You are visitor number to this page since 26th September 1997

BOTSWANA

Genealogical information
(available from Tati District)

Botswana is a land-locked country in the southern part of the African
Continent divided by the Tropic of Capricorn. It is bordered by South Africa to the
south and south-east; Namibia to the west and north and Zimbabwe to the
north-east.

Before independence in 1966 the country was the British Administered
Protectorate of Bechuanaland. The area in the north-east was known as the
Tati District.

In the pre-colonial period the Tati District was the place that hunters, traders
and missionaries passed through on their way to the interior.

Although it is probable that a number of elephant hunters from South Africa
visited the area, it was the missionary Robert MOFFAT in the company of
the trader Sam EDWARDS who are recorded as being the first Europeans to
have passed through the district in 1854.

GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION (available from the Tati District)

1)
List of names of more than 700 hunters, traders and missionaries
who are recorded as having passed through or spent time in the
Tati District between 1854 and 1889.

2)
Names of many of the miners and prospectors from Australia, New Zealand,
and Europe as well as South Africa who took part in the 1869 Tati Gold Rush.

3)
Details taken from monuments bearing identifiable information on the
graves of persons buried in the Francistown Cemetery between 1897 - 1969

4)
A copy of the Francistown Anglican Church Burial Register from 1897 - 1969.
The marriage and baptismal registers for the same period are also
Available, although details of entries will have to be obtained from the
Church officials direct. (Please note records for other denominations are
much more recent as the Catholics only arrived here in 1952 and the Dutch
Reformed Church in 1956, whilst others came even later)

5)
Names of members who served in the various Bechuanaland and
Rhodesian Police Forces and were buried within the present borders of
Botswana before 1915.

Other Sources

Supa Ngwao Museum, P.O. Box 766, Francistown, Botswana.

Pioneer Society, P.O. Box 100, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Local e-mail contact:- quickies@info.bw