7 doors · 57 things that could be settled behind them · 23 letters, 10 still owed an answer

Errands

Four questions in this archive now end at a building rather than a search box. This page is what somebody standing at each door could settle, with the references written out so nobody has to find them twice.

Why this page exists

Four separate questions in this archive now end at a door rather than a screen. This page is what somebody standing at each of those doors could settle, with the references written out so they do not have to be looked up again.

Everything on this site was read from Australia, off microfilm, through a browser. That has taken the work a long way and it has now stopped in four specific places — not for want of searching, but because the records are restricted, unfilmed, or catalogued in a way no name search can reach.

Thirteen letters have gone out and three have been answered; ten more are drafted and unsent. The letters, and what came back ↓ If you are near any of these buildings, or know somebody who is, the references below are complete and every one has been checked against a catalogue or a film. Sources →

National Archives Repository, Pretoria

Private Bag X236, Pretoria 0001 · (+27) 12 441 3207 · enquiries2@dsac.gov.za

National Archives Repository, Pretoria — Estate files whose FamilySearch films refuse to serve images — film 007830063 and every film after it returns 403, and those are exactly the ones running to 1946 and later. A letter went on 13 September 2026 and has not been answered; a private researcher was engaged on the 16th and stood down on the 20th. THIS LIST HAS BEEN CUT BY MORE THAN HALF, ON PURPOSE. Every death notice on it was tested first against the FamilySearch Family Tree, Geni and the MyHeritage capture, and three came out answerable for nothing. What is left is either something no tree holds, or something a tree asserts that only a document can prove — and each item below says which.

Each was tested against the free trees first. These are the ones that came back empty, or came back contradicted.

Reference: — THE THREE DEATH NOTICES THAT SURVIVED THE CHECK —

THE BIGGEST SINGLE QUESTION AVAILABLE AT THIS DEPOT, and a single page. Surviving spouse Hester Gertina Susanna born Joubert. “Downing” is carried here as a FORENAME — it was the maiden name of Margaret Downing, who married the 1820 Settler at Shoreditch in 1819 — and if this notice names his father it may tie the Transvaal Kolbes to the Settler directly, which everything in this archive reaches by inference and nothing else. WHY IT SURVIVED THE CHECK: he was not found on the FamilySearch tree — but that tree's search is scored, not filtered (narrow queries return 27,656 and 110,097 rows), so a nil return there means nothing at all. Untested rather than answered.

Reference: TAB MHG 40293 — KOLBE, FREDERICK FORTUNATUS DOWNING, 1918

From the second marriage — the thinnest branch in this archive. Married Isabella Frederika Coetsee at Middelburg in 1896. WHY IT SURVIVED: FamilySearch G5DK-WZS has him, with the right birth — 19 January 1870, Middelburg — and gives parents only. No death, no wife, no children. The tree is silent on everything this notice would give.

Reference: TAB MHG 5155/51 — GERT JACOBUS BOOYZEN, b. 19 Jan 1870

Railway clerk, Forest Hill. His wife's file, MHG 2945/44, is read. In the direct line. WHY IT SURVIVED, AND IT IS NOT THE REASON ORIGINALLY GIVEN: his children are already known. But the MyHeritage capture gives his death as 21 FEBRUARY 1947 where this archive has 11 DECEMBER 1947 off the Johannesburg burial register, with burial on the 14th. One of the two is wrong and only his own death notice settles which. A document proving what a tree asserts wrongly.

Reference: TAB MHG 1095/48 — GEORGE DOWNING MOUNTJOY BOOYZEN, 1947

Court papers, school correspondence, war-compensation claims and state files. No family tree holds any of these, so they were never candidates for the check and they stand as they were.

Reference: — THE ITEMS NO TREE COULD EVER ANSWER —

FOUND 16 SEPTEMBER AND NOT YET ON ANY LIST. The marriage transcriptions hold “1895 · JAN GERHARDUS SODEUNICUS BOOYZEN × ANTONETTA PETRONELLA MAGDALENA SNYMAN” — the same couple, married 1895, divorced 1903. This archive holds a JAN GERHARDUS LODEWICUS BOOYSEN BORN 4 DECEMBER 1855 of whom it has said for months that nothing is known of what became of him, and a JGL BOOYZEN signing the money papers of a farm school at Kwaggafontein in 1898–99. THREE SIGHTINGS IN ONE DECADE AND NO PROOF THEY ARE ONE MAN. WANTED: the summons and any order — a divorce summons gives the date and place of marriage, the residence, and usually the children. Reference confirmed on NAAIRS: DEPOT TAB, SOURCE WLD, VOLUME_NO 0, REFERENCE 302/1903.

Reference: TAB WLD 302/1903 — ILLIQUID CASE. DIVORCE. JAN GERHARDUS LODEWICUS BOOYSEN vs ANTONETTA PETRONELLA MAGDALENA (born SNYMAN)

THE SEVEN MARICO COMPENSATION CLAIMS, 1903–04. Read on the index today and they give nothing but initials: JPJ, PJ, GL, JPJ, L, JC, HE BOOYZEN. No forename, no farm, no amount, no remarks. THE INDEX LINE IS THE WHOLE RECORD and no screen anywhere will improve it. Seven thin files in one building. What is wanted from each is the claimant's full name, his farm and his field-cornetcy — enough to say whether any of the seven is this family. GL is the one to open first.

Reference: TAB CJC 906/76, 906/77, 907/104, 907/109, 907/123, 907/125, 907/126

FORTY-EIGHT DOCUMENTS of one farm school in Marico, eight of them signed by a JGL BOOYZEN. What is wanted is his SIGNATURE and his FULL NAME — the head of a letter gives initials, the foot of one gives a name. OR262/98 (the subsidy application), OR6919/98 (the £61-6-0 deficit) and OR7499/99 (the £8 argument) are the three most likely to carry it. If he signs Jan Gerhardus Lodewicus, the man born 4 December 1855 stops being a blank.

Reference: TAB OD — the Kwaggafontein school file, 1897–1900, and OR13059/97 with it

THE SCHOOL ON THIS FAMILY'S OWN FARM. Its money papers are signed DS. BOOYSEN and DS BOOIJSEN. ONE QUESTION ONLY: is DS. a pair of initials — David Schalk — or the Dutch Ds., for dominee? One glance at a signature answers it. OR2037/99 is the letter about school materials for orphans and is the one worth copying whatever the answer.

Reference: TAB OD OR19199/98, OR19484/98 and OR2037/99 — Vaalbank, district Lichtenburg

A DIFFERENT SOURCE, SAME BUILDING — SAB, not TAB. A farm owner at Barkly East and his son, both R.P.K. Barry, with a state file between them. This archive holds one RICHARD PIETER KOLBE BARRY born 1899 and cannot say which of the two he is. WANTED: whatever states ages or relationship — one page will do. VWR is the Department of Social Welfare.

Reference: SAB VWR 2, B645/8/38, 1937 — “AANSOEK DEUR PLAASEIENAAR. BARKLY-OOS. RPK BARRY. BYWONER RPK BARRY (SEUN).”

DAVID SCHALK BOOIJZEN (born Cradock, 9 June 1848) — alive and fifty-six at GOEDEHOOP, PRETORIA on 27 November 1905 and lost to this archive from that day. NO estate file and NO civil death can be found for him, and none for his second wife JOHANNA ELENA born STOLS, widow Lowies, either. If the Master's own estate index at Pretoria carries either of them, that is the answer. Their two known estate numbers are 4795 (his first wife, 1900) and 7081 (her first husband, 1905), so the pair were certainly known to that office.

Reference: An index search, not a file — DAVID SCHALK BOOIJZEN

JACOBUS NICHOLS BOOYZEN, 1923. CORRECTED 22 SEPTEMBER: this archive had it as a doubtful reference and it is not. Anne Brest found it on NAAIRS on 15 September, sent the link, and explained the thing that had been read as a fault: the year suffix is simply absent on some references of that period. This archive could not find it on microfilm and is not name-indexed under any Booyzen spelling — both true, and neither meant the reference was wrong. WANTED: the file, and the death notice in it. He is the eldest of the eight on the 1863 death notice and the only “Major” on that list.

Reference: TAB MHG 52653 — A FILE, located by the researcher on NAAIRS

Three were on this list on 15 September and are not now. Each was answered without the archive, and each is recorded so the work is not repeated.

Reference: — DROPPED, AND WHY, SO NOBODY ORDERS THEM AGAIN —

Wanted for her parents, and called on 15 September “the most wanted page in this list”. HER PARENTS WERE ALREADY HERE: baptised at BARKLY OOST, 24 MAY 1891, ENTRY 120, and her brother Henry James at Barkly East in 1887 with the register naming Willem Hermanus Booÿsen and Catharina Maria Sophia Barry outright. The stated reason had been answered for a fortnight and the row still carried it.

Reference: DROPPED · TAB MHG 3734/46 — CATHERINE MARY SOPHIA DASCHNER

Wanted for his children, because his Brakpan gravestone says “aan ons vader” and this archive could not name one of them. FamilySearch M87R-4X4 names TEN, with a wife — Margritha Maria Susanna Poole, 1886–1947 — and a birth and death (26 April 1884; 23 January 1952 at Delmas) that match the gravestone to the day. The two eldest are Willem Hermanus and Catharina Maria Sophia, his own parents’ names, which is this family’s documented naming pattern and is the check that the profile is really him. A tree, so not proof — but paying for ten names that can be read for nothing is buying the wrong thing.

Reference: DROPPED · TAB MHG 769/52 — JOHN BARRY BOOYZEN

Already the most documented man of his generation here: baptism (Barkly East, 12 August 1887, register naming both parents), marriage, death, burial, and a cause of death corrected twice off a pension form. A death notice would repeat what five documents already say.

Reference: DROPPED · TAB MHG 10/57 — HENRY JAMES BOOYZEN

Wanted to “confirm he is a son of Catherine Mary Sophia Daschner”. He already is: he sits among the eleven children, and two independent sources agree on him — the eGGSA stone (“DASCHNER WILLIE 1915–1963 & MILLIE HARDING 1926–2004”, West Park) and the NAAIRS estate index. What remains is his own children, and he is a collateral. Lowest value on the list; dropped.

Reference: DROPPED · TAB MHG 2703/63 — DASCHNER, WILLIAM HERMAN

FLAGGED AS PROBABLY WRONG. This archive has carried “TAB MHG O/2899, Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen, d. 25 May 1885, Vaalbank, district Lichtenburg” for days, and on 16 September it WOULD NOT REPRODUCE ON NAAIRS under BOOIJSEN, BOOYSEN or BOOIJZEN paired with Gerhardus, Lodewicus or Lodewikus. The estate may exist under a spelling not yet tried, or the reference may be a rendering rather than a call number. IT IS NOT WORTH AN HOUR OF ANYBODY'S MORNING until this archive can produce it from the index itself.

Reference: TAB MHG O/2899 — DO NOT HUNT FOR THIS ONE

20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — A VISIT WAS BOOKED AND THEN STOOD DOWN, AND THIS LIST IS WHY. A private researcher, Anne Brest, was engaged on 16 September and was to go on Tuesday the 22nd. She was asked not to, two days out, and Invoice 463 was set aside. The reason given to her was the true one: the list had been changed four times in five days, and on checking it properly two of the six files turned out to be answerable from sources this archive already had. She would have spent the day photographing at least one file nobody needed. What was promised in exchange was one list, every item checked first. This is it. THE RULE IT WAS BUILT ON: a tree gives you names to look for; a death notice gives you proof. Both are worth having, but they are not worth the same money, and an item survives here only if it says which of the two it is buying. AND THE TEST HAS A TRAP IN IT: FamilySearch's tree search is scored, not filtered — narrow queries return tens of thousands of rows — so “not found there” is never evidence of anything. Two items survive on exactly that basis and say so. — — — 15 SEPTEMBER 2026: Ms Mavis Xaba, Archivist Assistant in the Reading Room, replied to the letter of 12 September: “ALL THE ESTATE FILES YOU ARE REQUESTING ARE BOUND FILES. UNFORTUNATELY, WE ARE THEREFORE UNABLE TO SCAN THESE FILES AND PROVIDE COMPLETE DIGITAL COPIES BY EMAIL.” She did not say any reference was wrong — including MHG 52653. She named the private researcher.

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository

231 Pietermaritz Street · Private Bag X9012, Pietermaritzburg 3200 · 033 342 4712 · fax 033 394 4353 · The Provincial Archivist — and the EMAIL IS IN DOUBT: the National Archives' own page gives pmbarchives@dact.kzntl.gov.za on a record last touched in 2015, and kzntl.gov.za is a retired provincial domain; current listings give pmbarchives@kzndac.gov.za. Post it, or telephone first and ask.

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository — SIX NATAL ESTATE FILES, and until today this archive had two. FamilySearch's filmed Natal probate series stops at 1950 and every one of these is later, so there is no screen that will ever show them. The address is now CHECKED against the repository's own entry. A letter is DRAFTED AND NOT SENT — requests/pietermaritzburg-archives-natal-estates.md. Four of the six were found on 14 September, two of them by learning who two women already in this archive's search log actually were.

KOLBE, FREDERIK FORTUNATUS HOFMEYR, born NAAUWPOORT, WAKKERSTROOM. The Settler's son's name in a fourth generation.

Reference: NAB MSCE 2032/1969

KOLBE, HENDRIK JOHANNES HOFMEYR, born WAKKERSTROOM.

Reference: NAB MSCE 965/1956

BEUKES, PETRONELLA JACOBA ADRIANA, BORN KOLBE, BORN IN COLESBERG — now known to be the seventh of Frederik Fortunatus Kolbe's eight children, baptised at Colesberg 18 November 1877.

Reference: NAB MSCE 131/1959

OOSTHUIZEN, PIERRE FRANCOIS, born Colesberg, spouse ADRIANA HENRIETTA JOHANNA, BORN KOLBE — the youngest of the eight, baptised at Bethulie 23 October 1881. HER HUSBAND'S FILE, NOT HERS, so the page wanted is the one naming spouse and children.

Reference: NAB MSCE 414/1960

BARRY, HENRY JAMES KOLBE, BORN IN BARKLY EAST, UNMARRIED. A Barry forename and a Kolbe surname in one man — and dying unmarried, his file should name parents or siblings rather than a widow. THE MOST WANTED PAGE IN THIS LIST.

Reference: NAB MSCE 2183/1958

MOUNTJOY, CHRISTIAN, BORN IN BARKLY EAST, surviving spouse a Mountjoy.

Reference: NAB MSCE 600/1974

FOUND 15 SEPTEMBER, AFTER THE LETTER WAS DRAFTED. A SECOND Barkly East Mountjoy who died in Natal, alongside Christian Mountjoy already on this list. Barkly East is the town this family farmed in from about 1859, and two people leaving it for Natal is a pattern rather than an accident. Her death notice should name her parents.

Reference: NAB MSCE 581/1973 — SHOOTER, MATHILDA ELIZABETH, BORN MOUNTJOY, BORN IN BARKLY EAST

THE WIFE OF A MAN ALREADY ON THIS LIST. MSCE 965/1956 is his; this is hers, twenty-two years earlier, and it gives him a wife's name and maiden surname this archive did not have. IF ONLY ONE OF THE TWO CAN BE COPIED, HERS IS EARLIER AND MORE LIKELY TO NAME HIS PARENTS.

Reference: NAB MSCE 21335/1934 — KOLBE, JOHANNA MARIA, BORN POTGIETER, spouse HENDRIK JOHANNES HOFMEYR KOLBE

THE COUPLE THIS ARCHIVE DERIVED FROM BAPTISM REGISTERS, CONFIRMED FROM THE OTHER END. Frederik Fortunatus Kolbe, born Bethulie 1839, the Settler's tenth child, married Elizabeth Johanna du Toit — and both their estates are in Natal. His file is cross-referenced to hers in the index. WANTED: his death notice, which should name HIS parents and settle whether the Natal Kolbes descend from the Settler.

Reference: NAB MSCE 8509/1923 and 15161/1929 — ELIZABETH JOHANNA KOLBE, BORN DU TOIT, and FREDERICK FORTUNATUS KOLBE

A seventh is worth adding if anyone is already in the building: NAB MSCE 4064/1974, BOOYZEN, NICOLAAS THEODORUS, BORN IN WAKKERSTROOM. This archive expects that to be a coincidence of surname and town and would like to be told so.

Free State Archives Repository, Bloemfontein

VAB — the depot this archive had never opened until 15 September 2026

Free State Archives Repository, Bloemfontein — COMMANDANT JOHN GERSON ELIEZAR KOLBE died in the Orange Free State in 1868 leaving TWELVE CHILDREN, and this archive cannot name one of them. Two files in Bloemfontein would answer it. Neither is filmed and neither is name-indexed beyond the line quoted here.

A MEMOIR BY A MAN OF THIS FAMILY, AND THE ONLY ONE KNOWN TO EXIST. Cited by Fransjohan Pretorius, Military History Journal Vol. 8 No. 3, at page 78 — so it is a document of some length, not a note. If it is Willem Johannes Kolbe (1847–1941), the Settler's grandson who led the Bloemfontein commando, it is a grandson of the Settler describing his own life in his own words, and it may name his brothers and sisters — which is the twelve-children question. WANTED: page 78, the extent of the item, and any recorded author or date. THE IDENTIFICATION RESTS ON INITIALS and is not proved: a Renier-versameling at Pretoria lists correspondence with a “P Kolbe”, so the collection is split across depots and the collector dealt with more than one Kolbe. The journal prints “Al 19”; read as A1 19.

Reference: VAB A1 19, Renier-versameling, No. 244 — Herinneringe van genl. W J Kolbe, p. 78

KOLBE, JOHN GERSON ELEAZAR. Eggenote ANNA JACOBA (gebore VAN DER MERWE), 1868. The Settler's eldest son — Commandant of the district, J.P., director of the Bloemfontein Bank. THE DEATH NOTICE SHOULD LIST THE TWELVE CHILDREN.

Reference: VAB MHG K71

MCCABE, ANNA JACOBA, nooiensvan VAN DER MERWE, eggenote JOHN GHERSON [Kolbe], 1896. HIS WIDOW, UNDER HER SECOND HUSBAND'S NAME, twenty-eight years on. Her notice should name the same children as adults — which is better, because it would give their married surnames. 20 SEPTEMBER — AND IT NOW HAS SOMETHING TO BE CHECKED AGAINST. Two collaborative trees name the Commandant’s children and give Anna Jacoba van der Merwe as 1824–1896, which matches this estate’s year exactly. Trees are not evidence and none of the twelve is adopted here — but ordering a document you can check beats ordering one you cannot.

Reference: VAB MHG M777

HIS OWN WORDS, IF THEY WERE MINUTED. The Commandant's obituary says that on his deathbed he told the doctor and the others present THAT THIS STATE HAD TAKEN TOO MUCH LAND FROM THE BASUTOS, that he had always thought so AND HAD SAID SO IN THE RAAD, and begged them to rescind the resolution and treat with the Governor for an equitable boundary. If the May 1867 session minuted him, that is a man's political position in his own voice, a year before he died of a war he thought unjust. The printed Notulen are held here and are not online — HathiTrust has some years and is behind bot protection, and this archive will not go around that.

Reference: The Volksraad minutes for MAY 1867 — Notulen der Verrigtingen van den Hoogedelen Volksraad

THE OTHER WAY INTO THE TWELVE. He married the Commandant's widow about April 1871 and died fifteen months later leaving “a widow, four sons and two daughters, BESIDES A LARGE FAMILY OF STEP-CHILDREN”. Those step-children are the twelve. An executor listing them by name would answer from the opposite side to VAB MHG M777, which is not readable online. NAAIRS was down when this was raised and the reference has not been looked up.

Reference: VAB estate of FRANCIS McCABE, Landdrost of Bloemfontein, d. 23 February 1872

C129 names both wives — MARIA PETRONELLA ELISABETHA ANTOINETTA RAATH and ANNA GEBORE VAN DER MERWE. WANTED: the heirs, and any list of children or step-children, which is the whole point. DO NOT TRAVEL FOR BC11: the index says outright “BEVAT GEEN STERFKENNIS NIE”, it contains no death notice, and the depot has saved somebody a wasted morning by writing it down. 20 SEPTEMBER — THIS ONE IS NOW WORTH MORE THAN IT WAS. C129 names McCabe’s first wife as MARIA PETRONELLA ELISABETHA ANTOINETTA RAATH. This archive separately holds a Bloemfontein baptism of 1890 naming a mother MARIA PETRONELLA ELIZABETH ANTOINETTA McCABE — the same four-part name, carrying McCabe as a surname. She is almost certainly his daughter by Raath, named for her mother entire, and she married a Frederik Fortunatus Kolbe. If the Kolbe she married is the Commandant’s son, a stepbrother married a stepsister nine years after their parents’ eleven-month marriage. WHAT IS WANTED FROM C129 IS PRECISELY THE LIST OF DAUGHTERS, which would prove it.

Reference: VAB MHG C129 — FRANCIS McCABE, 1872, and VAB 1/3/1/12 BC11, his insolvent estate

LEONORA STEENKAMP born KOLBE · MARGARET DOWNING FICK born KOLBE · GEORGINA AUGUSTA DE WET born KOLBE · JACOBUS WYNAND LOUW KOLBE · GEORGE AUGUSTUS KOLBE · CATHARINA ELIZABETH MALAN born KOLBE. SIX PEOPLE OF ONE SURNAME APPLYING TOGETHER IS A SIBLING GROUP, and applications like this are usually about a parent's estate — so the file should name the parent. THE FIRST FREE STATE KOLBE SIBLING GROUP THIS ARCHIVE CAN NAME AT ALL. 15 SEPTEMBER — THE PARENTS ARE NOW NAMED, ON AN INFERENCE THE FILE WOULD SETTLE. VAB MHG K1431 gives “KOLBE, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, EGGENOTE HESTER JACOBA JACOMINA (GEBORE LOUW)”, 1905, and VAB MHG 1/2/1/1 KS3 puts her estate UNDER CURATORSHIP that same year — which is what happens when there are minor children. One of the six applicants is JACOBUS WYNAND LOUW KOLBE, carrying his mother's maiden name, and another is GEORGE AUGUSTUS KOLBE, carrying his father's. IF THE 1931 FILE NAMES A PARENT, IT SHOULD NAME ONE OF THOSE TWO — and K1431 and 27114 are then the two estates to read next.

Reference: VAB HG 4/2/1/1/456, 702/1931 — six Kolbes applying to the court together

Also worth an hour while anyone is in the building: the Free State Volksraadsnotule for MAY 1867, the “corn peace”, in which he spoke against the boundary — and the farms LEEUWBERG, where he died, and KAALSPRUIT, where he settled about 1850 and lies. 21 September — the first three of these are now in one letter, requests/free-state-archives-kolbe-three.md: the memoir, M777 and K71. The rest of this list is deliberately held back, and the letter asks the repository whether they would rather have them in the same order or separately.

Western Cape Archives, 72 Roeland Street, Cape Town

021 483 4000 · Reading Room Mon–Fri 08:00–16:00 · archives.clientservices@westerncape.gov.za

Western Cape Archives, 72 Roeland Street, Cape Town — Two documents that would break the oldest wall in this archive, and one series that cannot be searched by name from anywhere. A letter went on 9 September 2026 and has not been answered.

THE OLDEST DOCUMENT THIS FAMILY HAS, AND THE ONE IT OWES MOST. The index line names ELEVEN ENSLAVED PEOPLE of the household — Silvia, Lena, Sara, Janna, Dorinda, Fortuijn, Meij and Februarij van de Caab; Dijk and Farla van Madagascar; Achilles van Mallabaar. WANTED ENTIRE: every name and valuation on the list, and the HEIRS, because if the heirs include a Jan then this archive's direct line runs straight through this document. The TANAP transcription project put these inventories online and its database no longer resolves, so there is no screen route left. ALSO WANTED: MOOC 8/56.16a and 16b (Zacharias Booijsen, Graaff Reinet, 1805 and 1806), MOOC 8/42.46 (Aletta Booyzen, Graaff Reinet, 1820), MOOC 8/46.59 (Jan Lowies Booijsen, Onder Roggeveld, 1831) and MOOC 8/48.32 (Piet Booijsens, 1832).

Reference: MOOC 8/18.11 — the inventory of GERRIT BOOIJSEN, 13 December 1781, Drakenstein

ANSWERED 18 SEPTEMBER 2026 AND OFF THIS LIST. Melanie Geustyn, Senior Librarian at the National Library of South Africa, sent all four pages three days after the enquiry went in, together with a two-page draft DSAB entry by Karel Schoeman that was in the Background File. The question this errand was written to answer — whether the letter carries a London address — is answered NO: the heading is “London” and nothing finer, so Brunswick Square against Conduit Street is still open. Nobody needs to stand at this door for it. Left here, answered, rather than deleted, because an errand that quietly vanishes teaches nothing.

Reference: ANSWERED · SA LIBRARY, CAPE TOWN — MSB751, the GA Kolbe Collection

THE SINGLE LINE THAT ENDS THE OLDEST QUESTION ON THIS SITE. De Villiers (1893) and de Villiers & Pama (1981) both place him under JAN Booijsen; the 1876 Rustenburg Sterfkennis names his father GERTHARDUS LÖDEWIKUS. De Villiers is not a source, he is an INDEX TO ONE — his entry was compiled from the Dutch Reformed baptism register. THE REGISTER ENTRY ITSELF names the father in a contemporary hand, written within days, by somebody with no reason to be confused. Congregation not yet established: the family is at Graaff-Reinet by 1812 but b3c4 Jan was a burgher at Drakenstein. Graaff-Reinet, Drakenstein and Stellenbosch doopregisters for September 1788 are the three to try, in that order.

Reference: THE BAPTISM OF 21 SEPTEMBER 1788 — Petrus Jacobus Booijsen

JAMES MOUNTJOY's wills of 1818 and 1827, joint with ANNA CATHARINA SLIER. A Cape will of 1818 very often states where the testator came from, and every other document for this man leaves it blank.

Reference: MOOC 7/1/104: 42 and 43

A Colonial Office memorial of 1834 — “the widow of J Mountjoy, requesting remission of a fine”. A petition in her own voice.

Reference: CO 3972: 17

The 1845 will of JOHANNA CATHARINA MONTJOY, made eighteen years before she died. Not name-indexed and not evidently filmed.

Reference: MOOC 7/1/268: 87

The 1866 liquidation account for her estate. It would divide it among eight children and give the daughters their married surnames.

Reference: MOOC 13/1/221: 6

KAB, source NA, volume 564, reference A1068 onward. CATALOGUED BY SUB-COMMISSIONER, NOT BY CLAIMANT — so no search from outside the building can reach it. The question is whether any BOOYZEN or BARRY of Barkly East, Lady Grey or Wodehouse claimed. This is the burned-farm question, and it has never been properly asked.

Reference: The WAR LOSSES COMPENSATION COMMISSION, 1902

WERDMULLER, COENRAAD JOHANNES OTTO. DEATH NOTICE, 1882. THE PAGE THAT WOULD CLOSE THE WERDMULLER QUESTION: it lists his children, and would say whether CHARLES ANDREW is a son of AUGUSTA LOUISA KOLBE — and so whether a Victoria Cross married a great-granddaughter of the 1820 Settler.

Reference: KAB MOOC 6/9/187, 4160

WERDMULLER, AUGUSTA LOUISA (NEE KOLBE). DEATH NOTICE, 1873. The Settler's fourth daughter. Should name her children and her parents.

Reference: KAB MOOC 6/9/145, 9981

KOLBE, AUGUSTA LOUISA, WIFE OF COENRAAD JOHANNES OTTO WERDMULLER VAN ELGG. WILL, made 1868, filed 1873.

Reference: KAB MOOC 7/1/332, 205

The compensation registers are the errand nobody can do remotely. Everything else on this list is a copy request.

Grahamstown (Makhanda) — the Master's office, the Eastern Districts, and the Albany Museum

Records now held by the National Archives; the FamilySearch collections index them as “Grahamstown, Albany”.

Grahamstown (Makhanda) — the Master's office, the Eastern Districts, and the Albany Museum — Discovered on 13 September 2026 and never searched. John Barry's 1915 estate was administered HERE, not at Cape Town, which is why no member of this family appears in the Cape Master's Index of Estates 1834–1912.

He died 25 August 1903 and the estate was not reported for twelve years. The liquidation and distribution account would name every surviving child with their married surname — which is exactly what the Barry line needs and does not have.

Reference: JOHN BARRY, estate 1915, Grahamstown

Filed the same day, 29 March 1915, by another son.

Reference: MARGARETHA WILHELMINA ELIZABETH MARY KOLBE, d. 1912

The whole depot is unsearched by this archive.

Reference: Any BARRY, MOUNTJOY or BOOYZEN estate at Grahamstown

A SECOND INSTITUTION IN THE SAME TOWN, ADDED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026. Karel Schoeman's draft DSAB entry on the 1820 Settler lists among its sources: “Albany Museum, Grahamstad: fotokopie van die huwelikssertifikaat van G.A. Kolbe (1819)”. This archive holds the ALLEGATION and not the MARRIAGE — the sworn statement made to obtain the licence, which is where both parties swore to being “twenty-one years and upwards” when he was sixteen and she fifteen. A certificate gives the witnesses and the signatures, and the bride signed the allegation with a mark. The museum also keeps a genealogical archive of the 1820 British Settlers, which is exactly what he was — so the same visit should ask what else is filed under KOLBE or under OWEN'S PARTY. `info@am.org.za`; archives by appointment; a letter is drafted.

Reference: ALBANY MUSEUM, Somerset Street — the 1819 Kolbe–Downing marriage certificate

Two doors in one town, and the second one was not known until 20 September. The Master's office is the newest lead on the site and the least worked; the Albany Museum holds a document this archive has wanted since the marriage allegation was read.

Barkly East, Indwe and Dordrecht

North-eastern Cape. Dutch Reformed congregations at Barkly Oost, Indwe and Dordrecht; the district cemeteries.

Barkly East, Indwe and Dordrecht — Four farms and three churches, all documented, none photographed. Everything below was read off a film in Australia.

John Barry died here on 25 August 1903, aged 84, and was buried here. Harriet Louisa Barry, eighteen, was buried here in 1912. Margaretha Kolbe died here in 1915. THREE BURIALS IN TWELVE YEARS — is the ground still findable?

Reference: MANOROWEN

The other two named Barry farms. Cherryville is where Harriet died of typhoid.

Reference: CHERRYVILLE and JERPOINT

Where a Booyzen worked underground in 1908. The only mine in this archive attached to a named member of this family.

Reference: DUGMORE MINE, Indwe

THE INDEX HAS NOW BEEN READ; THE ORIGINALS HAVE NOT. On 19 September the FamilySearch index for Indwe and Barkly East was worked past 1910, and the useful discovery was about which book is which: Indwe is a LIDMATE ROLL — a membership register, not a baptism register — which is where a colliery town's incomers are written down and is a different book from the one this archive had assumed. It gave Johanna Catharina Mountjoy joining on 23 July 1907, seven weeks after Willem Hermanus Booijzen was confirmed in the same congregation on 31 May 1907. Two families this archive follows, in one small coal town, in one winter. It does not make them relatives; it makes them neighbours, which is a fact and was not one before. WHAT THE ORIGINALS WOULD STILL SETTLE: what became of Willem Hermanus Booyzen after 1907, which the index does not say.

Reference: The Indwe lidmaten and doop registers

Johanna Catharina Mountjoy died here in June 1911 — the church register says so and the civil index does not have her.

Reference: Indwe cemetery

Photographs of Manorowen, Cherryville and the Indwe workings would be the first images in this archive that are not of paper.

The National Archives, Kew — British Army records

Bessborough Road, Richmond TW9 4DU, United Kingdom · nationalarchives.gov.uk · Reading rooms Tue–Sat, free, ticket required

The National Archives, Kew — British Army records — THIS IS A NEW COUNTRY FOR THIS ARCHIVE AND IT IS HERE BECAUSE OF ONE SENTENCE IN A NEWSPAPER. John Montgomery, who lodged in his house at Cradock in January 1822, describes JAMES MOUNTJOY as “a saddler, WHO WAS DISCHARGED FROM THE 21ST LIGHT DRAGOONS”. James Montjoy's own death notice answers the question “names of the parents of the deceased” with NOT KNOWN, and his 1817 marriage register rules a line through the column that should say where he came from. Nobody at the Cape knew, because he did not arrive as a settler — he arrived in uniform. The army knew.

THE DISCHARGE PAPER. Arranged by regiment for discharges before 1855. It gives the man's PARISH AND COUNTY OF BIRTH, his age at enlistment, his trade before enlisting, his service and the reason for discharge. A saddler born about 1782 and a civilian at the Cape by 1817 — he married at Graaff-Reinet on 9 March 1817 — should be discharged in the years either side of that. ONE PAGE ENDS A QUESTION THIS SITE HAS CARRIED AS BLOCKING SINCE IT WAS WRITTEN. NOTE THE INDEX TRAP: on FindMyPast the same regiment sits under four different index strings holding different record series — “21st Dragoons” returned 342 records with no WO 97 among them, while “21st Regt Of Light Dragoons” returned 128 that were nothing else. A negative against one spelling is worthless, and the same is likely true of Kew’s own catalogue.

Reference: WO 97 — Royal Hospital Chelsea, soldiers' documents, 21st Light Dragoons

THE PIECE IS NOW NAMED, AND THE WINDOW IS FOUR QUARTERS WIDE. This errand used to say “WO 12” and mean the whole series. Two things narrowed it. First, the regiment left the Cape for India in SEPTEMBER 1817, not 1816 — printed in five London papers, the Sun, the Star, the Public Ledger and two others — and this archive had carried 1816 with no source behind it. So a man discharged at the Cape leaves the musters in 1816–17, and WO 12/1450 alone should contain the quarter he disappears from. Second, Discovery spells the regiment “21st Dragoons (Light)” and will not find it spelled any other way. A muster also carries the trooper’s name in the paymaster’s hand and the place of each quarterly muster, which is how a man who stayed behind is told from a man who sailed.

Reference: WO 12/1450 — muster books and pay lists, 21st Dragoons (Light)

Men discharged at the Cape rather than shipped home are the ones who stayed and married into the colony. If there is a list of them, James Mountjoy should be on it — and so, probably, should several other names this archive has met without explanation.

Reference: Anything on the regiment's disbandment at the Cape

THE LETTER IS WRITTEN AND CORRECTED TWICE. It has not been sent. requests/kew-21st-dragoons-mountjoy.md — the sending is David's, by Kew's enquiry form, by Live Chat (Tuesday to Saturday), or by anyone with a reader's ticket. It was wrong once and the error is worth remembering: an earlier draft asked for WO 12/1430, which is the 20th and 21st Dragoons for 1867–68 — fifty years out. Found by searching Discovery a second time rather than trusting the first answer. The subject line was also corrected, from “c.1816” to the question the letter actually asks. Kew's copying service and its independent-researcher list are both online, and neither has been costed. This is the archive's only errand outside South Africa.

Sent, and what came back

Every enquiry this archive has sent, what came back, and what is still owed. It existed in three places — prose on the open-questions page, entries in the research log, and drafts in a folder — and no one of them showed what was outstanding. Reconstructing it took a search of an inbox rather than a look at this site, which is the failure this page is here to stop.

Thirteen of the 23 have gone out and three have been answered; ten are still owed an answer and ten are drafted and unsent. The work list says who has to move what.

Date	To	Asking for	State
9 Sep 2026	Western Cape Archives, Cape Town	MOOC 7/1/104 refs 42 and 43, and CO 3972 ref 17 — the Mountjoy and Slier wills of 1818 and 1827, and the 1834 Colonial Office memorial from “the widow of J Mountjoy” Six days out. Not chased: a reading room that has had one working week is not late.	No answer
9 Sep 2026	Western Cape Archives, Cape Town	MOOC 6/9/17017 ref 1847/50 — the death notice of Robert Paul Lerena, d. 19 March 1950 Sent the same evening as the Mountjoy request.	No answer
9 Sep 2026	SANDF Documentation Centre, Pretoria	UDF service and pension records, Booyzen and Booysen, Barkly East and Johannesburg, 1914–1945 sandfdoc@mweb.co.za returned 550 relay access denied. archive@dod.mil.za did not bounce and has not answered. HALF-DELIVERED IS RECORDED AS HALF-DELIVERED, NOT AS SENT. 15 SEPTEMBER: LOOKED FOR A REPLACEMENT AND THERE ISN'T ONE. sandfdoc@mweb.co.za is the ONLY address the Documentation Centre publishes — it is the address on its own directory entries and on every guide that lists it — and it is dead. What is left is the telephone, (012) 339-4600, the Schweikert Building at 20 Visagie Street, and archive@dod.mil.za, which did not bounce. A PUBLISHED ADDRESS THAT BOUNCES IS WORSE THAN NO ADDRESS: every enquirer is sending into it and none of them knows.	Half delivered
12 Sep 2026	National Archives of South Africa, Pretoria	Six Transvaal estate files — TAB MHG 1095/48, 3734/46, 769/52, 5155/51, 10/57 and 52653 15 September, Ms Mavis Xaba, Reading Room: “ALL THE ESTATE FILES YOU ARE REQUESTING ARE BOUND FILES. Unfortunately, we are therefore unable to scan these files and provide complete digital copies by email.” Not a refusal — a physical fact about the record. She corrected none of the six references and put a private researcher on copy.	Answered
15 Sep 2026	Ms Mavis Xaba, National Archives, Pretoria	Thanks, and one question only — whether TAB MHG 52653 looks like a valid reference, since it carries no year suffix and is the one file never found on microfilm Framed so she can ignore it.	Sent
15 Sep 2026	A private researcher, Pretoria	The same six bound estate files — what she charges and how, her own view of whether the work is worth doing, and an offer to begin with one THE FIRST PAID-RESEARCH APPROACH THIS PROJECT HAS MADE. Everything before it went to an institution and waited. No payment details were sent and none will be: the letter asks her to name her own arrangement.	Sent
14 Sep 2026	Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository	Six Natal estate files — NAB MSCE 2032/1969, 965/1956, 131/1959, 414/1960, 2183/1958 and 600/1974 DELIBERATELY NOT SENT. The National Archives' own record gives pmbarchives@dact.kzntl.gov.za on an entry last touched in 2015 and kzntl.gov.za is a retired domain; other listings give pmbarchives@kzndac.gov.za. The postal address and the telephone agree everywhere. This archive has already posted one enquiry into a mailbox it could not confirm. 15 SEPTEMBER, AND THE REASON FOR HOLDING IT IS WEAKER THAN IT WAS: both domains ACCEPT MAIL. kzndac.gov.za and dact.kzntl.gov.za each have MX records and no website, which is an ordinary shape for a government department. A domain taking mail and a person reading the mailbox are different facts, so telephoning first is still the better plan — but “almost certainly dead” was more than the evidence supported.	Drafted
—	The National Archives, Kew	WO 97 and WO 12 for the 21st Light Dragoons — the discharge paper that would give James Mountjoy his parish of birth Raised 15 September, on one sentence in a newspaper. The first errand this archive has had outside South Africa. 15 SEPTEMBER — AND IT CANNOT BE POSTED AS AN EMAIL. The National Archives take records and research enquiries THROUGH A WEB FORM and publish no enquiry address; the domain has a mailbox but no address anybody is invited to write to. This archive does not send letters into mailboxes it cannot confirm — it has said so about Pietermaritzburg for two days and will not make an exception for itself. The letter is written and waiting on a decision about the form.	Drafted
—	The National Archives, Kew	Guidance on tracing James Mountjoy, a saddler discharged from the 21st Dragoons (Light) at the Cape in 1816 or 1817 — which series after WO 97, and whether WO 12/1430 is the musters to read DRAFTED AFTER SEARCHING, NOT INSTEAD OF IT. Discovery was searched for four spellings across the WO series: the name-catalogued discharge series hold two Montjoys and neither is this man. The control says the absence is real — 95 WO 97 records for “21st Dragoons (Light)” in a single page — so the letter asks whether the reading is right (pensioners' papers would not hold a man discharged at the Cape without a pension) and points at WO 12/1430 and the WO 25 description books. 15 SEPTEMBER — AND IT CANNOT BE POSTED AS AN EMAIL. The National Archives take records and research enquiries THROUGH A WEB FORM and publish no enquiry address; the domain has a mailbox but no address anybody is invited to write to. This archive does not send letters into mailboxes it cannot confirm — it has said so about Pietermaritzburg for two days and will not make an exception for itself. The letter is written and waiting on a decision about the form. ··· CORRECTED 17 SEPTEMBER, BEFORE POSTING. The draft named WO 12/1430 as the piece to read. THAT IS THE 20TH AND 21ST DRAGOONS FOR 1867–1868 — fifty years late and the re-raised regiment. The 21st Light Dragoons has its own run and the piece is WO 12/1450, 1816–1817. The draft now names it, gives the newspaper evidence for a SEPTEMBER 1817 departure, and tells them plainly that an earlier version had the wrong piece.	Drafted
15 Sep 2026	National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town	MSB751, the GA Kolbe Collection — a copy of the letter of 23 August 1830 from Johan Kolbe in London to his son — described by the catalogue as written on his ordination, which it was not, and whether it carries a London address SENT 15 September to specialcollections@nlsa.ac.za, after checking that the domain takes mail. A DIFFERENT BUILDING FROM THE ONE THIS ARCHIVE KEEPS WRITING TO: the library at 5 Queen Victoria Street, not the archives at 72 Roeland Street. It asks for the letter of 23 August 1830, for whether it carries a London address at its head, and for two things about the item itself — where the original is, since the catalogue calls this a photocopy, and whether “LMS missionary” comes from the papers or from the donor. THAT LAST QUESTION IS THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST: the only other evidence for his mission work is a recollection written down forty-five years later, and whether the two are independent witnesses or one family memory told twice is the difference between corroboration and an echo. ··· ANSWERED IN TWENTY-THREE HOURS, 16 SEPTEMBER, BY MELANIE GEUSTYN. “I have placed a request for the George Augustus Kolbe manuscript to be retrieved. THE MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS ARE KEPT IN OFF-SITE VAULTS, and it should get to my desk after 11:00 tomorrow. I HAVE ALSO ASKED THAT THE BACKGROUND FILE ON THE COLLECTION BE RETRIEVED FOR ME — hopefully there might be additional information regarding the donation there. Once I have these items at hand, I will be able to assist in answering your questions.” NO ANSWERS YET AND TWO THINGS ALREADY GAINED. The manuscript is not lost, not missing and not unfindable — it is in a vault and somebody has sent for it. AND THERE IS A BACKGROUND FILE, which this archive did not know existed: the library’s own paperwork on the 1985 donation, which is where an answer to “where is the original” and “who was Dr Jean Griffiths” would live if it lives anywhere. NOTHING TO REPLY TO YET; she has not asked a question and has said she will come back. ··· AND ON 18 SEPTEMBER THE DOCUMENT ITSELF ARRIVED — THREE DAYS AFTER THE ENQUIRY WENT IN. Melanie Geustyn sent the four-page manuscript and, unasked, a two-page DICTIONARY OF SOUTH AFRICAN BIOGRAPHY entry written by DR KAREL SCHOEMAN with a list of sources. THE LETTER DOES NOT CARRY A STREET ADDRESS — “London” and nothing finer — so the Brunswick Square question stands. IT DOES SETTLE THE OTHER ONE: the LMS acceptance is in the father’s own hand in 1830, independent of a memoir written forty-five years later. And it gives Henry’s dropsy, Elizabeth in Edinburgh, Charlotte by name, and the line that dates the obituary — “kind love from your SISTERS & BROTHER”. THE BACKGROUND FILE HOLDS NOTHING FURTHER on the donation or on Dr Griffiths, so the original cannot be traced from that end. The letter	Answered
20 Sep 2026	Melanie Geustyn, Senior Librarian, Special Collections, National Library of South Africa	A thank-you, telling her what MSB 751 produced — and two remaining questions: was the DSAB entry ever published, and did the catalogue’s “LMS missionary” come from the papers or the donor DRAFTED 20 September, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. It goes as a REPLY to her email of 18 September so it keeps the thread and the MSB 751 reference. THE ENQUIRY WENT IN ON 15 SEPTEMBER AND WAS ANSWERED ON THE 18TH — three days, the whole manuscript scanned, and a second document nobody had asked for. A special-collections librarian rarely learns what a request was for or whether it came to anything; this one came to a great deal. The letter says what it settled (the LMS acceptance in the father’s own hand, Henry dying of dropsy, “sisters & brother” dating the obituary’s eight sons) AND WHAT IT DID NOT — the heading is “London” and nothing finer, so Brunswick Square against Conduit Street is still open. It also tells her the second attachment corrected this archive. ONE QUESTION ONLY, AND MARKED OPTIONAL: the typescript is unsigned, initialled and dated 18/2/92, and the Library is the only body that can say who wrote it and whether the entry was ever published. This archive would rather credit it than publish it as anonymous.	Drafted
20 Sep 2026	Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh	CSWC 60 item 3 — a correction to the catalogue (Edinburgh calls Kolbe “a moravian missionary?”; he was LMS) and a request for a reproduction DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. REVISED 11 OCTOBER 2026 WITH A BETTER PROOF THAN IT HAD. The correction now leads with the London Missionary Society printing him as its own missionary, in its own magazine, the year before Bell drew him — Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, 1833, pp. 410–412, his letter over the signature G. A. KOLBE and his journal beneath it. It beats the other two sources for one practical reason: it is free, and the cataloguer can check it in a minute instead of taking an email from Australia on trust. The service dates were also repaired — the letter had repeated the DSAB’s 8 February 1828 acceptance as fact; it now gives April 1828 in the field and February 1829 formally accepted, and explains that his own letter reconciles the two. `heritagecollections@ed.ac.uk`	Drafted
20 Sep 2026	Albany Museum, Makhanda (Grahamstown)	The photocopy of the 1819 Kolbe–Downing marriage certificate named in the DSAB source list, and anything else filed under Kolbe or Owen’s party DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. The Albany Museum holds A GENEALOGICAL ARCHIVE OF THE 1820 BRITISH SETTLERS, and he was one — Algoa Bay, 14 April 1820, the Nautilus, Owen’s party, entered as a chemist. The letter quotes the DSAB source line verbatim in Afrikaans, explains why the CERTIFICATE is not the ALLEGATION this archive already holds (witnesses and signatures, and the bride signed the allegation with a mark), offers to pay any fee, says plainly that David cannot visit and asks whether there is a research service. AND IT ASKS A SECOND QUESTION: anything else under KOLBE or under OWEN’S PARTY, because what this archive has of his first four years at the Cape is one sentence in a secondary work.	Drafted
20 Sep 2026	Anne Brest, photographer-genealogist, Johannesburg	Stand down — don’t travel on Tuesday, put Invoice 463 aside, and a checked list to follow SENT 20 September 2026, as a reply on her own thread; Gmail message id `1a0bc8e25e24070d`. It asks her not to travel on Tuesday and to put Invoice 463 aside. Two reasons given, with the real one second: the transfer cannot arrive in time (her invoice rules out Wise and PayPal, and a bank transfer from Australia takes several working days), but mainly that the list has been changed too often — six files, then those six plus nineteen more across three unrelated families, then a reduced three, then a different three. And two of the six turned out to be answerable from sources already held: Catharina Maria Sophia Daschner’s parents from her 1891 Barkly Oost baptism, and John Barry Booyzen’s ten children from a public tree that matches his Brakpan gravestone to the day. She would have spent Tuesday photographing at least one file this archive did not need. NO DATE IS PROMISED AND NONE IS ASKED OF HER. The sequence set out is: one checked list → her price → payment before she travels → the visit. It offers to pay whatever the short notice has already cost her — a fee, or the hours spent arranging the files. She has arranged them twice. Cut from 506 words to 267 before sending, because a message whose whole content is an apology for wasting somebody’s time should not waste three paragraphs of it.	Sent
20 Sep 2026	Special Collections, SOAS Library — the Council for World Mission archive	Copies of four journals of George Augustus Kolbe, 1828–1834, and the incoming correspondence for 1835–1837 DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. REVISED 11 OCTOBER 2026, AND IT IS NARROWER THAN IT WAS. The Society’s own monthly turned out to be free and complete for 1828–1837, and the 1833 volume prints eleven months of his journal (8 Oct 1831 – 3 Sep 1832). That does not retire the letter — a printed extract is not the manuscript behind it, and this one is visibly cut, dropping into square brackets to summarise him rather than quote him. So the asks were re-ordered. /108 (6 Oct 1832 – Sep 1833) is promoted to second priority because the printed extracts stop six weeks before it starts, making it wholly unseen; /106 is now asked for as the parts the editor did not print, not as a copy of what can be downloaded; and /100, the November 1828 tour, is still entirely unseen — the monthly for 1828 and 1829 names him nowhere, which confirms the printed version is in the Transactions. The 1836 ask is better grounded too: Griqua Records has since been read, so what is missing is specifically what the Directors in London were told. `special.collections@soas.ac.uk`	Drafted
20 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — reply, accepting a part invoice	Accept her proposal to invoice for work already done and credit it against the new list — and withdraw an excuse she was right to reject SENT 20 September 2026, Gmail message id `1a0bdccfbbce6040`, as a reply on her own thread. SHE ANSWERED WITHIN FIVE HOURS AND SHE IS RIGHT TWICE. (1) “You didn’t give me notice at all, I told you last night that I had organized everything.” Her message came at 21:21 Saturday; the stand-down at 02:03 Sunday. Five hours is not notice. (2) “BANK payments from Australia usually take two days and I sent you the Invoice a day or two ago.” THE ‘SEVERAL WORKING DAYS’ LINE WAS THIS ARCHIVE’S AND IT WAS WRONG — reasoned from general knowledge about SWIFT instead of from the person who takes foreign payments weekly. The invoice was dated 16 September; had it been paid when promised, the money would have been with her. The reply withdraws that reason rather than defending it. WHAT SHE HAS ACTUALLY SPENT: an assistant paid upfront, who asked for security for his day; contact with Ms Xaba about the contents of the files; work on Ancestry; and a professional favour called in to have the files pulled in advance at preservation. HER PROPOSAL IS FAIR AND SHE IS NOT ASKING FOR THE R11,400 — a part invoice, credited against the new list. David’s own letter had already offered precisely this, so accepting is not a concession, it is the offer being taken up. The reply does not re-litigate anything. It answers the one line that deserved an answer — “I am actually not sure what the issue really is” — with the plain reason and the bad excuse removed: two of the six files were answerable from records already held, which is a failure of preparation and not of her work.	Sent
20 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — her answer, and Invoice 464	She halves the invoice, credits it against the new list, keeps the free file, and wants to carry on RESOLVED, AND WARMLY. “Thanks for being such a gentleman about this.” INVOICE 464: R11,400 ‘Reduced to half’ = R5,700, plus the R200 South African transaction deduction she asks to be added to the final total — R5,900, about A$510. And she will deduct it from the new list, so it is a credit rather than a write-off. The free file still stands. WHAT SHE ACTUALLY DID, which is more than arranging a day: “I went online and found information on my own”, and “I also organized that all the files were taken out of the strongroom (Vault) and that everything you wanted was contained in the said file. I didn’t want to go and maybe the file was not in its folder.” She had the files pulled and checked that the wanted pages were in them before travelling. She pays for that herself. Her assistant is named: TEBOGO, English name COLMAN. AND SHE HAS SOFTENED ON PAYMENT METHOD. Her objection to Wise is a five-page “mandate”, because clients pay anne brest photography while Wise wants AP Lapedus Brest — but “someone paid me Wise the other day and I didn’t have to sign the Mandate, it came straight through… maybe you need to ask your Bank.” Worth testing: Wise would be cheaper and faster than SWIFT. She is back in the office on Tuesday.	Answered
21 Sep 2026	MuseumAfrica, Newtown, Johannesburg	The Charles Bell watercolour of a church service at Philippolis, 1834, with Kolbe in the pulpit — the original behind Edinburgh’s photographic copy DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. THE SECOND HALF OF A PAIR, AND THE HARDER HALF. The DSAB sends a reader to the Africana Museum — now MuseumAfrica — for this watercolour, reproduced in The Journal of Andrew Smith, ed. Lye (Balkema, 1975). It could not be checked from a desk because MuseumAfrica has no searchable online catalogue, which is the whole reason this is a letter. It asks three things in order of usefulness: the accession number, a reproduction and its fee, and — if the sheet is not theirs — where it went, which would be worth as much as the picture. It offers the museum a way in that does not depend on Kolbe’s name, by naming the other four subjects in the same Bell series that Edinburgh catalogues: Archbell, Edwards, Pellissier, and a service at Ebenezer. A collection filed by artist or by expedition may find the group faster than it finds one missionary. SEND EDINBURGH FIRST AND NOT AS A PAIR — CSWC 60 item 3 is catalogued, identified and in a university archive that answers email, and anything it sends back makes this request sharper. This archive holds no likeness of anybody born before 1850.	Drafted
21 Sep 2026	Western Cape Archives, Cape Town — a second note	Chasing the two requests of 9–10 September: MOOC 7/1/104 refs 42 and 43 with CO 3972 ref 17, and MOOC 6/9/17017 ref 1847/50 DRAFTED AND DELIBERATELY HELD. It is not to be sent before the end of September, which is what row 48 says: two requests went on 9–10 September, and at the end of the month they are three weeks out, which is the point a second note stops being impatient. Both are in one letter because both went to the same address on the same evening — chasing them separately would make two enquiries out of one. It offers to make the order SMALLER rather than repeat it: the first page of each will, and the memorial's first page and signature, would answer the questions on their own. And it gives the reading room an easy way to close it — three of the four references came from NAAIRS and one from a secondary citation, so if a reference does not resolve, saying so is a complete and welcome answer. A reading room is not late; it is busy, and South African institutions have been generous to this archive all month.	Drafted
21 Sep 2026	Free State Archives Repository, Bloemfontein (VAB) — Mr Tshitso Challa	Three references in one building: VAB A1 19 No. 244 (Herinneringe van genl. W J Kolbe, p.78), VAB MHG M777 (the Commandant's widow, 1896) and VAB MHG K71 (the Commandant, 1868) DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David's. ONE LETTER AND NOT THREE, because all three are in the same building and the two estate files are very likely pulled by the same person on the same morning. The memoir leads — page 78 is asked for, and the whole if it is short, plus its extent and any recorded author, because the identification rests on initials: a Renier-versameling at Pretoria lists a P Kolbe, so the collector dealt with more than one of this family and W J is not proved to be Willem Johannes until somebody opens the folder. The letter says so, and asks to be told if `A1 19` is a misreading of the journal's printed Al 19. For both estates it names the death notice as the page most wanted if the file is impractical — the Commandant left eight sons and four daughters and this archive can name two. It ASKS rather than assumes about the rest: there are four further VAB references, and the letter asks whether they would prefer them in this order or separately, on the principle that a short list is answered sooner than a long one. ADDRESS CONFIRMED from `sacr.fs.gov.za/?page_id=1080` on 21 September. A second address in wide circulation, `fsarch@sac.fs.gov.za`, differs from the department's own domain by one letter — `sac` against `sacr` — and is NOT confirmed. It is recorded in the letter as the thing to try if the first bounces.	Drafted
21 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — the summary she asked for	What the archive is after, why the files were the wrong files, and her own list marked still need / don't need SENT 21 September 2026, as a reply on her own thread; Gmail message id `1a0c3a45abd88f27`. SHE ASKED FOR IT HERSELF — “Maybe you can tell me what is is you are trying to do and why the files were the wrong files. I can help with info if you need it.” IT ASKS FOR NOTHING AND OFFERS NO FEE. An earlier draft ended by commissioning the paper-index lookup and offering to pay for it; David is not committing to paying for more work, so that is gone, and so is any promise of a corrected list. The letter states the goal, marks her seven lines still need / don't need, sets out the two gaps, and stops. She offered information, and the closing line takes her at exactly that word. THE LIST: 1095/48 still need (a tree says 21 Feb 1947, the Johannesburg burial register says 11 Dec 1947); 3734/46 don't need (parents on her 1891 Barkly Oost baptism); 769/52 don't need (a tree names all ten children, matching the Brakpan stone to the day); 5155/51 still need (trees give parents and nothing else); 10/57 don't need (baptism, marriage, death and burial all held); 52653 not a file at all; 10245/69 Wear still need, and it belongs to the Johannesburg branch, not the Booyzens. THE TWO GAPS NAMED: MHG 40293, Kolbe 1918, one page, where “Downing” is Margaret Downing's maiden name carried as a forename; and the correct 1920s reference behind 52653, which is not consultable from outside that building. IT CORRECTS A NUMBER SHE WAS GIVEN — two of six became three, plus a fourth that is not a file. AND IT WITHHOLDS THE LUWINSKI DNA FINDING: an inference about a living man's parentage is not a contractor's business.	Sent
21 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — a postscript with the links	Four links to the published archives, sent an hour after the summary: the children's site, Booyzen, Luwinski and the Record Atlas SENT 21 September 2026, Gmail message id `1a0c3b1cdc859b23`, on the same thread. A postscript, not a second letter — it asks for nothing and says no reply is needed. Sent because “documented family history” was a vague answer to give somebody who does this for a living. ALL FOUR URLS TESTED BEFORE SENDING, ALL HTTP 200, which is this archive's rule about references and applies to its own links as much as to anyone else's. `Our-Family/` is framed as THE CHILDREN'S ONE, at David's instruction and because it is true: the only one of the seven written for children rather than about the family, and the hand-off to every grown-up archive. LUWINSKI WAS INCLUDED ON DAVID'S EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION AND THE CONSEQUENCE WAS PUT TO HIM FIRST. The summary an hour earlier withheld the DNA finding, because an inference about a living man's parentage is not a thing to volunteer to a contractor — but that archive publishes `/dna/` itself, so the link reaches it. Raised, answered, and recorded as a choice rather than an oversight. Volunteering a finding in a paragraph and linking to a site already public are different acts, and the second was his to make. It is given the JOHANNESBURG framing — Kurt Luwinski out of Berlin in 1933, dead there in 1969, buried at Chevra Kadisha — because that is the line most likely to interest a Johannesburg genealogist. Every one of these sites shows the living by initial only, with a build gate that refuses the build otherwise, which is why they are safe to send at all.	Sent
22 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — holding off, on cost	Her correction on 52653 accepted, and the Pretoria work held off because the cost is more than can be taken on now SENT 22 September 2026, Gmail message id `1a0c925de610b3a3`, on her own thread. IT IS A HOLD AND NOT AN ORDER. An earlier draft placed the five files she marked up and asked her to invoice; David cannot take on another payment of that size now, so the letter declines for the moment and gives cost as the reason and the only reason — no invented delay, nothing that would leave her expecting an order next week. IT RELEASES HER EXPLICITLY: no date, no files, and no favours at Preservation on his account, which matters because she spent one of those last time. IT CONCEDES 52653 IN HALF A SENTENCE and does not dwell — she was right, it is a file, and the record here was corrected before the letter was written. IT ASKS FOR NOTHING. In particular it does NOT ask for the missing part of the MHG 40293 reference, which she had volunteered: asking a person for free expertise in the same letter that says you cannot pay them is not a thing this archive will do. It keeps until there is an order. AND IT DOES NOT RAISE THE R5,900 CREDIT. That is David's money and his call; in a letter about not proceeding it would read either as asking for it back or as waiving it.	Sent

Nothing here was sent on this archive's own authority. Every letter above was drafted, shown, and sent only when the user said so — and the two that involve money or a public posting under his name are marked as his to send, not this archive's.

And one thing anybody can do

Read the corrections page before you trust anything here. This archive has published twenty-one things it had to take back, and the pattern in them is the most useful thing on the site: a negative built from a list mistaken for a population, a search run over part of the ground and written up as the whole, a fact read off a reference number and then quoted back as evidence. What was taken back →

If you find something here that is wrong, it is wrong on purpose in only one sense: it was published so that it could be checked. Method → · Open questions →