trying to trace grandfather born in Cape Town

[milbe]

I have been trying to find records of my husband's grandfather, Walter George Brettenny who died in Cape Town in 1943 and was probably born there in 1875.  All my online searches have so far drawn a blank and I am wondering if my only hope of finding out who his parents were would be to get hold of the record of his baptism.  Can anyone suggest how I can go about this (we live in the UK).  I have searched nairs and the IGI, including under different spellings of the surname, but without success.  I would be very grateful for any help as I feel I am getting nowhere!

[Leanne68]

Hi Milbe,

NAAIRS offers up the following reference :

KAB MOOC Vol : 6/9/10287 Ref : 87414
DESCRIPTION  BRETTENNY, WALTER GEORGE. ESTATE PAPERS.   

This file will likely contain a death notice, usually(but not always) detailing where he was born and who his parents were.  A request to one of the mailing lists or paying a private researcher to do the lookup would be the way to go.

In repect to his baptism details - do you have any idea what religion he and his family were?

regards
Leanne

[milbe]

Thanks Leanne, 

I will try to get hold of the death notice, do you know where you have to go to get a copy? 

We are not sure what his religion was, my father in law's family was Catholic but I think that was probably because his mother who, we believe, came from Portugal, was Catholic.  I'm not sure that Walter George was Catholic though as we think his father came from England.

[Leanne68]

Hi Milbe,

There are a couple of ways to try and get hold of a copy :

1. email or write to the Cape Archives directly requesting a copy
2. post a Lookup request with the exact file reference, name etc - either on here or on one of the rootsweb south african mailing lists
3. pay a private researcher in Cape Town to go to the Archives and make a digital copy or transcribe the document for you
or
4. If you live near an LDS family history centre then you can order the following film yourself and lookup the document

Title : Probate Records 1834-1989
Author :Cape Province(South Africa) Master of the Supreme Court
LDS Film # : 1687162
[Death Notices]Ref#'s 87248-87436  for 1943

Good luck
Leanne

[milbe]

Hi Leanne

Thanks for your help.  I'm now going to track down that death certificate

Thanks agian
milbe