South Africa, Methodist Parish Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

South Africa

Record Description


This collection of parish records from the Methodist Church in South Africa covers the years 1822 to 1996.

The collection includes Methodist Church records that have images of baptisms, marriages, and burials from several towns in South Africa. The text of the records is handwritten in English or in Afrikaans.

Methodism arrived in South Africa with British soldiers in 1806, but the mission was launched by Barnabas Shaw, who reached the Cape in 1816, and William Shaw (unrelated), who accompanied the British settlers of 1820. Barnabas Shaw established a mission among the Khoi at Leliefontein in Namaqualand, and colleagues ventured across the Orange River into present-day Namibia and what are now the northern provinces of South Africa. William Shaw established Methodism throughout the British settlement in Albany and rapidly planted a chain of mission stations between the Cape Colony and Natal. In the late nineteenth century, missionary work was extended into the gold-mining area in Gauteng and north through modern Limpopo into Zimbabwe. Six missionary districts of the Wesleyan Methodist church became an affiliated conference in 1883. An independent conference was constituted in 1927 and enlarged in 1931 to include the Transvaal Missionary District of the British Conference and the small Primitive Methodist Mission.

These parish records were created to record the events of baptisms, marriages, and burials for the members of the Methodist Church in South Africa, and are a reliable source for doing genealogical research in South Africa.

For a list of records by localities and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browselink from the collection landing page.

Record Content
Baptism records may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Name and gender of child
 * Parents’ names, including maiden name of mother
 * Parents’ residence
 * Child's age or date of birth
 * Name of person who solemnized baptism

Marriage records' may contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Full name and age of groom
 * Groom's marital status, occupation and residence
 * Full name and age of bride
 * Bride's marital status, occupation and residence
 * Marriage by license or banns
 * Names of person(s) giving consent for the marriage
 * Names of witnesses

Burial records may contain the following information:


 * Name and age of deceased
 * Residence of deceased
 * Date and place of interment
 * Name of person presiding at interment

How to Use the Records
To begin your search for baptism records in this collection, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Name of parents
 * Approximate year and place of baptism
 * Municipality or Town

To begin your search for marriage records in this collection, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Name of bride or groom
 * Approximate year and place of marriage
 * Municipality or Town

To begin your search for death records in this collection, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Name of deceased
 * Approximate year and place of death
 * Municipality or Town

Search the Collection
Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

To search the collection image by image ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page: ⇒Select the appropriate "Country" ⇒Select the appropriate "Province" ⇒Select the appropriate "Municipality or Town" ⇒Select the appropriate "Record Type and Years" which will take you to the images.

Look at the images one by one comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Afrikaans, and English. For help reading the records, see the following wiki articles:

Afrikaans Word List

Using the Information
When you have found the record that you've been looking for, the following will help you in your research:

Use the age on marriage records or death records to calculate the year of birth from when your ancestor's marriage or death

General Information About These Records
Church records include important vital information, which can also help identify other ancestors. The civil registration records can be researched also after 1895.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, plea se email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Related Websites

 * Africa Websites
 * Africa Historic Maps
 * National Archives of South Africa

South African Research Training:
 * Part 1: Beginning South Africa Research
 * Part 2: South Africa National Archives
 * Part 3: South Africa FamilySearch Collections Online

Related Wiki Articles

 * South Africa
 * South Africa Websites

Citations for This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection citation: Record citation (or citation for the index entry): Image citation: