SOUTH-AFRICA-L Archives

Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2001-10 > 1004400688


From: Keith Meintjes <>
Subject: Re: [Collingwood / De Vere / De Villiers Family]
Date: 29 Oct 2001 19:11:28 EST


Gordon,

You seem to have exhausted every avenue I can quickly look at. I have two
suggestions:

The SA Archives: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm

Search on the RSA database. I was surprised to see that de Vere really is an
SA surname. You will have to wade through all the citations due to
Collingwood being a street name, etc.

Second, look at the microfilms for St. Georges Church in Cape Town, Those for
the Military Chaplain. These have been omitted from many indexes, although
many military people stayed in SA and became settlers.

By the way, I have the de Villiers Family history. There is no record of a
marriage of a de Villiers to a Collingwood. There is no de Vere family in the
standard SA work, de Villiers / Pama.

Keith
MI, USA.

==============
"Gordon Collingwood" <> wrote:
Hi everyone out there,

I am researching the family and ancestors of my ggrandfather, William
Frederick De Vere Collingwood.

William Frederick De Vere Collingwood's details are as follows:

(i) Born c1850 in the Cape of Good Hope (I realise the Cape Province covered
about 3/4 of South
Africa until 1994);

(ii) Father - unknown Collingwood, a mariner;

(iii) Mother - Maria (pronounced Mariah) unknown maiden name. Was South
African born -
Maria De Vere or Maria De Villiers?

(iv) The family grew grapes and citrus in the Cape;

(v) William Frederick held a commission in the Royal Navy in South Africa.
One of his brothers was a
lieutenant in the Royal Navy and another brother was a doctor on the
same ship. His brothers lived
with their wives in Cape Town.

(vi) On leaving the navy (or jumping ship?) William Frederick settled in Port
Chalmers, Dunedin,
New Zealand and married Jessie Auld Mason in 1877 and started our New
Zealand Collingwood
line.

I have been told since childhood that we are direct descendants of Admiral
Lord Collingwood, who was Lord Nelson's second in command at the Battle of
Trafalgar in 1805. However as far as I can tell the line died out with the
death of Lord Collingwood's daughter Sarah in 1851. Lord Collingwood had no
sons. I now think that this is a cock-in-bull story.

I have checked Royal Navy records in England but William Frederick and his
brother's don't exist.
I have checked baptism records in Cape Town and outlying areas in churches of
all denominations without success.

My latest theory is that William Frederick or generations before him changed
their name, by deed poll or not. I have checked for deed poll name changes in
New Zealand without success. I have yet to check South Africa.

Cousins of my father remember my great uncle talking of his relations the De
Villiers in South Africa. Our name is possibly - De Vere, Vere, De Villiers,
Villers.

Has anyone any research ideas to unravel this mystery.

Regards

Gordon Collingwood




==== SOUTH-AFRICA Mailing List ====
**********************************************************
To access the South African Genealogy List Archives go to:
http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
and then type in South-Africa and hit the submit button.
{Don't forget the hyphen (-) in South-Africa}


This thread: