In Durban – visiting relatives and research in archives

We arrived in Durban last Thursday, and spent yesterday morning in the archives seeing what we can find. We managed to find something about the Bataille family (related on the Hickman/Beningfield side through the Wilson-Yelverton family). Also found some references to Edwin Terrance Cathcart Cunnison and John Anderson Cathcart Cunnison. Val’s great-aunt Lil Decker married first Eugene Waldemar Rasmussen (we’ve recently made contact with people from that side of the family) then John Anderson Cunnison and then Frederick John Cathcart (both of whom seem to have vanished without a trace). Then we found this John Anderson Cathcart Cunnison, who sounds as though he ought to have been related, but he claimed to have been born in Canada, and we weren’t aware of any of that branch of the family who lived there.

We visited Arthur and Dorothy Benjamin (nee Terblanche) in Northdene, whose son Todd and wife Pamela are emigrating to Australia tomorrow. Arthur is keen on family history, and is trying to trace his ancestors in St Helena.