Schoeman - The search has begun

The Schoeman search started much easier than the Kloppers search. Mostly due to the fact that I have a walking encyclopedia for a grandmother. She managed to give me the names, date of birth, place of birth, marraige dates, date of death and place of death of both her parents and Oupa's parents. I also managed to find the Schoeman family name meaning. This is all the information I have gathered so far.

SCHOEMAN
Betekenis : Skoenhandelaar
Stamvaders : (1) Hendrik of Heinrich Schoeman, oorspronklik Schumacher, van Bosau in Holstein (Duitsland). Kom in 1724 hier aan as matroos; later boukneg. Burger van Stellenbosch in 1734. Oorl. 10.12.1765 naby Swellendam "aan't kruyspad agter de Coggemanskloof op de plaats van Frederik Botha". Trou 7.10.1736 met Martha Olivier (3 kinders). (2) Daniel Joachim Schumann, later Schoeman, van Mecklenburg (Duitsland). Kom in 1750 hier aan as soldaat. Burger van Stellenbosch in 1759. Trou 19.8.1759 met Maria Margaretha Esterhuysen (3 kinders). (3) Jurgen Jan Schumann of Schoeman, van Dithmarschen (Noord-Duitsland), burger in Drakenstein. Trou 13.12.1739 met Johanna de Villiers, wed. van Wilhelm Adolph Krige (1 seun).

Frederick Mentz
Born : 14 May 1895 in Vryburg
Died : 23 Oct 1951 in East London
Married : 24 Nov 1919

Catharina Elizabeth Mentz (van Heusden maiden name)
Born : 20 Sept 1890 in Victoria Wes
Died : 7 Oct 1973 in East London
Married : 24 Nov 1919

Ockert Petrus Jakobus Schoeman
Born : 1 May 1894 in Vryburg
Died : 17 Jan 1969 in Schoemanshoek
Married : 26 June 1917

Anna Magrieta (Margaretha - spelling ?) Schoeman (Shoeman maiden name)
Born : 3 Feb 1894 in Cradock
Died : 14 Sept 1967 in Schoemanshoek
Married : 26 June 1917

The following information I have found on various websites :

WEBSITE : http://users.iafrica.com/p/pi/pietc/controue.txt

AANGETROUDENES INDEKS - CONRADIE GESLAGSREGISTER
================================================
vir die register van 16 April 2006
INSKRYWING
[1341] <>


Cape Master Death Notice Index Project
Num : 6672
YY : 1951
Surname : Mentz
Name : Frederick
Death : 23-Oct-1951
Comments : Supplementary

This was found from the National Archives website. I don't think it was Oupa's mom, but it could have been his grandma or her sister

DEPOT KAB
SOURCE MOOC
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 6/9/315
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 634
PART 1
DESCRIPTION SCHOEMAN, ANNA MARGARETHA. NEE SCHOEMAN. DEATH NOTICE.
STARTING 18930000
ENDING 18930000

I also found this one, not sure which is correct :

DEPOT KAB
SOURCE MOOC
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 6/9/276
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 13
PART 1
DESCRIPTION SCHOEMAN, ANNA MARGRITTA. DEATH NOTICE.
STARTING 18900000
ENDING 18900000

DEPOT KAB
SOURCE MOOC
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 6/9/697
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 2431
PART 1
DESCRIPTION SCHOEMAN, OCKERT PETRUS JACOBUS. DEATH NOTICE.
STARTING 19120000
ENDING 19120000

DEPOT KAB
SOURCE MOOC
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 6/9/380
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 2593
PART 1
DESCRIPTION SCHOEMAN, OCKERT PETRUS JACOBUS. DEATH NOTICE.
STARTING 18980000
ENDING 18980000

DEPOT KAB
SOURCE MOOC
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 13/1/866
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 192
PART 1
DESCRIPTION SCHOEMAN, OCKERT PETRUS JACOBUS. LIQUIDATION AND DISTRIBUTION ACCOUNT.
STARTING 18990000
ENDING 18990000

Genealogy - Where to start and what to look for:

I've had an exciting last couple of weeks so far. When I had enough information to give me somewhat of a clue I started an enthusiastic search on the web for any information that linked to what I already had. At times I was very excited to find a new website that I have not yet explored. Then after hours of searching for the names in different order, surname followed by first name, surname followed by full names, surname followed by initials, full names followed by surname, etc, etc I went to the next website and the excitement started again. Needless to say, this process could become quite tedious and lackluster if you don't have a strong sense of curiosity that drives you. Sometimes I think I knew what an archeologist experiences, digging through sand and rubble for what he might possibly find.

I did discover that researching your genealogy in South Africa is considerably more challenging that what it would have been had our families lived in America or Europe. There are no census records for South Africa, South African census returns are routinely destroyed after statistical information has been abstracted. We can't use them. We can however apply for a birth certificate, providing we have the full names and birth date (which I do, thanks to my walking encyclopedia). However, they are apparently expensive and could take approximately 6 weeks to get. Albeit this is true, I will still apply for them, as they will be one of the best sources of getting the parents' names and hopefully birth dates.

Other source of information is a marriage certificate, but they seem to be of little use as they do not always give the names of parents and hopefully not the children :-). Shipping lists are also available of passengers arriving in South Africa from abroad, however these seem to be very vague as to only a name of a passenger and at this stage I'm not close to anyone arriving in South Africa on a ship. I'll have to do a great deal more research to get that far.

Church records could also provide some insight. Most people, in the older days, belonged to a church. They would have recorded the christening and marriages, etc. Unfortunately this seems to be a challenging task, since not all church records have been centralised. Discovering which church the ancestor was a member of and then finding the records of that church, seems to be near impossible.

One of the best places to look is the records of deceased estates. These are the most easily accessible and have the most comprehensive information. Whenever someone dies, the nearest relative or connection of the deceased is supposed to submit a Death Notice (not the same as a Death Certificate) to the Master of the Supreme Court who has jurisdiction where the person resides.

The death notice should give the names of parents, spouses and children of the deceased, and if no children, the names of brothers and sisters, and should also say whether the deceased left a will, movable or immovable property, and property over a certain value.

If the Death Notice is filled up properly, it can be very informative, but if the informant was a boarding house keeper and the deceased was a transient with no property, it may not tell one much. Sometimes people who have no property to speak of do not get death notices filled in, and no one notices. If the person had a bank account however, even with only a few cents in it, there has to be authorisation from the Master to close it. If the deceased owed money, again, there has to be authorisation from the Master for creditors to collect. (thanks to http://homepages.paradise.net.nz).

I found the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) website (http://www.national.archives.gov.za/) . Searching this website gave me hours and hours of searching, excitement and disappointment. On this website you have access to a database held by the South African National Archives in Pretoria on which references to documents held in various repositories are stored. Very interesting. We need to keep in mind that the files on this website are transcripts made from the records - there are millions of records not yet transcribed so if you do not find information on the NAAIRS site it does not mean there is no record.

The last resort that I have at the moment, is to physically go to the National Archives Office in Pretoria and research the information myself. The archives are only open 8am - 4pm on weekdays, so this will mean taking a day off work. I'll definitely try to get there sometime this month. The same day I go to the National Archives, I will also go to the Office of the Master of the Supreme Court, Deeds Offices, Registrar of Births and Marriages and maybe try the Archivist of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk and the Hervormde Kerk. I doubt I will get to all of these places on one day, thus I will start at the National Archives, and then depending on what I find I'll decide what to do next.

That's was an overview on how I'm trying to do my research and the avenues that I have found that are possible to explore if one would wish to do so.

Kloppers - The search has begun

I have spent the last couple weeks searching many different geneological web sites searching for any hint of a trace of my Kloppers ancestors without much success.

I was faced with a couple of challenges, the first one being the fact that the Kloppers family comes from Zimbabwe which makes it difficult finding any info in South Africa. Apparently the building which housed the archive records in Zimbabwe burned down some years ago, which I'm almost sure was before they had any electronic records of archives, although I'm not confident that any of the Zimbabwean archives have been saved on electronic copies which doesn't paint an encouraging picture for any aspiring geneologist. Although I did manage to find the address of the Chief Archivist in Harare. If all else fails I could still contact them for some info.

I also discovered, to my delight, that uncle Klopper currently has posession of the Kloppers family bible with all the birth dates, names, etc. I can't wait to see how far that information goes. Sandra has offered that she will do the Kloppers geneology research and I'll do the Schoeman research, therefore I'm leaving this part of the research in her capable hands. Hopefully she can do some tricks from England.

This is what I have found thus far :

I have found the Kloppers coat of arms in "Die Groot Afrikaanse Familie Naamboek". Unfortunately I don't have an electronic copy to put on the blog.

I also found the Kloppers name meaning :

KLOPPER(S)
Betekenis : Beroepsnaam. Iemand wat soggens mense gewek het.
Stamvaders : (1) Hendrik Frederik Klopper, van Hoorn (Nederland). Kom in 1713 hier aan. Naam van sy eerste vrou onbekend. Hetrou 31.8.1717 met Catharina Botha (9 kinders). (2) Jan Christoffel Klopper, oorspronklik Kloffert, van Stockholm (Swede). Trou met Catharina Mulder; hertrou 20.11.1763, met Anna Maria Kress (2 kinders). (3) Philippus Johannes Kloppers, van Arnhem (Nederland), geb 30.6.1874, oorl. 7.12.1960. Kom in 1898 hier aan. Trou 1902 met Maria Magdalena Naude (3 kinders).

Welcome to the Kloppers / Schoeman website. This website has just started so here is what I’m planning on doing :

Research the geneology of both Kloppers and Schoeman families. This should be quite interesting
Give an update on family all over the world, including United States of America, England, Auckland, Zimbabwe and South Africa
Try to at least keep some up to date photo’s of everyone, so that we’re not shocked by the amount of grey hairs the next get together

I would like to make this a joint venture and a free for all in the family to publish their latest. If anyone is interested in publishing your news and photo’s please let me know then we can arrange it