South Africa, Methodist Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

South Africa

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South Africa, Methodist Parish Registers, 1822-1996 CID1463648 {{{CID2}}} {{{CID3}}} {{{CID4}}} {{{CID5}}} {{{CID6}}} {{{CID7}}} {{{CID8}}} {{{CID9}}}
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South Africa
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Record Description
Record Type:	Methodist Parish Registers
Collection years:	1822-1996
Languages:	Afrikaans, English
Title in the Language:	Suid-Afrika, Strata gemeente Registers
FamilySearch Resources
South Africa Genealogy
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Related Websites
South African Genealogy
Cyndi's List - South Africa
Find A Grave - South Africa
GenealogyInTime Magazine
Genealogical Society of SA - Funeral Programs
Genealogical Society of SA - Graves
Archive
Methodist Church of Southern Africa

What is in This Collection?

This collection of parish records from the Methodist Church in South Africa covers the years 1822 to 1996, and includes images of baptisms, marriages, and burials from several towns in South Africa. These records are written in Afrikaans and English. See the section For Help Reading these Records for translation helps.

Methodism arrived in South Africa with British soldiers in 1806, but the mission was launched by Barnabas Shaw, who reached the Cape in 1816, and William Shaw (unrelated), who accompanied the British settlers of 1820. Barnabas Shaw established a mission among the Khoi at Leliefontein in Namaqualand, and colleagues ventured across the Orange River into present-day Namibia and what are now the northern provinces of South Africa. William Shaw established Methodism throughout the British settlement in Albany and rapidly planted a chain of mission stations between the Cape Colony and Natal. In the late nineteenth century, missionary work was extended into the gold-mining area in Gauteng and north through modern Limpopo into Zimbabwe. Six missionary districts of the Wesleyan Methodist church became an affiliated conference in 1883. An independent conference was constituted in 1927 and enlarged in 1931 to include the Transvaal Missionary District of the British Conference and the small Primitive Methodist Mission.

Church records include important vital information, which can also help identify other ancestors. The civil registration records can be researched also after 1895.

These parish records were created to record the events of baptisms, marriages, and burials for the members of the Methodist Church in South Africa, and are a reliable source for doing genealogical research in South Africa.

Image Visibility

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For additional information about image restrictions see Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections.

Reading These Records

These records are in Afrikaans and English. For help reading them see:

• Afrikaans Genealogical Word List
• Netherlands Languages
• South Africa Languages

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for South Africa, Methodist Parish Registers, 1822-1996.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism

• Date and place of baptism
• Name and gender of child
• Parents’ names, including maiden name of mother
• Parents’ residence
• Child's age or date of birth
• Name of person who solemnized baptism

Marriage

• Date and place of marriage
• Full name and age of groom
• Groom's marital status, occupation and residence
• Full name and age of bride
• Bride's marital status, occupation and residence
• Marriage by license or banns
• Names of person(s) giving consent for the marriage
• Names of witnesses

Burial

• Name and age of deceased
• Residence of deceased
• Date and place of interment
• Name of person presiding at interment

Collection Content

Sample Images

• 

  1895 Baptism Record

• 

  1904 Marriage Record

• 

  1896-7 Burial Record

Coverage Table

The collection contains records from the following locations and years:

Province	Municipality	Baptism	Marriage	Death
Cape of Good Hope	Aberdeen	1895-1940	1895-1968	1897-1968
Cape of Good Hope	Albany	1844-1868
Cape of Good Hope	Alexandria	1961-1987	1956-1982
Cape of Good Hope	Aliwal North	1871-1911	1871-1929
Cape of Good Hope	Barkly West		1908-1923
Cape of Good Hope	Bathurst	1868-1954	1843-1894, 1925-1971
Cape of Good Hope	Beaconsfield	1880-1972	1880-1971
Cape of Good Hope	Beaufort West	1859-1944	1860-1953
Cape of Good Hope	Bellville		1956-1971
Cape of Good Hope	Bergvliet	1955-1996
Cape of Good Hope	Buntingville	1840-1881, 1965-1968	1837-1880
Cape of Good Hope	Butterworth	1898-1904	1899-1975
Cape of Good Hope	Cathcart	1880-1983	1880-1973	1880-1900
Cape of Good Hope	Clarkebury		1905-1922
Cape of Good Hope	Clumber			1836-1988
Cape of Good Hope	Cradock	1924-1991	1929-1985
Cape of Good Hope	Dordrecht	1907-1915
Cape of Good Hope	East London	1877-1949		1884-1940
Cape of Good Hope	Grahamstown	1826-1930	1904-1971	1895-1971
Cape of Good Hope	Griqualand West	1881-1891
Cape of Good Hope	Indwe		1908-1915
Cape of Good Hope	Klip River Location	1894-1907	1897-1911
Cape of Good Hope	Platberg	1840-1851
Natal	Durban	1842-1908, 1911-1993	1847-1972
Orange Free State	Odendaalsrus			1970
Orange Free State	Vredefort	1860-1920
Orange Free State	Welkom			1969-1970
Transvaal	Alexandra	1932-1947
Transvaal	Barberton	1887-1970	1888-1972	1915-1968, 1975-1981
Transvaal	Denver	1887-1970	1888-1972	1915-1968, 1975-1981
Transvaal	Lydenburg	1905-1968
Transvaal	Wakkerstroom		1940-1952

How Do I Search the Collection?

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Search the Index

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How Do I Analyze the Results?

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What Do I Do Next?

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

• Add any new information to your records
• Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have moved, been recruited or lived nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify
• Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual. This compiled list can help you identify possible relations that can be further verified by researching vital records indexes in the country
• When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details such as a title, an occupation, or land ownership. Add this new information to your records of each family. You should also look for leads to other records about your ancestors
• Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

• Switch to a different record collection. Depending on the time period, Civil Registration records may be more useful
• While searching, it is helpful to know such information as the ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as an ancestor and that the ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times
• Keep in mind that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name
• Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images. Pay special attention to how the name should have been pronounced and try variations on the pronunciation
• Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names
• Search the indexes and records of local genealogical societies
• Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800
• There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another
• Be aware that there may have been some transcription errors
  
  

Citing This Collection

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Collection Citation: The citation for this collection can be found on the Collection Details Page in the section Citing this Collection.

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Image Citation: When looking at an image, the citation is found on the Information tab at the bottom left of the screen.

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