Help needed

[backtomyhome]

I'm trying to find out some details of my father's parents, their names were:

William George Sidney Purcell, born in Cape Province, South Africa in 1913, died at Silvercrown old age home, Amalinda, East London,South Africa in 1983.

My Grandmother was Doris Catherine Frankish, born 1919, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and she died at East London, South Africa in 1985. 

What I'd ideally like to find out is, who were their parents, did they originate from South Africa, or did they arrive from somewhere else. I've no idea how to trace records for South Africa, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

How would I go about obtaining birth/death certificates for both William and Doris, are you able to get them?  As I say, I really don't know anything about obtaining information from SA.

Kind regards

[3sillydogs]

You can try the National Archives at www.national.archives.gov.za. enter the names and search.

Birth Certificates can be ordered from the Department of Home Affairs at www.dha.gov.za

The local genealogy site www.Ancestry24.com (subscription) but free to search and some info free to view.

Documents can also be order via www.eggsa.com if you are a subscriber and have the document numbers, they give full instructions on how to go about it.  This may be easier than directly from the Archives themselves and quicker.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Gillian Mauchan]

Hi

Given they died in the 80's you probably need to apply for the Death Notice from the Department of Home Affairs as those notices wont be in the archives yet.

You need to ask for the full notice - as that should give you their parents names - if that was known by the person reporting the death.

Birth records are sealed for 100 years but you can look at the indexes in the archives. Unfortunately you really need to know where in the Cape William was born and where in Natal  Doris was born as the indexes are viewed by location. Also sadly these indexes are not available on-line - you need to go to the archive to look at them.

Also you need to be very patient and persistent with the Dept of Home Affairs - my mom's cousin who was born in 1926 is battling to get a copy of his borth record through them - I know it's in the Cape Archives as I looked it up in the indexes when I was there on my last visit.

Regards
Gillian

[3sillydogs]

There is a notice on www.eggsa.com in the East London, Cambridge, Crematorium Registers 1959-1996 for a William George Sydney Purcell, died 1983 aged 69 Cremation no. 8697 Register page BK7-045.  Unfortunately there is no image of this particular page.

[braw]

This could be another lead

Cape Town (KAB) archive

Depot: KAB
Source:CSC
Volume:2/1/1/1486
Reference:62
Description: Illiquid case, Restitution of conjugal rights. Joyce Gertrude Purcell ( born Thebus) versus George William Purcell
Date:1945

Bruce

[backtomyhome]

Thank you all so much for your responses. I did look on the National Archive site, but didn't understand the abbreviations, I'm in the UK, so cannot go and see them personally I'm afraid.

I did try contacting the dept of home affairs about 12 months ago, but never heard anything back from them.

3sillydogs, if i contacted the crematorium, would they give me any addition information?

Bruce (braw), any idea what the description means? Am I right in thinking its a visit to a prison for a bit of nooky :-)  is there someplace to contact for further information?

I know he was a watchmaker/jeweller at some stage and could also have possibly owned/ran a cinema in London SA

[backtomyhome]

I tried www.eggsa.com and the site says 'account suspended'. Has it changed its  URL?

[braw]

Hi,

Should be  www.eggsa.org


regards

Bruce

[3sillydogs]

Sorry about that, I have it saved as a bookmark so didn't pay attention to the complete address.