Records in Africa

Does anyone know where BMD records for South Rhodesia might be held, that is, if they weren't destroyed? I'm looking in particular for the marriage of a 2nd cousin, Regislaus Henry Charles, possibly some time in the 1930s or '40s. All I know is he was born (in England) in 1909 and was posted to the 4th Bn Northern Rhodesia Regiment on 13.12.1940 and was commissioned on 24.10.1941. At that time his wife was a Mrs D.M. Charles in Salisbury, S. Rhodesia.

 

Family search has this to say about Southern Rhodesia which is now Zimbabwe while the North part is now Zambia. The country has had an extremely chequered political past that must affect record conservation so it would be interesting to hear what you can find. I wonder if there is a regiment organisation as well, I didn't find a good link at first glance but here's one I did find, this for example. If you Google search you'll find all kinds of links which will let you happily browse for hours.

 

Thank you for your reply, Britjan. Actually things have moved forward since I wrote my plea and I should have added my findings. First I found Regislaus in the London Gazette, telling me that he had a commission in the Kenya Regiment. Then I found the Kenya Reg website and Regislaus's name in a 'nominal roll' plus his regimental number and a couple of addresses to write to, which I did. The first person told me that from the Kenya Regt Regislaus was posted to the N Rhodesian Regt and that his wife (unfortunately only Mrs DM Charles) lived in Salisbury (Harare), so perhaps he eventually lived in Zimbabwe. Perhaps. The other person I wrote to gave me a most useful website that I'm sure other people looking for army relatives might be interested in -'the Army Personnel Centre – British Army website’

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and I've now downloaded a couple of forms that he recommended. He also said he'd ask his former colleagues living in Kenya to see if anyone remembers anything about Regislaus. So, all in all, very satisfactory and, once again, I'm amazed at how helpful people are. It'll be interesting to see if I can eventually track him down to his death, which was presumably in Africa, as there's no record in England

 

You are welcome and I think we should ask for a new heading for Africa vs the current "South Africa" . Presumably in terms of records it will depend on who "colonised" the country as to what type of records were made let alone preserved.

 

Yes, there should definitely be a new heading. South Africa is too restricting.

 

Maybe it just reflects the nationality of forum members, or of LC in general. I imagine this is exactly the sort of 'tweaking' that Peter hoped to carry out before opening the forum up to the wider public. If you have identified a need to split up Africa further (which sounds fair enough) I am sure it will be looked at kindly.

 

I have just noticed that Ancestry is adding more global records and has promised some for the African continent in the next few months. Hopefully they won't just make Family search records more accessible but delve into the kind of information Gillian was able to come by. Whether the cost of a world wide membership will be worthwhile remains to be seen, and I'll be hoping my local library system keeps up with a full membership.

 

To return to my very lost cousin Regislaus Charles. I'm afraid that the "request for information" forms I downloaded from the British Army Website were, in the end, useless as I would have had to enclose a copy of his death certificate. And his death is one of the many things I don't know about him. So that was that. But now the same helpful person has given me another website to try.

 

Almost 18 months after my post above, this morning I suddenly received two emails about Regislaus Charles, one of whom was from someone who'd actually seen the posts above. Sadly, neither could help. Since last writing about Regislaus, I've learnt a lot about his uncles and aunts (11 of them) but practically nothing about him, and still don't know where and when he died other than that one relative thought he'd died in 1981, probably in Africa.

 

Lewis, if you see this, could you please contact me via Lost Cousins, PM. For some reason, my e-mails to your home address don't go through.