tracing my mother without ID number

+4 votes
472 views

HI - I am trying to track down any info about my mother and her relatives and ancestors. On my birth certificate is the name Elizabeth Kruger (not sure if she was married to my dad Benedict Anthony Scheepers and this is her Maiden name, or if they never married) She was 24 in 1966 when I was born. She died around 1979 give or take a year or 2. Her "Personal ID number" on my birth certificate is 331-598271.  I dont know anything else about her except a few scrawled notes on the back of photos. I know she was in high school in 1959 and I have a photo on my wikitree of her in a school team at a Hula hoop chamionship in Pretoria and their school won. Perhaps someone recognises the school badge on the uniform?

Any help would be appreciated

WikiTree profile: Elizabeth Scheepers
in Genealogy Help by D Scheepers G2G2 (2.1k points)
retagged by Michael Cayley
Good Morning,

We can help you if you give a bit more information about where she might have lived and where you were born. Perhaps the name of her high school (there is a chance someone might remember her). Any little details will help.

Also, go back to your question and edit it to add tags with the two surnames you list and the location. That will draw the attention of members familiar with those things.
I have added tags for the two surnames. As Kristina says, it would be helpful to have information about location, and one or more location tags could then be added. This will increase the chances of attracting the attention of someone able to help.
Hi Kristina and Michael Thanks for your replies. I have very little information about my mother unfortunately as she died when I was young and my father never talked about her (hence trying to find some info). I don't know if she had siblings. I put the high school photo of her up as I had hoped someone may recognise something in the photo. I dont know what high school it was. All i have to go on is the inscription on the back saying that the photo was taken at a hula hoop championship in Pretoria in 1959 and their team won. I have a photo of her at age 4 or 5 and an address in pencil on the back "J Ryan, Lindequesdrift, Vereeniging" written on the back. I dont know if that is relevant to her family at all or where they lived. I was born in Johannesburg in 1966. Then we moved to the Durban PInetown area. We moved a lot and so I was sent to various boarding schools from the age of 6. I think I went to 13 different primary schools. Hence it is hard to pin down an address. At one point we lived in a caravan park. My birth Cert for 1966 has the only confirmed address I know of: 2 Iadin Court, 21 Ockerse Street, Hillbrow, Johannesburg. According to my birth Cert she was 24 in 1966, which would put her DOB between 1941 and 1942 but I dont know location of her birth; and I know she died after 1977 and before 1982 from events I remember her being at/ or having died before they happened. We were living in Durban/ Pinetown area when she passed away. I was told at the time that it was from a brain Aneurysm and she had been in hospital and died there. That is the only info I have about her sorry. Thanks so much for any help. It is much appreciated. - Darren
Those are a lot of clues.

You should probably start by finding sources for your father and putting as much information on his profile as you can verify. You might even find a marriage record by doing that.

Adding everything you can find about his family, parents and siblings might help you get close to an important location.

I wonder if you could find any information at the boarding schools you attended. Maybe addresses, names of parents, maybe names of other relatives listed for emergencies.

Please keep coming back here with questions. We like to help solve this kind of problem.
Thanks for posting the extra information. I have now added the South Africa tag to the question.
I have also added more info to Elizabeths profile - some more memories and info that came to light regarding the 1984 electoral roll. Could the Roll be incorrect?

Hi Darren

Just a hint 

I helped with the 1984  electoral roll and I know that the ID numbers of each person was also added in addition to the address.

 Ask your source to look it up and see if it is the same as the one you have.  

HI

I have added more info to Benedicts profile including addresses and when they lived there. I have asked about the 1984 electoral role and ID numbers ( I have benedicts ID) but havent had a reply, so not sure if I am getting more info from them.

Thanks for any additional help.

Regards

Darren

2 Answers

+4 votes
Hi Darren

You have a very interesting puzzle there.

I noticed that you mentioned on Elizabeth's profile that you had received some information about Elizabeth on the 1984 voters' registry, and this was puzzling because you believe she had passed away.  

I don't know about South Africa, but in many other locations, an electoral registry/voters' list would be trying to compile the most comprehensive list possible.  In 1984 it would not have been an easy task to run the list against a Vital Stats record to see whether any of the listed possible electors had passed away since the last election or the last compilation of potential electors.  

So what I'm trying to say is that being on the 1984 list doesn't necessarily mean that she was actually alive in 1984, nor does it mean that there was actually someone else of the same name who was alive in 1984 and puzzlingly living with your family members.

I think you can hold open the possibility that the list just isn't up to date with the latest info on each person on the list.

Cheers

Shirlea
by Shirlea Smith G2G6 Pilot (312k points)
Thanks Shirlea. I assumed as much but good to have that confirmed :)
+3 votes

I wonder if the reason you can't find a marriage record for Elizabeth and Benedict online is simply that these events are too recent to be made public.  You as a descendant can probably apply to the official record-keepers and be allowed to obtain the records of Elizabeth and Benedict's marriage and about Elizabeth's passing -- for the regular fee.

That would be the case in my country (Canada).  For my province, here's the records that are NOT put online:

Births less than 100 years ago
Marriages less than 80 years ago
Deaths less than 70 years ago

If either the party concerned or the immediate next of kin (spouse, children, parents, or siblings) are living, written proof of their consent to release the requested information is to be attached to the application.

Maybe someone here who researches in South Africa can tell us about the restrictions on recent records and where to apply for them if the applicant has an appropriate reason.

The regular fee is about $25 to $40 in most provinces of Canada.  Again, someone who knows the fees in South Africa could maybe share that info.

Cheers

Shirlea

by Shirlea Smith G2G6 Pilot (312k points)

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