Tag Archive | South Africa

South African Cousins! Thanks to DNA

Recently my maternal aunts, cousins and I had a strong DNA match at 23andme to a woman whose name was not familiar to me, Sharon, born in South Africa. This was exciting because I had thought that I had no family left there. I knew that my Jewish great grandmother Charlotte Langermann Thannhauser had had three brothers who went off to South Africa to make their fortunes. None of whom were thought to have any living descendants.

Extracts from the chromosome browser at 23andme comparing Sharon to my family

One of the brothers, Max Langermann, of Johannesburg and London, did become very rich but had no children of his own. Another, Jakob, also of Johannesburg, died in his 30s in 1898, unmarried, and his will names his five living siblings at that time as his heirs, each of whom received 105 pounds (about $20K today). The third brother, (Ernst) Isador, died in his early 40s, on board ship returning from India to his home in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harere, Zimbabwe). His son Frederick was adopted by Max. My mother had told me that Fred was Jakob’s son but since Jakob died a few years before Frederick’s birth, that could not be. Documents I found seemed to indicate that Fred was Isador’s son but Frederick had no children of his own, So who could this new relative be descended from?

from Jakob’s will – note that Isador’s given name was Ernst – all documents are also on GENI

Frederick Edward Langerman signed Max’s will, 8 years after Isador’s death, he was about 18

Since Sharon was listed as 28% Jewish and her mother has no Jewish DNA, she deduced that her father’s mother, whose name she did not know, had to have been Jewish. I sent her my Langermann family tree. Sharon consulted with her mother and sent me this:

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South African Records Online and Facebook Groups

Someone on one of my many genealogical facebook groups mentioned that South African records were online these days and originals could be had for a small fee. Since two of my great-grandmother’s brothers went to Johannesburg to make their fortunes, I could not resist trying out the site at http://www.ancestor.co.za

I searched on the surname “Langerman” and sure enough my great-great-uncles Max and Jacob Langermann appeared in the search. From the dates, these are death records. Note that I have increased the contrast from the original web site (click on the image to see the actual screen shot) as the colors left something to be desired.

LangermannSearchSmll

I ordered the record for Jacob a few weeks ago and paid about $5.00 US. My first search effort ended too soon, 1900, so I did not see Max. The next time I tried it, I used a better search and ordered the record for Max.

Today I got an email that the document for Jacob was ready plus they have found a few more documents!

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