Clayton family - Illovo River, Natal

[sandrastocks54]

Please could anybody point me in the right direction to find my Clayton family in Illovo River, Natal?

The facts I know are that Walter Clayton, born in Huddersfield, England in 1854, emigrated to Natal about 1890.  His wife and 5 children sailed to join him on the Dunbar Castle, leaving London on 5 August 1891.  Walter's son, also Walter, died in WW1 in France in 1916 and has a memorial headstone in Pont du Jour military cemetery, which is how I know the family lived in Illovo River.

My question is, are there any emigration records before 1890 so that I can find when Walter senior emigrated.  I think also that his eldest brother, George Clayton, may have moved to South Africa between 1861 and 1871 and also their brother Alfred Clayton and his family between 1871 and 1881.  My mother remembers some of the Clayton family visiting Huddersfield from South Africa in the 1940's and I'm trying to find out who they were.  Are BMD records available online at all?
 
Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks
Sandra

[Gillian Mauchan]

Hi

Shipping records are few and far between - read the pinned topics for more information.

There is a death record in the Natal archives this could identify any surviving children att he time of his deat

 MSCE  0  5239/1920  CLAYTON, WALTER. (SSP CLAYTON, ELIZA, BORN MARSDEN).  1920 1921

This may be his son's death record

MSCE  0  1583/1917  CLAYTON, WALTER.  1917 1918

Eliza's death record

 MSCE  0  30002/1939  CLAYTON, ELIZA. (BORN MARSDEN).  1939 1941

You can order a copies through eggsa.org

Regards

Gillian

[sandrastocks54]

Gillian

Thank you very much for this!  They are definitely my family.  I've been on the eggsa site to order the death records and found a photograph of the grave, plus a couple more graves of the family who I didn't know had emigrated!  I've just spent a happy hour perusing that site and also the Natal archives, lots more for me to discover on there

I'm thrilled - thank you once again!
Sandra

[Gillian Mauchan]

Happy to help - there are many more Clayton's in the archives - however it may be best to wait for the death notices to work out the next generation.

Keep an eye on the eggsa site they are adding about 30k photos a month

Cheers

Gillian