Germany to South Africa

Question

I've recently met someone whose father-in-law (who has a the same surname -- Jaeckel -- as an ancestor of mine) who told me that the family emigrated initially from Germany to South Africa, and then (I assume) more recently (as in the last generation) to North America.

Curious if there's anyone out there who is familiar with early/mid-century (20th) emigration from Germany to South Africa.

Is/was there a German community in South Africa? Any idea what part of Germany those folks came from?

Such a migration route is new to me. I'm very curious (and also want to help this person find their German roots).

Comments

Interesting question. Recently one of the members of the Germany Project wrote that he found Afrikaans easy to read. Even without looking for a German community, I imagine that South Africa could seem like an attractive destination for a German speaker.

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This could be the family you are looking for.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GKT6-WC7

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^^^^^ BEST ANSWER ^^^^^^^

Oh Louis, you are very very impressive...

I will forward this to my new acquaintance to see if it looks familiar to them...

Thank you!

Answer 1

That's an interesting point, indeed South Africa had and still has some regions with German speaking communities and it just becomes of interest for senior people again.

Could you be a bit more precise which time you looking at, prior WWI, between the WWs or after WWII ? Last will be difficult. Prior WWI there were mainly migration towards Namibia. In the 19th century there is some migration towards KwaZulu-Natal (Südafrika). 

If you search this site: https://safrika.org/index_de.html you will find some Jaeckel early 20th century in South Africa.

Comments

Thanks, Alexandra. Interesting resource.

I'm awaiting more precise dates from my new acquaintance...