The South African Connection

01 Feb 2021 - 11 minute read

In researching my family history the vast majority of both sides of my family follow a similar pattern, moving from small rural villages, where they worked as agricultural labourers to the slums of London throughout the 19th century. This story of the industrial revolution is one that is no doubt repeated countless times around the world.

From the historical documents available, these seemingly routine facts belie the complexity and struggle of countless relationships, tragedy and drama. Occasionally a story stands out, a life that has become mythologised and where piecing together the facts presents something even more interesting.

The legend

Every family has their share of myths and legends about ancestors undergoing great ordeals and in my case it is no different. I first came across the beginnings of this when I learnt about my great-grandmother - Christina Carstens. The story goes that she was born in South Africa, whilst under attack in a covered wagon. The details are scant and there was little more to go on. As we will see almost none of this is true, but the kernel of the story is there.

In reality this story may have had more to do with my grandfather’s love of Western films, where covered wagon and ‘Indian’ attacks make a up a staple of the genre. So what really happened?

Matilda Jane Curd 1869 - 1932

Early life

Born on the 16th of June 1869 to Thomas Sidney Curd (b.1835 - d.1894) and Julia Edwards (b.1838) in the London Borough of Camberwell there isn’t a huge amount of detail about Matilda’s early life. Whilst she was most likely still living in Camberwell I haven’t managed to locate the Curd’s on the 1871 census and after Matilda’s birth the family first emerge in the 1881 census. Age 12 living at 10, Bexley Close the family was typically large for the time, with 5 children (4 under the age of 10) Matilda also shares the house with her uncle Fred Edwards.

Whilst the family were not particularly well off they were able to send Matilda to school past the compulsory age of 10.

The great journey

The Athenian, Union Line steam ship

Within 2 years, aged 14, Matilda was heading off across the world.¹ It is unclear what led Matilda to head to South Africa, in 1883 at the end of diamond rush that had dominated the 1870s and immediately before the discovery of Witwatersrand, a gold rich deposit in 1886. It was this discovery in 1886 which created gold rush and mass immigration to the colony growing the white population from less than 250,000 in 1870 to over 600,000 in 1891.

In October 1883 colonial newspaper “The Colonies and India” reports “Curd, Miss. M.J” departing from Southampton aboard the Athenian headed for Madeira, Saint Helena and then onto South Africa.²

The Athenian was a new addition to the Union Line, a steam ship completed in 1882 as the sister ship to the Moor. The construction of these ships in Glasgow was an attempt by the Union Line to see off competition from their rivals the Castle Line, and expand their mail/passenger connections to the Cape Colony. The ship had capacity for 102 passengers in cabins with a further four dozen ‘temporary’ Second Class passengers in the holds. This new ship, along with others in the fleet was able to reach Cape Town in only 19 days.

Once in South Africa, Matilda disembarked at the first opportunity at the port of Cape Town.

Daniel Jacob Frederick Carstens ~1856 - 1893

I have found very little information about Daniel Carstens, the most extensive source of information is the his death notice which I have used to corroborate some of the other information available.

Early life

Ottende brigades angreb ved Dybbøl 18. april 1864 - Vilhelm Rosenstand, depicting the Second Schleswig War of 1864

Daniel Carstens was likely born in Schleswig-Holstein in 1856. Records show that sometime before 1878 he had illegally emigrated, and avoided what would have otherwise have been compulsory military service. ³

We can only speculate to Daniel’s reasons for emigrating and avoiding military service, but during this period Schleswig-Holstein was a region which was hotly contested. Between 1852 - 1864 the region was firmly under Danish rule after several years of uprising and war, where Germans were barred from office and forced to speak the Danish language. In this period, many Germans were emigrating to avoid these conditions.

In 1864 Prussia and Austria united to drive out the Danish army before dividing the region themselves. In 1866 the Prussian - Austrian war led to compulsory 3 years military service and the Prussian rule of the region consolidated.

In this context emigration rose steeply, with many Germans fleeing the region to the rapidly growing colonies. For whatever reason Daniel Carstens chose South Africa.

Life in South Africa

Whilst we don’t know the arrival date of Daniel in South Africa he had it seems he had a few different jobs, initially as a storeman in Cape Town before moving to the Transvaal Republic and working as a mineworker or wire-splicer.⁴

Despite these details there is a lot of information missing about Daniel’s life in South Africa, and the main source of information is his death notice in 1893.⁵ The notice from the town of Heidelberg a capital of the Boer South African Republic (also known as the Transvaal Republic).

1. Name - Daniel Jacob Frederick Carstens
2. Birthplace - Germany
3. Names of parents - not known by his spouse
4. Age - 37
5. Occupation - Mineworker
6. Marital status - married
7. Date of death - 14 April 1893
8. Death place - Johannesburg
9. Will - No testament
10. Property - 200 pound sterling policy # 13812 dated 2 Oct 1890 in South African Mutual Life Assurance society
11. Estate above 25 pounds - above 25 pounds
12. Names of children (majors or not)
    1. Hans Guido born 27 April 1888
    2. Agnes Matilda born 9 Oct 1890
    3. Johanna Marie born 7 June 1892

signed Johannesburg 20th April 1893 Matilda Carst—

Kindly translated for me by Dennis Maeder

I have not been able to find any record of the cause of his death, but the £200 sterling life insurance policy (equivalent to £25,000 in today’s money), would have been a significant safety net for his family. Almost immediately after the death of her husband, Matilda returned to England pregnant with Christina Julia.

Family and return to England

Between 1888 and 1893 the Daniel and Matilda Carstens had four children, three of whom were born in South Africa. Shortly after the death of her husband Daniel Carstens, Matilda returned to England. On Christmas day 1894 she married for a second time to labourer called David Evans.⁶ The timing of this move may have been fortuitous since the family was able to avoid the Second Boer War which took place between 1899 and 1902 leaving the South African Republic defeated and thousands of civilians in concentration camps, including a major camp in Heidelberg from 1900.

In 1901 the whole family were living together in Croydon at 99 Danbrook Road along with Matilda’s new husband David Evans and their young and their 5 year old daughter, Alice Evans.⁷

When back in England Matilda took up practice as a midwife.⁸

Hans Guido Carstens (aka Frederick ‘Fred’ Hanley Carston) 1888 - 1945

Hans Guido Carstens was the eldest of their four children. Born on the 27th of April, I can find little about his life in South Africa except his place of birth being listed as Cape Town in a much later document. The only reference from his time in South Africa is in the death notice of his father.

However, he reemerges as Frederick Hanley Carstens, age 12 in the 1901 Census of England and Wales.

His next record is his ‘Naturalization Petition’ for the State of Ohio in the United States in 1922.⁹ In this petition it is recorded that he crossed the border from Canada at Niagra falls in 1910, and by 1922 is living in Akron, Ohio having married Canadian, Sadie Olive Dawson in 1917, and having recently had their first child Ruth, who died aged 15 in 1935. They also had a second daughter Evelyn Edith.

‘Fred’ worked in a local rubber shop and taught as a Golf Instructor.

Agnes Matilda Carstens 1889 - ?

Agnes Matilda was born in Cape Town, South Africa on October 10th 1893, the was baptised on the 30th of October at the St Saviour Anglican Church in Claremont.

Agnes Matilda married Joseph William Albert Eagle in 1914 and had two children, Dorothy Eagle, and William George Eagle. I have not been able to locate details of her death.

Johanna Marie Carstens 1892 - 1929

Johanna Marie born in South Africa in 1892, married John Cox in 1912 and had 3 children, Lilian Anne Jane (b.1912), Elsie Marie (b.1914), and Ada Florence (b.1918). I found only a little more information about her life.

Christina Julia Carstens 1893 - 1980

Christina, my Great-Grandmother was the only one of Daniel Carstens’ children not born in South Africa. She was born 7 months after her father’s death, and after the family had returned to London, England.

At 17 in 1911 she married Herbert Williams a greengrocer’s boy, a month before the birth of their son Herbert Alfred David Williams.

So whilst the original story of my South African great grandmother might not be entirely true, there is an interesting reality underneath. In reality she was the only member of her immediate family who had never lived in South Africa.

What is missing?

I have been able to find some pretty interesting records about the lives of the Carstens, but there is still a lot missing about their time in South Africa and in particular the life and family of Daniel Jacob Frederick Carstens. In part this void is due to not speaking German, and not having a clear picture of German genealogy resources, but it is also likely due to the lack of information available from the time periods in South Africa and parts of Germany at the time. I know little about his life in South Africa, and nothing about the cause of his death.

For Matilda Curd, I have some information about her early life, a little about her time in South Africa, and more information about her return and second marriage in England. I know nothing about why she left England in the first place at the age of 14, how she met her husband Daniel Carstens, and when she was married. Whilst it is possible to make guess about many of these things, and I am always interested to hear stories and legends I have tried to avoid speculation as much as possible and limit myself to verifiable records in an effort to avoid spreading any misinformation.

Do you know more?

If you know more information about this family, their lives and experiences, please get in touch. I am always looking to correct errors and add facts.

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References and footnotes

1. Whilst I found no records providing evidence of why Matilda emigrated at such a young age. It could have been for a number of reasons including ‘pauper emigration’. Her later return to England and the same area seems to imply it was not through any great falling out. ↩

2. The weekly newspaper - Colonies & India 26 Oct 1883, Accessed at: http://www.eggsa.org, transcribed by Trisha McLeod ↩

3. RootDigger - Genealogy in Schleswig-Holstein: Emigration out of Schleswig-Holstein, 19th century ↩

4. Daniel Carstens is listed as a Mijnwerker (mineworker) on his death notice, a storeman in the 1889 baptism of Agnes Matilda Carstens and a wiresplicer in the 1893 baptism record of Christina Julia Carstens. ↩

5. Daniel Carstens Death Notice found: Transvaal Province, South Africa, Estates death Notice Index, 1855-1976 ↩

6. England and Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index, Volume: 1d; Page: 136 ↩

7. 1901 England Census - Class: RG13; Piece: 480; Folio: 26; Page: 43 ↩

8. 1911 England Census - Class: RG14; Piece: 2340 ↩

9. “Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800-1977”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1G-Z6HD : 13 February 2020), Frederick Hanley Carston, 1922. ↩