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Welcome to Ancestry24
Welcome to Ancestry24 Welcome to Ancestry24, South Africa's most comprehensive ancestral and genealogical service. You will find great data and software resources to help you kick-start your journey of self-discovery! You can access a unique Family Tree Builder to capture all your family members going back hundreds of years. The more names you fill in, the more records we will be able to find for you! Simply type in the Name and Surname of the Ancestor you are looking for. You will need to register to access the Family Tree builder and begin building your family tree.

Finally, we want to entrench Ancestry24 as the pre-eminent and most comprehensive online ancestry site in the world for African families.
Where to start?

TOPIC OF THE DAY
Birth Records, the easy way
The Department of Home Affairs is the Official custodian of birth records in South Africa, and the National Archives holds the birth registers for anything more than 50 years ago and can include records as early as 30 years ago.
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WHAT'S NEW
Natal Birth Records
Over 3000 births have been transcribed from the original registers of the Home Affairs covering Pietermaritzburg 1868 – 1878 and Durban from 04 August 1910 until 30 January 1912 . A big thanks to our contributors. If you have contributions to make please let us know what you have and we will make them electronically available for everyone.
Click here to search our birth records.
IN THE MEDIA
Darwin at the Cape
Charles Darwin is a giant in the history of biology. His idea that something called ‘factors’, the conceptual precursor to genes elaborated by the monk Gregor Mendel, were inherited from parent to child still stands incontroverted today. The intellectual architecture on all of modern life sciences knowledge today rests on Darwin’s idea.
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BOOK REVIEW
The Black Countess
This incredible story chronicles the life of Martha a woman of colour from Wynberg and her husband the Harry, the 7th Earl of Stamford. Martha the daughter of freed slave and well known Tavern owner "Queen Rebecca" of Cape Town who married Harry Gray the rejected remittance man from an upper class family in England.
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BIOGRAPHIES
Sophia Campbell
Sophia Christina Campbell was born on the 1st February 1856 in Pietermaritzburg and was the third daughter of the late J.F. Winter who came to Natal in the "Beta" in March 1848. She was educated at Miss Barratt's School, Maritzburg and married in 1876 at St. Saviours to the late Phillips Henry Campbell.
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FEATURED PRODUCT
From Diaspora to Diorama
Slave-lodgings, lunatic asylum, police station, prison and brothel: these were some of the functions which the building at the entrance to the Company's Gardens at the top of Adderley Street (the old Heerengracht), unashamedly fulfilled. The Lodge fused the dramatic themes of thraldom, perpetual servitude, sex and insanity into a fortress of misery which could provide South African novelists with the raw material for a hundred novels.
Click here to read more or click here to buy the product.
FORUMS MOST RECENT POSTS
Matthew Appleton of yorkshire
My great uncle Matthew emigrated to natal 1881 with his brother william who later died from a burst blood vessel. I have no other information other than Matthew stayed in South Africa and william was nursed by a nurse called Miss Mitchell at greys hospital Pietermaritzburg and from the letter she wrote to his sister sounded like she had some feelings for him. Anyone with any info I'd be most grateful - 11/17/2008 11:28:11 PM
Relatives of Charles Henry Tambling
Trying to locate information on Charles Henry Tambling born UK 1883, appears on the 1898 UK census living with his Aunt & Uncle Martha & Samuel Haggar, Chipping Barnet. From that point they disappear presumed they emigrated. Have tried to locate them in Australia and Canada but have met a brickwall. So my question is are there any people researching the Tambling family name that could have a link to my search - 11/17/2008 10:29:07 PM
Joseph Brooks in Namaqualand
I am busy researching Joseph Brooks from Namaqualand. He was born in 1850, the 9th child of William Brooks, an 1820 settler and Eva Johanna Luck. I would like to know who he married and what happened to him. Can you please help? Thank you. Yolanda Sim (nee Drost) - 11/16/2008 8:45:31 PM
BEGINNERS GUIDE
Starting Out
Family History is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world and South Africa is no exception…
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KEEPING RECORDS
How To Keep Records
Keeping records of your information while researching is vital to the success of your Family Tree.
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RECORDS
Passenger Records
Cape Town has generally been considered as the initial major port of entry for South Africa. Years later Durban, Port Nolloth..
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DID YOU KNOW?
Military Records
Military Service Records were only kept in South Africa from 1912 onwards upon the official establishment of the Union Defence Force (U.D.F.). All personal Military Service Records for all South Africans who served in South African Colonial Units, as well as any British Imperial Military personnel who served in South Africa prior to 1912, are lodged in the Public Records Office at Kew, United Kingdom.
WHERE DID THEY LIVE?
Rorkesdrift
RORKE'S DRIFT, Natal. Meaning ford on the road to Zululand, in the district of Dundee, 37 km south-east of that town. The ford (`drift') is named after James Rorke, who built a trading store there in 1860. In 1878 a large piece of land was bought by the Swedish Mission to found a mission station named Oscarsberg, after the King of Sweden, with the Rev. Otto Witt in charge. Two stone buildings were erected, a dwelling-house and the school chapel, also used as a storehouse. The site was vacated by the Monument to those killed at Rorke's Drift.
VOLUNTEERS
Tombstones
Would you like to volunteer to become part of our “Friends of the Crypt” and help photograph our fading tombstone inscriptions country wide ? All you need is a digital camera and some spare time and you can help make a difference. We will match you up to another volunteer in the area so that you can work in pairs. Please email Andrea or Heather at info@ancestry24.co.za to sign up.
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RECENTLY UPDATED
Name Changes
Over 10 000 names have recently been added to the Official Name Changes database. In year gone by people changed their names and subsequently made it very difficult for people generations down the line to trace the correct lineage or family connection. At last we have an “official record” that now allows us to find these name changes – for generations to come.
Click here to search our name changes.