Where do I start?

GETTING STARTED

If you grew up with your parents or at least one of them, you should have a pretty good idea of where to start.
The best information will always be information from those who are still living. I will use mine as an example. Along each of these steps, write down or document your findings. See my previous post on how to organise your information.

STEP 1: Determine what it is that you want to know. this will change with time, but my first project was:
I married a Coetzee. I have heard stories that my great-grandmother on my dad's mom's side was also a Coetzee. My mission was to find out if our family lines ever linked up somewhere.

STEP 2: Write down what you know with full names, dates and places of birth/death

My name L Byleveld....
My dad's names JMD Byleveld
His parents names JDH Byleveld and PS Faasen
My mom's side of the family was not important for this project, but you can put that down if you have the information.

This is pretty much what I knew. I know PS Faasen's mom was a Coetzee, but I had no more info than that.

STEP 3: Speak to your oldest living relatives. I unfortunately don't have any of my grandfathers left, but both my grandmothers are still alive. Luckily for me I was researching my grandmothers family.
It is important to note how to write down citations and sources - but I will deal with that in another post.

I then spoke to my gran over facebook (as she is awesome like that) and she lives about 1400km away from me. She told me that she got her maternal grandmothers names. She could also give me her parents names and her grandparents names. This helps a lot as this gives you information for 5 generations already. If you don't have any grand left you can get at least 4 generations worth of information together before even starting with any in-depth research.

PS Faasen's parents are HF Coetzee and NJ Faasen
HF Coetzee's parents were MS Stoltz and HF Coetzee


STEP 4: Start researching.  In South Africa one of the best sources to use is a death notice as this contains most of the vital information. I have seen some very incomplete documents  that have limited information, but there was definitely useful information that I could use. Now, getting a death notice isn't always the easiest task and sometime you just won't find it at all (for various reasons).

The best place to start searching would be on the eGGSA (Genealogical Society of South Africa) site. They have pictures of gravesites (just search by name) and you might just find it (with dates). They also have church registers and much more.

http://www.eggsa.org/librarySearch/searchGraves.htm

The next place to search is in the National Archives of South Africa (NASA) - as far as I know they contain documents that are 15 years and older. Search by name - I have found many positive search results her. This is where you will find death notices. It is important to note that this only goves you the basic information for the file. Once you have confirmed that this is indeed the person that you are searching for, you can order photographs to be taken of the contents of the file to be sent to you. There is a cost for each page they photograph - latest prices are on the eggsa site under the following link:

http://www.national.archsrch.gov.za/sm300cv/smws/sm300dl
http://www.eggsa.org/sales/help_archive_docs.htm

From these documents you will find most of your information. If you have hit a dead end you can always try and guess a name based on the traditional naming of South African families. First born son gets paternal grandfathers names, next son gets maternal grandfather's names, 3rd son gets fathers names and the rest are given names by choice. First born daughters are given maternal grandmothers names, 2nd daughter gets paternal grandmother's names and 3rd daughter gets mother's names. 4th and following are given names by choice. This could however be different for each family, so be careful not to rely on this, but just use it as a guide.

Hope this helps you to get started.

Happy researching!!!