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West family

Journal by RonWest

I grew up in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape South Africa.My father,uncles and aunties were born there too but have moved on all over the world and many have since died.My Grandpa was born in Bathurst, about 40 km from Grahamstown, so was his wife, brothers and sisters.

We have a very large family and I know only about 6 of them whereas there should be about 300 or so living relatives - that is the extent to which the uncles and aunties split up !

I have been searching for details of my Great Grandpa for about 30 years, my elder sisters have been doing that for much longer. My late mom also did a lot of digging because such things interested her. In all you can say we have tried to establish Great Grandpa's details for about 50 years - without success.

I have done vast amounts of follow-ups but each West lead strays away from my Bathurst-born Grandpa. Manny have tried to help, this is how I traced a number of other family members but unfortunately nothing was revealed about my Great Grandpa Tom West. There are a lot of ideas - some say his name was hashed in order to protect the real father, others say he was slave-born, some think he abandoned the family after Grandma's death in 1917.

So far I managed to establish the following:

Great Grandpa Tom West - no records at all !
Great Grandma Catherine Maria Hayward who appears to have been married to John Wright (married 7/9/1885)
at that time. Catherine died in 1917 and John in 1916. there wer 4 children, eldest was
Joseph Midfor Wright, then Annie gertrude Ellen(West ?), Samuel Gordon (West ?)
and Thomas Nesbit (who took the surname West and went by the name Nesbitt)

Grandpa Thomas Nesbit West who married Lilian Bertha Watkins
Children Freda - moved to Britain, Dauphne - moved to Britain, Shiela - stayed in Grahamstown,
Patricia - address unknown, Yvonne - moved to Red House near Port Elizabeth, June - moved
to Johannesburg, Cynthia - Address unknown, Osswald - moved to Kingwilliamstown,Ronald -
stayed in Grahamstown, Colin - moved to Somerset West,Terrance - moved to East London
Emlin - stayed in Grahamstown and then in Port Elizabeth and Errol - moved to Port
Elizabeth.
Dad Ronald West of Grahamstown
Me Ronald West jnr recently of Kingwilliamstown
Sisters Lyne Henson of Grahamstown
Yvonne Palmer of Cedarville near Kokstad
Daphne Williams of Port Elizabeth
Nesta Redmond of Kingwilliamstown
Enigma Catherine appears to have still been married to John who was about 30 years older than her
at the time that the last three children were born. some records show them as Wright,
others show no father. The youngest child took the surname West and Tom West is indicated
as his step-father.

Surnames: NONE
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by RonWest Profile | Research | Contact | Subscribe | Block this user
on 2016-10-13 11:14:01

The secrets contained in an "Old-Woman's-Tale" can often resolve an enigma.

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