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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 1999-07 > 0930833970


From: Lesley Robertson <>
Subject: Re: Verbatum Copies
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 12:59:30 +0000


>
> A few years ago Lesley Robertson very kindly shared information with us
> which she extracted from Rolls of VOC Military and civilian staff at the
> Cape. It contained useful information on their place of origin, ships they
> came out on, occupation, service, discharge and other details. Many of
> these VOC employees stayed on and became our ancestors. Surely the benefits
> of having access to this kind of information outweighs cost of photo
> copying?
>
> I would like to know if others think there would be a demand for SA related
> material in The Hague and which local organisations to presurise into doing
> something about it. If done correctly, the Dutch may consider it a
> donation to the upliftment of cultural values of their third world cousins!

The organisation that holds this stuff is the National Archives - and
they are VERY resistant to any ideas about photo-copying VOC records.
It goes beyond reason (e.g. fading from copying, etc) as they won't
even allow daylight photography (which is why I still haven't sorted
all those wills out). On the other hand, it wouldn't be easy to do -
some of these books are HUGE (the opgave rolls I circulated before
took up 3 reading positions when open), bound into volumes so thick
that they can't be opened flat (this is where the wills are bound
in), and many are in poor condition (especially the ship's logs). The
binding was done by the VOC, back when the documents were current,
and many seem to be collected in the order in which they came to
hand.
They hold several kilometers of VOC records, only a small
amount of which relates to the Cape Colony (and with the ethnic
spread in the Netherlands, the Indonesian stuff attracts far more
attention). They do have their index on line on their web site
http://www.archief.nl/ . I would be very interested to hear how
they respond to a query or request from abroad (as opposed to me
turning up at their desk).
I'm busy doing some volunteer translation work for them (dutch >
english) and have been hoping that the good will this builds up will
give me access with a digital camera.
Lesley Robertson

********************************************************************
Dr Lesley A. Robertson CBiol FIBiol
Kluyver Laboratory for Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology,
Julianalaan 67, 2628BC, Delft,The Netherlands
tel 31 15 2782421; fax 31 15 2782355; email .

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