Genealogical Society of South Africa (GSSA) WikiTree Challenge Highlights

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Hello WikiTreers!

WikiTree Challenge #10 is now complete. We spent a fun and collaborative week working together to build up an impressive list of ancestors based on the seven starting people chosen by the Genealogical Society of South Africa (GSSA). We were challenged with finding ancestors from not only South Africa, but also Australia, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand, and many more locations. Once again, our group of researchers did a fantastic job of tracking down family members and documenting them on WikiTree.

The week seemed to fly by, but WikiTree members managed to add or connect more than 59,655 relatives within seven degrees for the seven starting people! All of the seven lines were connected in unique ways to the global tree, with some being connected through multiple branches. 

Altogether, more than 69 WikiTreers made 11,366 edits to connected profiles. Groups were quickly formed to tackle the more difficult lines, with emphasis on vital records. We had people readily available for translations from Afrikaans to obtain all details from those records. 

MVPPaul Snook

Top Bounty HunterHeather Jenkinson

Team CaptainDonna Baumann

All contributors ● Scoring explanation ● Research resources ● Connections to all contributors 


Our seven starting profiles

  1. Johannes August Heese (1907-1990) is the primary author of the first few volumes of South African Genealogies" aka Heese & Lombard. His final CC7 was 9,310.
  2. Roelof Theunis Johannes Lombard (1931-2011) is the lead editor of the first few volumes of South African Genealogies" aka Heese & Lombard. His final CC7 was 11,285.
  3. Edward John Morse Jones (1889-1969) published Roll of the British Settlers in South Africa in 1969 and numerous extracts from contemporary accounts as the Albany Chronicles. His final CC7 was 446.
  4. Colin Graham Botha (1883-1973) was head of the Cape Archives for 32 years, and published The French Refugees on the Huguenot families in 1919. His final CC7 was 20,769.
  5. Margaret Constance (Twentyman-Jones) Cairns (1912- 2009)  published widely on the social history of the Cape community. Her final CC7 was 1,127.
  6. Floris Albertus van Jaarsveld (1922-1995) was an influential historian, educator and genealogist, and published numerous books and school texts. His final CC7 was 9,440.
  7. Marjorie Diane "Dee" (Murray) Nash (1928-2010) published the authoritative The Settler Handbook: A New List of the 1820 Settlers in 1987. Her final CC7 was 7,278.
in The Tree House by Mindy Silva G2G Astronaut (1.1m points)

Interesting Connections:

This year, 2023, is our "Year of Community Connections." So, we're looking for interesting connections between our starting people, and utilizing MyConnections, between starting people and others in their community. (Any time you are on a category page, you'll see a green MyConnections button in the corner. Click it to see how you are related to everyone in the category.)

Here are some of the connections we found this week:

  • The father of Johannes' wife Magdalena Elizabeth Heese formerly du Toit (Born 19 Dec 1908), Lourens Erasmus Du Toit was a prisoner of war during the Boer War and Cornelia Margaretha (le Roux) Du Toit was imprisoned as a refugee. Three of Cornelia's children died in the refugee camp, one of dysentery and two of measles.
  • Herbert Trevor Fitch was a catcher of spies! He worked for Scotland Yard and one of his tasks during WWI was catching German spies in Britain.
  • Downton Abbey is real! The family of Alfred Charles Twentyman (1832-1908) and his brother Lawrence Burrell Twentyman (1826-1902) had 5-6 domestic servants in their households in every census year, including: a butler, a cook, a lady's maid, house maids, kitchen maids, and a nurse (in old age). Apparently the export trade with South Africa was very lucrative!
  • A few unusual professions were found in this challenge. William Gillingwater was a perfumer, Alfred Withers was a Pawnbroker and Jeweller, Anthony Young was a Club Billiard Marker at one point and one of his sons and son-in-law had the occupation of Lapidary.
  • Adolphus Julian Clairmount, 7 degrees from Marjorie Nash, was born in Barbados, married in South Africa, had children in South Africa and London, England and later moved to Halifix in Nova Scotia where he died.

More Interesting Discoveries:

Watch the Highlights Reel on YouTube to see more! 

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