You Found Her!
YOU HAVE FOUND HER!!!
- Contribution by Sam J Basch (Editor, N-Tvl branch newsletter)
With three exclamation marks Canadian resident Jodi Cameron “shouted” her delight. This followed the result of a search for the grave of her great aunt who was presumed buried in Pretoria.
The poignant tale unfolded in a series of recent emails, starting as:
“This is an enquiry e-mail via http://www.genza.org.za/ from: Jodi Cameron. Hello! First off, I would like to say what an amazing job your team has done of documenting the cemeteries in South 
Africa. I have been through all of them in the area I was interested in and they were extremely easy to navigate, incredibly well photographed and thoroughly covered…”
She was trying to trace relatives of hers, of Scottish descent, whom she believed to have died in Pretoria in the 1970s.
Peter and Beverley Moss who manage the eGSSA cemetery project, requested more information, and enquired whether Jodi had access to the cemetery DVD.
She had not, but said she “just stumbled across the website and went from there.”
In no time Peter Moss sent her some data from the DVD that most closely matched her search, adding:“We also have: Smart, Janet Bryce Born: 1885 Died: 14 Aug 1956 Buried: Rebecca Street Cemetery, Pretoria, District Pretoria, Gauteng, RSA. Note: Janet Bryce Smart Graf 1859. Died aged 71 years.”
That was when Jodi realised her search was over:
“Dear Peter and Beverly!!! You have found her!!! She is Janet Bryce Smart; the middle entry!! Thank you so much!! Rebecca Street was one of the first ones I looked at but, for some reason, I must have missed her... My aunt, Janet's namesake, will be so relieved to know where her aunt is resting. Thank you so very much for your help with this. It really does mean the world to me as my aunt Janet Bryce (my mother's sister) is now 91 and in very fragile health. I wish I could give you a hug!!!”
In subsequent correspondence Peter and Beverley explained that the word “graf” was the Afrikaans for “grave”, which in this instance referred to the grave number. They also explained that all entries on eGSSA's DVD were indexed by the maiden name, where it was known. The cemetery registers would be by married name.
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Ek is nou al sedert 2005 besig met navorsing . Met die Visser navorsing het dit goed gegaan maar met die Coetzee-familie was dit effens anders. My oupa is reeds oorlede en daar was min kontak met die Coetzee kant van die familie. Klink my ook hulle was maar ? klein familie. Ek sit met die name Petrus Stephanus Coetzee – maar met geen datums maar hy was getroud met 'n nooi van der Merwe. 