Thomas Douglas of Douglasdale, South Africa

[William Douglas]

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?

[Debbie Schonken]

Thank you for the info. I do not think so. My Douglas roots seem to be in the Cape Colony.