West Gauteng Branch

e-SAGI Project

The e-SAGI Project contains genealogical data which has been merged from Gedcom files (genealogical program data files) supplied by many genealogists from within South Africa and elsewhere. Information has been accumulated since 1976 and was initially known as the Rinken/de Wet database, previously published by the West Gauteng Branch of GSSA on CD and later on DVD. Currently it contains 939,110 names in 318,961 families with 43,064 unique surnames in 69,469 master locations with 2,145,043 citations from 11,758 master source references. They can also be purchased in family group sheets for more information go to The Webshop.
It also attempts to show Place Names in their Historically Correct context. More on this to be found by downloading An Attempt to show Historically correct Place Names
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Moeder "As ek My Seninge Tel" Deur Adri Johnson

tel ek ma sommer twee keer.
Haar nagedagtenis is soos ‘n kombuis waarin ek soms in stilte kan verdwaal en myself marineer met die geure. Dit is dan wanneer die vraagtekens van die lewe soos herfsblare verkleur en saggies loskom om vir vars lentebloeisel-idees plek te maak. Nogtans terwyl ek met ‘n knop in die keel my moeder se ou vergeelde, verweerde, handgeskrewe resepteboekie deurblaai, kry ek die geur van al die lekkernye wat sy met soveel liefde vir ons huisgesin voorberei het.
Ek heg vandag hierdie resep aan die “onthou jy” greep uit my lewe en hoop u probeer dit, dit is waarlik vingerlek lekker!
Moeder – As ek my seninge tel, tel ek ma sommer twee keer.
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SA In Die Ou Dae - Deur Kriek Fourie

My oupa se broer het in Krugersdorp gewoon en het n hele paar kinders gehad. Wanneer hulle kom kuier het wat die kar gepak van bagasie en familielede. Sy het altyd gesê “Kom hulle hier aan met hul Parmakas volgelaai met hul Portmento`s.”
Sy het ook vertel dat die naam van Nieu-Bethesda onder die mense van Graaff-Reinet bekend gestaan het as Kapaais.
My ouma Lizzie Fourie (nee Basson) het die huise uitverhuur en teen die einde val elke maand het sy die huur gaan invorder en dan kwitansies uitgeskryf wat sy as Voldaan genoem het.
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Origin of The Family Name Jordan

STORIES FROM JACK JORDAN.
Life in general is full of surprises and genealogical research is no exception. As far as I was concerned, we have always been the Jordan's of Irish ancestry. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that there is a Jordan Foundation and more so when I established that it was not always Jordan but originally Deardon.
The origin of the name Jordan as confirmed by THE JORDAN FAMILY FOUNDATION is as follows:
“Sir William Deardon, an English knight crusader in the 12th Century who, observed by King Richard the Lion-Hearted to best a Saracen in battle after being knocked off his horse, was dubbed by the king, “Sir Jordan”, after the Jordan River. Sir William subsequently requested it as a permanent name for himself, his descendants, and his home in England
WHAT'S IN A NAME
For as far back as I have been able to trace and recall there is a proliferation of “Jack” as a nickname for the males baptised or christened “John”, myself included in the family. At one stage there was in the immediate family, Grandpa Jack, Big Jackie (me) and baby Jackie (nephew). I found this intriguing and asked my father (Grandpa Jack) the reason. He told me that that it was not only a family tradition but occurred worldwide, the reason being that the early Christian churches did not recognise “Jack” as a Christian name and would not baptise a child with that name. Consequently, certainly in our family, a child would be baptised with the good, solid Christian name, “John”. But upon leaving the church the child became Jack or Jackie and remained so for the rest of his life. Legally on paper John but known as and called Jack. You will often see references behind a name AKA (also known as) – In my case John Daniel Jordan, AKA Jack
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An Attempt to show Historically correct Place Names

When my database was donated to the West-Gauteng Branch of GSSA (The Genealogical Society of South Africa), it contained about 100,000 individuals and was known as the Rinken/de Wet Database. De Wet because it contained the de Wet file kindly sent to me by the late Tesselaar Bryan de Wet of Winnipeg, Canada. It now contains in excess of 900,000 individuals and has been put together from files submitted by many individuals. As the number of individuals contained grew and we started to sell same for Branch Funds, Dennis Pretorius suggested that the name be changed to e-SAGI (The South African Genealogical Index). Soon we were selling the CD all over the world and I knew that many users, particularly overseas, were not familiar with South African history and the changes this created in the Republics and Colonies which became Provinces of the Union, and later, Republic of South Africa. I then attempted to use place names pertaining to the historical timeframe involved. At first, this was just hit and miss as I thought was the case, but gradually I realised that more research was necessary in order to ensure that I was not misleading users. This is not easy as the sources consulted, do not always give specific dates and the history of the various areas are intertwined. The following is, thus what I have put together and I am, consequently, slowly converting the data accordingly.
Download - An Attempt to show Historically correct Place Names
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