The Douglas Archives

A collection of historical and genalogical records

Thomas Douglas of Douglasdale, South Africa

The story begins:

It was in 1859, on July 26th, that the original farm Witkoppen was granted by land grant from President Kruger to P.E. Labuschagne and on July 5th of the same year that Driefontein 3 was granted to L.P. van Vuuren, and these land grants can be seen today in Pretoria, although the farms have now all been considerably sub-divided. Not long after, in the year 1863, Thomas Douglas, one of a family of five, was born in the small town of Stranraer in Wigtownshire, Scotland.

Thomas Douglas left Scotland as a young man for America, where he travelled as far as San Francisco, where he purchased some land but failed to claim it. He returned to Europe, presumably via Scotland, because after travelling to Southern Africa in 1890, his young bride-to-be, Janet Alexander, from the same area, a village called Glen Luce near Tranraer (sic), followed him to Cape Town where they were married. She travelled on the ship with a friend who was also coming to be married and who became Mrs Pyott of the famous Port Elizabeth biscuit firm.

Can anyone help trace this Douglas family of Glenluce, Wigtonshire?

Bob Henry?

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Comment by Debbie Schonken on November 5, 2020 at 8:26
Thank you for the info. I do not think so. My Douglas roots seem to be in the Cape Colony.

Making conections

The more information you can give about the people you mention, the more chance there is of someone else connecting with your family.

Dates and places of births, deaths and marriages all help to place families.

Professions also help.

'My great-grandmother mother was a Douglas from Montrose' does not give many clues to follow up! But a bit of flesh on the bones makes further research possible. But if we are told who she married, what his profession was and where the children were baptised, then we can get to work.

Maybe it is time to update the information in your profile?


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