Welcome! Please read this page to its conclusion before proceeding to browse or search this project.

Important Reminders

How to contact me: An email link is at the bottom of each and every page of this project - simple click on it to launch a blank email in your email client correctly addressed to me.
Please do not contact me for questions, or to submit information, until you have read the Important Information page.
Please first read the Important Information page to familiarise yourself with the general methodology used in entering the data, names, places, relationships, etc.
Links appear as Bold/Underlined and will take you to the relevant page including to specific individuals on the person pages; and, to published articles in the Remarkable Writing and Uprooted Lives pages.
If you click or right-click on places that are Bold Underlined you will transition to the Google map for that place.
Remember to make use of our powerful search engine at http://e-family.co.za/ffy/ui49.htm
And remember to click or right-click the Calendar of Events each day for anniversaries pertaining to individuals (your ancestors) in the project.

Don't forget the list (see Lists tab on click on the bold underlined link which follows) called First People, Slaves, Exiles, Convicts and their families. This list highlights first people, slaves, political exiles, convicts, their families and their descendants. The list also includes people in mixed unions (formal and otherwise) and their descendants - the extent of which are underestimated by many people. Few first people, Khoe, San, etc., are currently included in the project. This will change when I have finished entering data from the church and other records of the period and move on to the journals, official correspondence, court records, etc.

Background and goal of this project

This project began as a private endeavour to figure out some of the questions I had about my early Cape of Good Hope (de Caep de Goede Hoop / Cabo de Boa Esperanςa) ancestry, to ensure the foundations of my research into the genealogies of those ancestors was sound.

In time however, I realized my efforts might also help other researchers avoid the same errors I made when I first discovered this ancestry.

Consequently, the first goal of the project is to enter data from all records that are available for the first fifty years or so of the VOC settlement at the Cape which commenced in 1652. "Fifty years or so" because there is in some cases a natural progression that results from available research material.

But more than adding the data, the goal is to add full transcriptions and as far as is possible, an image of that record as an exhibit.

Where appropriate, it will include groundbreaking published articles in the Acrobat format and linked to the relevant individuals.

The second, and very important goal, is to generate discussion around the available data, to correct errors, and hopefully to shine more light on some enduring mysteries. In this regard, please write to me to correct errors (motivate and document if possible), or offer suggestions, opinions, and so on.

Please like and join in the discussion on the project Facebook page, co-managed by Mansell Upham and myself.

I also always welcome hearing from site users with corrections, updates, comments by email at: Delia Robertson

Highlighted Pages

FFY is delighted to bring you Remarkable Writing - a section devoted to articles of high merit, whether about individuals, families, records, language or practices of the early decades of the colonial settlement at Cabo de Boa Esperanςa. In paticular we recommend:

Uprooted Lives

an exciting occasional series by

Mansell Upham

I am indebted to the many individuals whose generosity continues to add value to the site - they are highlighted on our Hall of Fame page.
Don't forget to visit our Update Page for a list of recent changes.
Do visit our Knowledge Centre for articles that explain the laws, rules, practices and customs of the period.
And we have a useful Map Centre