Hi Sarah :-)
Thank you for your post and interest. Also thank you to those who already contributed to previous valuable information supplied on my post.
Unfortunately I have had no luck in finding my roots thus far. Yes I have some documents indicating that my grandfather was born in England. It seems like back in those days they weren't too worried about detailed information in our country, so I guess states / cities / towns were not that important to record. There's only one England and that was good enough for them I guess (hehehe)... sadly this makes it hard to find him though.
I have an unabridged death certificate of my grandfather but it only mentions his birth country: England, but no further details. See attached file.
I also have my mother's unabridged birth certificate, specifying that Edwin Bernard Brooks-Benning is her father, born in England, but no additional information. See attached file.
I have my mothers hand written birth certificate too where it also specifies his birth country being England, and it confirmed my previous suspicion of him being a Bookkeeper, again no other information about where in England he was from. I am not sure whether his bookkeeping title was based on work experience or whether he perhaps studied towards this. If he studied, it was not in South Africa and therefore suspect he only came to South Africa at a mature age, but it's only a wild guess.
He was definitely born in 1890, I received a hand written marriage certificate, not a unabridged system printed one yet, I must still request this again from our department of home affairs, the first attempt failed, but now that I have the hand written one I can try again. It only says he married my grandmother on 31 December 1935 at the Pretoria Magistrates Court. He was age 45, she was 21, big age gap, but there is no parent details listed on there for my grandfather unfortunately (or grandmother either). According to the marriage certificate it seems like my grandmother was his second wife as his marital status on the marriage certificate specifies divorcee.
I went through our South African archives records and cannot find any court divorce records for a Edwin Brooks, Edwin Benning or Edwin Brooks-Benning, and therefore suspect his first marriage and divorce must've been in a different country maybe.
It's really hard to try and trace my grandfather back to England with such little information. My mother says he was born in Surrey, she's still alive, age 77 now, but she was 6 when he passed away and can't remember much about him. My grandmother was not that keen on sharing details about my grandfather, and when she later on remarried, she destroyed all documents relating to my British grandfather. The only records I could recover was the ones I received this week from our department of social affairs, the hand written birth and marriage certificates. (I waited 4 months for these)
One thing I forgot to mention before is that I have 1 photo of my grandfather, not a good one, it's old and faded, but he's the tall man standing at the back on the left - I attached it. Don't think this might be of any use though. My mother has no idea who the other people in this photo are.
In the census records I can only find 3 x Edwin Brooks born 1890 in England of which one is Surrey, but none with the surname Benning or Brooks-Benning for 1890.
I've tried passenger lists, but there's so many ports, and did they perhaps travel via Canada or US first then to South Africa as I see many came to South Africa via that route for some reason. And also not knowing when they arrived in South Africa makes it hard, but I am currently working on immigrant lists hoping I'd find anything that indicates possible arrival dates.
I have found an interesting record on our national archives South Africa database, although I'm sure it's more likely just coincidence. It's of a Anna Louisa Brooks, widow of William Brooks, the information on the site is about William Brooks's death notice / grave stone issued in 1929, but nothing else I can go on.
It's the same two names that was mentioned in UK census 1891 in a previous post for Anna & William Brooks with a son named Edwin age 1 (therefore born 1890):
1891 census, reference RG12, Piece 557, Folio 20, Page 34
Lamberts Cottages, Mays Corner, Send, Surrey
Brooks, William Head M 30 Gardener Jobbing b Send
Brooks, Anna Wife F 31 b Send
Brooks, Henrietta Daughter F 6 b Send
Brooks, Elizabeth Daughter F 3 b Send
Brooks, Edwin Son M 1 b Send
But I can't find any concrete information indicating that these two coincidences might be a match, I am still investigating this matter. If it's them then there's the mystery of how Edwin Brooks surname went from Brooks to Brooks-Benning.
This is all I have so far - but I won't stop trying. Any advice or information anyone can supply on finding my grandfather in England will be appreciated, more than you'll ever know. Every time I find a piece of information about my grandfather, I see that sparkle in my mother's eye. It completes her, and at the same time me too.
Have a lovely day and thank you,
Leoni
Details of Birth Certificate
Child Brooks-Benning
Born 1930's
Pretoria
Father Edwin Bernard Brooks-Benning
Date of Birth 46 years suggesting birth 1890
Place of Birth "England"
Mother Hester Johanna Theron
22 Years
Orange Free State