So, Auntie Barbara.
I'm hoping that you can shed some light on my heritage from my father's side.
This is your great grandfather and his name was George Rich.
He was born in South Africa.
He came over and married Elizabeth Rich which was my grandma and your great grandma.
A dapper looking man wasn't he, look with the bowler hat.
Yeah.
Have you any idea where in South Africa he came from?
Well rumour has it, it was Cape Town and he was born in 1866.
Do you think that, with the roots being in South Africa, I wondered if you know if we
had any black ancestry in our family?
No, I don't Shirley.
You don't know?
I don't know.
Shirley's discovered that her great grandfather, George Rich, was born in Cape Town in 1866.
To find out more, Shirley is travelling over 6,000 miles to the southern tip of Africa.
Oh so George Francis, my great grandfather, born on August 19th, 1866
to John and Mary Elizabeth.
Surname Rich.
So now we know who his parents are.
This is another baptism of Caroline Eliza and the parents John and Mary Elizabeth.
So this must be George's sister, because the same parents here.
It's a death certificate of Caroline Brown, formerly Rich.
So this is George's sister and she died at 58.
The race says "mixed race".
So that means that my great grandfather George was of mixed race.
Yes.
I'm intrigued.
I'm absolutely intrigued.
This is from the church register.
So this is a baptism solemnised here at the parish in Cape Town.
The year 1850.
So February the 15th, the little boy named David and the mum was Caroline Otto.
So, that's my great-great-great grandmother.
There's a second child here, Caroline and then a third child here being baptised.
Three children of Caroline Otto baptised on the same day
and on this page let me see what you pick up on that side.
Well, look, the Otto I can see straight away here.
Yay, ok.
So, this is a date of birth 1823.
This is the mother, Caroline Otto.
Baptised August the 24th...
What year was that?
1850.
So, she'd been baptised at the same time as her children.
It's the same year.
The same year.
So, the three children are baptised first- In February.
and then the mother decides she's going to get baptised.
That's a little strange.
So, if I go down this column here for the parent's name of Caroline Otto.
It's a little difficult to read, but I think that says Malay.
Malay parents, I'm not really too sure what Malay means.
Malay in the 19th century, and even today, it was another way of saying Muslim.
It also means that you are not white.
It was a way of identifying people of colour but specifically the ones who were Muslim.
They would be referred to as Malay.
Ok.
So, what I learned from Father Michael is that Caroline Otto was Muslim.
I have to say that I was not expecting that at all, and who would have ever thought that
little Shirley Rich from the Liso housing estate had a Muslim great-great-great grandmother.
How absolutely intriguing.
How amazing and how small the world is.