German Genealogical Research in South Africa

This page is to help you in doing specifically German genealogical research in South Africa. Obviously the general directions are the same as for all other South Africans, but there are a few extra sources, which are to be discussed here.

To start you off have a look at these pages:

Germans in South Africa

A list of early German immigrants to the Cape 1652-1806

A list of German surnames in South Africa

A list of Berlin Missionaries in South Africa

A list of Hermannsburg Missionaries in South Africa

A list of Moravian Missionaries in South Africa

Ship's passenger lists Hamburg-South Africa

Surname interest list for families of German origin in South Africa

Individual Immigrants of the 19th Century

An address book of Germans in Cape Town in 1886

Genealogy in the old German colonies in Africa

(You can search all these lists from the Home page.)

Furthermore, there is a wealth of data off-line. Some hints are offered below on where to access this:

Church Books
There is no central deposit of church books for traditionally German churches in South Africa. As far as I know, none of them have been filmed either, so that they will not be available via the Family History Centres. To get any information, you will have to contact the local minister of the respective congregation in which you are interested.

Further Information
For descendants of Hermannburg and Berlin missionaries and colonists, for the New Germany settlers and other settlers in the old Natal and Transvaal, quite a lot of information is available already. The Human Sciences Research Council has also researched a number of the early German settler and their descendants and has published books on these. A few references are available below: