Kelly relatives moving from UK to South Africa

[Kelly/Parker]

I am trying to find out more about the relatives on my husband's side of the tree. His G. Grandfather was James Kelly born 15 July 1870 Chester, Cheshire and his wife was Annie Thornley born 18 July 1879 Hyde Cheshire. I have picked James up on various census in Liverpool and Chester. He is on the 1891 census living in Hawarden Flintshire with his family. I know that his eldest child Charles was born in 1898. I cannot find a marriage for them over here so can only assume that he was married out in South Africa. He went there to the Gold Mines, I have a group photo of him. I wondered if there is any way I can trace a marriage in South Africa or for that matter James and Annies deaths which I have been told are 1926 and 1933 respectively. Any help or guidance on this would be very much appreciated. Julie

[EmPea]

Hi Julie

In the National Archives in Pretoria there is this reference to his Estate File:

DEPOT     TAB
SOURCE    MHG
REFERENCE 60768                                                                 
DESCRIPTION          KELLY, JAMES CHARLES.
STARTING  19260000
ENDING    19260000
REMARKS   SURVIVING SPOUSE ANNIE KELLY.

You can order pics of the file - see one of the sticky topics at the top of this board.  Also at the top are topics relating to what you may expect to see in the file as well as a link to the National Archives so you can do your own searches.  If this isn't your guy, then there are a few other estate files listed for a James Kelly around the same time.  I didn't see a file for Annie around 1933.

Regards
Moira

[Kelly/Parker]

Thank you so much for that Moira, it is very much appreciated. I will follow it up and see what I can find out. Thanks once again for your time. Julie

[Kelly/Parker]

Moira, sorry to bother you again. Have tried looking into this but pardon my ignorance I don't see what you mean by sticky topics. Julie

[Kelly/Parker]

Moira, I sent a message to the South African archives quoting the information you gave me and said could they explain how I could obtain a copy of the file and they said they couldn't do this. I could only get it by going in or paying someone to investigate it for me. Sadly I don't think I can get further on this as I cannot afford to do that and obviously living in Sussex in England cannot go in myself. Thanks for your help. Julie

[EmPea]

Hi Julie

Sorry for the late reply - I have been away on holiday.

The sticky topics are the ones at the top of this board that never move from their position.  Look at the 5th one down - on page 1 is my original posting explaining how to order pics as well as a link to the actual web site.  You will definately get copies through them.  I have just this last month ordered and received copies through them from the Pietermatitzburg & Pretoria Archive.

Regards
Moira

[Kelly/Parker]

Hello Moira, I finally got round to ordering photographs of this record. It states that place of marriage for James and Annie was Boksburg Transvaal. Their eldest child was my husbands Grandfather born 10.7.1898 in Germiston, is there any way of finding out details of James and Annie's marriage. It is a shame there aren't any details of Annie's death. Any help very much appreciated. Julie

[EmPea]

Hi Julie

Very difficult to get marriage details as one would have to find them in the church records which aren't online as far as I know.  There are some registers for some of the churches at the Cory Library for Historical Research (part of Rhodes University) http://opac.seals.ac.za:81/search~S1  Now that I have given you this information, I have no idea how you would go about accessing it      I guess the obvious would be to e-mail them. http://www.ru.ac.za/corylibrary/contactus


Depending on how much you are willing to invest in obtaining the date of their marriage, you could engage the services of this person who claims to do South African Churches Research & Genealogical Research.  I have never used him myself and found his name on the NAAIRS site.

Bishop Dr. M S Mawelele
P O Box 592
Postnet Suite No. 27 Silverton
PRETORIA
0127
Tel: (012) 801 4897
Fax: (012) 801 4897
Cell: 072 381 3956
E-mail: MSMawelele @ yahoo dot com (omit spaces and replace dot with .)


Regards
Moira