What Gold rush?

[saxonw.]

If someone headed to South Africa in 1892 to take part in a gold rush which one would it be and how would he get from England?

[behindthefrogs]

I think that in asking "what gold rush" rather than "which gold rush" you are probably correct.

The only serious gold rush in South Africa around that period was the Witwatersand rush in 1886.  As there were gold rushes in the 1890s in a number of other countries it seems rather strange that he chose South Africa.

David

[saxonw.]

Thank you for that. There do however seem to be a number of miners heading out there. Where  my two are and what happened to them we shall probably never know.

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hi saxonw

The Pilgrim's Rest gold rush, which started round about 1873, was earlier than the Witwatersrand gold rush of 1886, which started the city of Johannesburg.  There was even goldmining in Knysna in the Southern Cape!   

Pilgrim's Rest, in the Eastern Transvaal would still have been going when your two headed out to South Africa.  They could also have moved around, the different gold rushes and also possibly the diamond fields.  There were fortunes to be made for many years.   

If leaving from the UK, they were most likely to have gone by ship, either from London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, so if someone could look up the shipping lists for you, from the UK - SA,  c 1892, that would be helpful to you.   

Do you know from where they might have left in the UK?   

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[saxonw.]

Thanks for that. I have access to all passenger lists that are on line andI haven't found them  yet. Why do I regard them as the pits? Because they walked out of the UK and left their wives  and several children each (two brothers that is ) in abject penury as if it wasn't their problem.

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hi saxonw

You've given your own answer probably as to why they left....................like so many thousands of others, they went to seek their fortune, hopefully to return to their home countries and raise their spouses and families, out of poverty.

Poverty forced them to leave in the first place.  Maybe they died, in whatever circumstances and weren't able to return as planned?  Its been the same the world over, wherever man has opportunities to make a quick buck, not so?   

Remember, communications for the poor were almost non existent and in Africa, at that time, almost impossible to get word home.  Life was cheap, on whatever mine they were at!   

Do you think you can't find them on the passenger lists because either they weren't listed in steerage, or perhaps they worked their passages, as crew?   

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[saxonw.]

Well I'm sure they wouldn't have enough money to be Mr   in the cabins and saloons: I've been through all those anyway. It's not a common surname  not in the Smith/Jones/Brown category anyway and one has a really posh and unusual first name. Not really suitable for a labourer. but I'm working through the manifests for the correct period of time.   I've done the same for the States/  Canada and even looking at any one boat departing the UK and arriving on the Eastern Coast of the American continent some ten days later  (1) the North Americans are less class conscious-Mr Blenkinsop is not just a "gent"  and adult male Married/unmarried  but is Albert Blenkinsop  aged 32 a merchant heading for a protracted stay with his brother  Charles in New York  ( I made that all up but you get the idea). and (3) there are an awful lot more people who get off the boat than get on it.  (Schodinger might have a word for it)


I came across a manifest for the Scot leaving Southampton on 1st October 1892 after listing all the passengers the last entry before the total was   added up was:-



Other places      - -9-  . And so suddenly another 9 adult Englishmen were added onto the manifest. Presumably to get the totals right. And no names are given.


 I'm almost tempted to claim two of them as mine.  But unless and until South Africa publish such info (if they have it) we are all going to be lost if you are sufficiently unlucky to be looking for one of those 9

[Danchaslyn]

 

Hi saxonw

You certainly have your time cut out.............searching  the shipping lists is one helluva job!     Especially, as you say, being poor they probably wouldn't have had the money to be in cabins and saloons!

It is a very sad reflection that not all passengers were listed............as we said before, life was cheap, anywhere, in particular when you were a 'nobody'.   

They can't just disappear, especially as there were two of them..........maybe a new line of search is needed, as the passenger lists are so diabolical?   

How about posting their names in a new Topic in SA, a general enquiry, see if a RootsChatter picks up on it?   

Yesterday, later on I was searching a few shipping lists myself and the horrible thought crossed my mind, when I came across listed shipwrecks, to and fro SA, that perhaps either on the way out to SA, or possibly, if and when they were returning, their ship may have sunk?     

Cheers

Danchaslyn

 

[saxonw.]

Thanks very much. I still don;t know if they went together or followed each other or in fact went in completely different ways. These two I think I've put many times onto various searches on Rootschat  evry country that I can think of they the could have emigrated to : Their cousins and brother are in Pennsylvania, One's children all ended up in Canada the other ones split between England and Australia. And A contemporary account (or nearly anyway ) places the rumour that oneabandoned his family in 1892 and went to South Africa: but that was what his wife thought anyway. He could  have of course just gone down the road and changed his name.  But I'm thinking the missing names on manifests are far more likely. Just my luck.  They haven't turned up in South African record that I can see (I've been right through NAAIRS. I've even bought a death notification but that's not him.