this mailing list today, so let me quickly introduce myself. I am Willem Nabuurs, from the Netherlands, have been researching my own family tree and ancestry for about 25 years now, and would like to extend my research to my wife's ancestry. My wife was born in the Eastern Cape, in East London; her grandparents' surnames are Jegels, Du Preez, Rondganger & Boesak. Questions that I have: - does anybody on this list know if these families have already been researched? If so, is it possible to get contact info for the researchers, or references to the research results? - is it possible to do any research via digital sources from the Netherlands, or is physical presence in South Africa itself the only way to find out more about my wife's ancestry? - if physical presence is required, then where do I start? I'll be in South Africa early next year (in Cape Town and East London) and might have some free time? Can anybody on this mailing list point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance, Willem Nabuurs ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-CAPE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Willem There is an as yet incomplete index of various national records available on the National Archives of South Africa at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/index.htm - Should you find something in an index it is sometimes possible to get a copy of the record through other avenues. The LDS Family Search website has many records available online, mostly unindexed as yet: https://www.familysearch.org/ regards Malcolm On 2012/12/09 07:35 PM, Willem Nabuurs wrote: > I joined this mailing list today, so let me quickly introduce myself. I > am Willem Nabuurs, from the Netherlands, have been researching my own > family tree and ancestry for about 25 years now, and would like to > extend my research to my wife's ancestry. My wife was born in the > Eastern Cape, in East London; her grandparents' surnames are Jegels, Du > Preez, Rondganger & Boesak. > > Questions that I have: > - does anybody on this list know if these families have already been > researched? If so, is it possible to get contact info for the > researchers, or references to the research results? > - is it possible to do any research via digital sources from the > Netherlands, or is physical presence in South Africa itself the only way > to find out more about my wife's ancestry? > - if physical presence is required, then where do I start? I'll be in > South Africa early next year (in Cape Town and East London) and might > have some free time? Can anybody on this mailing list point me in the > right direction? > > Thanks in advance, > Willem Nabuurs > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-CAPE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

Good morning My advice would be to summarise what you know about the grandparents (birth date, church denomination, place of birth, date of death or any other details) and post it to the site. Also look on eGGSA for photographs of graves which could lead to clues. You could look up the references on NAAIRS as suggested by Malcolm and e-mail the relevant archives as they could post copies of the documents to you (at a small fee). Alternatively, having all your reference numbers ready when you visit the Cape next year would make your visit to the archives easier. Old East London records would fall under the Cape Archives as East London was part of the Cape Colony and Cape Province prior to democracy. Also, don't discount googling the relevant names as I have been very surprised to find hits when searching for my ancestors as there are so many records on the rootsweb message archives and other genealogy websites that you could get lucky. Antoinette