Case study·South Africa·Individuals & families
Church, civil, and land records across several regions were combined to rebuild a family line thought to be lost.
Outcome
Lineage documented back four generations.
The family believed their line was lost. Beyond a single confirmed grandparent, the trail seemed to dissolve into a country whose records had been kept — and, in places, kept apart — across very different systems.
Rebuilding, record by record
We worked outward from what was certain. Church registers gave baptisms and marriages; civil records gave dates; land records placed the family in specific districts at specific times. Each document was a single point — but plotted together, they began to draw a line.
“We thought our history stopped at one name. It went back four generations.”
— The family
What had looked like a dead end became a documented lineage spanning four generations — every link supported by a source the family could see for themselves.
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