Find Ancestors

Hi all hope someone can point me in the correct direction. When my g g Grandfather died in 1887 two of his sons could not cope without their dad and immigrated to South Africa, losing me a whole branch of the Dsvidson Clan. so if someone has any information on David or Norman Lumsden Davidson in SA from 1887 onward please let me know,

TA
x x x

I have not been able to get any sense out of the SA National Archives for some time, but you can try and try later ...

http://www.national.archives.gov.za/index.htm

On the left, click

Search National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System

Now I am getting "search manager sign-on error", but a minute ago I got through to the list of archives. You want "All Archives Repositories and National Registers of non-public records", to start.

I searched for

lumsden
AND
davidson

and I got one result. When I clicked on it, I got some kind of error message.

I clicked "New Query" and tried again. I got an error message telling me I had probably back-paged instead of clicking "New Query". I tried again, got the same error message.

I went back to the beginning and clicked "Search National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System" again. And this time I just got the "Search Manager sign-on error. Please try again later" message I got last time I tried a search a couple of weeks ago.

So. There is a record somewhere in the SA archives with the two words Lumsden and Davidson in it. I just tried the whole thing again and got as far as the search form, and this time was told 0 results with an error message again.

Give it a try!

I suspected my gr-grfather's nephew had stayed in SA after the Anglo-Boer war, and when I saw a link to SA archives in an old thread here, I went a-hunting, and in fact found records of two letters he had written to local authorities asking about the whereabouts of his father. One of the SA archives sites mailed me photocopies of the letter and internal memos about it, free of charge.

I tried one more time and got through! After following the steps above, I clicked "results details" and got this:

DEPOT TAB
SOURCE MHG
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 0
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 2753/42
PART 1
DESCRIPTION DAVIDSON, DAVID LUMSDEN.
STARTING 19420000
ENDING 19420000
REMARKS PREDECEASED SPOUSE AMY DAVIDSON. (BORN TRUEMAN).

So in 1942 there is a reference to him in a document. Possibly his wife's will? And you have his wife's name there.

No, I get it (see possible Norman record below) -- it's his spouse who predeceased, so that would be his death/will.

You'll have to poke around the site to figure out which archives TAB is. I can't seem to remember where to find that info. ;)

I tried again for the words David and Davidson. As expected there is considerably more -- 91 documents, one being in the matter of David Davidson, a criminal lunatic, 1903. ;)

APPLICATION FOR LETTERS OF NATURALIZATION 1904 could be him ...

Norman Davidson produces fewer results.

I wonder whether this might be him?

DEPOT TAB
SOURCE MHG
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 0
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 4229/40
PART 1
DESCRIPTION DAVIDSON, NORMAN.
STARTING 19400000
ENDING 19400000
REMARKS SURVIVING SPOUSE JACOBA JOHANNA DAVIDSON (BORN THERON).

found this one


DAVID MONTEITH DAVIDSON Pedigree
Male Family
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marriages:
Spouse: JOSEPHINE RANKEN Family
Marriage: 23 SEP 1879 Cape Town, Cape Of Good Hope, South Africa

But Ann, is there any reason to think it's related to David Lumsden Davidson, who didn't arrive in SA until after 1887 and apparently had no family there before that, and married Amy Trueman??

Thanks Janey for all your hard work, I had come across that web site in my search but like you came across the"Search Manager sign-on error. Please try again later" thing, thinking it was a restricted site, i never tried again. Thanks to you and your perseverance I will try again. You have given me renewed hope that i can find something out about this branch of the family clan. Thanks again.
Thanks also to Ann for looking, but the middle name " Monteith" doesn't appear to be a link with my family tree. But I appreciate the efforts made.

There's a link on the main page of the SA archives site for info about archives sites. I'm not going back there again! ;) It tells you what the various acronyms are, e.g. TAB, the site that holds the records I was looking at.

Oh, all right. ;)

Contact us electronically
http://www.national.archives.gov.za/index.htm
goes to
Contact information and acronyms of all national, provincial and other archives repositories
http://www.national.archives.gov.za/index.htm

... grr ... where is the list of acronyms ... right:

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS)
http://www.national.archives.gov.za/index.htm

and oh duh, it's the same as the contact info link above -- the acronyms are listed down the left side:
http://www.national.archives.gov.za/index.htm

your TAB is

National Archives Repository
(Records of the former Transvaal Province and its predecessors as well as of magistrates and local authorities)
Postal address: Private Bag X236, PRETORIA 0001.
Street address: 24 Hamilton Street, Arcadia, PRETORIA.
Tel: (012) 441 3200. Fax: (012) 323 5287
Email: [email protected]

and I'm pretty sure that's the one that told me I needed to hire a researcher. I had found documents at that site and also NAB (probably slightly different, both being a letter from one person looking for another -- I should really find out whether the other one got any better answer!).

The one that sent me copies was
NAB Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository

After the first one told me I needed a researcher, a person at NAB replied:

"We do have this record in our keeping. Unfortunately we are unable to send the required information via the E-mail. May I suggest that you provide this office with your postal address."

Silly me. ;) I sent my address, and they sent me several pages of copies, no charge.

So if you can't get the stupid site to work, what I copied was the full results of the searches, and with that you might be able to track down those documents. At least you have one brother's wife's name and date of death (1942, as I read that), and possible info for another. If those documents are wills or probate records, they might get you children's names.

If you can get in, try the other databases listed as well:

http://www.national.archsrch.gov.za/sm300cv/smws/sm300dl

You're welcome, and good luck!

I found the email from TAB - [email protected] -


"Due to the lack of the capacity and the high volume of enquiries, the National Archives is not able to forward information or copies to non-visiting researchers. I would advice you to contact the private researchers, who for a fee, can do the research for you. Their contact details are obtainable from our website at www.national.archives.gov.za. On our home page, click on Services to the Public and then click on the List of the Private Researchers."

Hi David,

I found the same info as Janey, but on a different site:

Normn Davidson. Died = 1940. Spouse= Jacoba Johanna Theron.

David Lumsden Davidson. Died= 1942. Spouse= Amy Trueman.

I found them on - http://www.ancestor.co.za

I think you may be able to order there death notices from th site, which will give you a lot more info.


Good Luck,

Alison.

Thanks Alison,
I have had a look at that site, certainly looks eaiser to acess. will try it out and let you all know how I get on

Dave