Thanks to probate genealogy company Anglia Research, a South African woman from who felt ‘like an orphan’ has discovered a whole new family on Merseyside.
Burnadine Potgieter from Johannesburg had few living relatives in South Africa and had spent years trying to track down Sylvester William Eden, her maternal British Grandfather. Burnadine had promised her mother, shortly before her death in 2003, that she would look for him.
Originally from England, Sylvester had moved to South Africa to work as a merchant marine. After meeting and marrying his wife Joey, together they had a child; Burna Evelyn Eden, Burnadine’s mother.
However, the couple got divorced and Sylvester subsequently got married to a woman called Joice. She had a son from a previous marriage, thought to be called Arnie or Ernie. Sylvester went back to the UK when Burna was around eight years of age. Although he tried to bring her with him, at the harbour he was stopped.
Speaking about her Grandfather, Burnadine said: “Sylvester clearly adored my mother. He wanted to take her back to Britain, but he knew my gran would never let my mother go with him. This, of course, infuriated my gran and she stopped all communication between my mother and her biological father. He did try to contact her and sent her letters but everything was destroyed by my gran before it even got to my mother.”
She went on to state how she wanted to find out more about Sylvester as well as any surviving family members.
“I wanted to know more about my grandfather Sylvester and what happened to him, what career path he followed and if he was happy. I believe he may have died around 1993, but I want to meet any of his surviving family and to see if there are any family resemblances.
“I am really happy and blessed in my life but I have very little family left and I often wonder about the family I never met. I wonder if my nose is an Eden family trait because it doesn’t look like any other family members’ nose!“
Sadly, Burnadine’s parents as well as her South African grandparents all died within three years of each other.
Merseyside based genealogist, Sam Watkin, works at the probate genealogy and legal research company, Anglia Research. Having seen an article in the local newspaper about Burnadine’s quest to find her family, Sam contacted her, offering the services of Anglia Research.
She stated: “I was immediately curious about Burnadine’s story.
“I was confident that I could trace some of her family using the tools and expertise available to us at Anglia Research”.
As well as looking into birth, death and marriage records and censuses from UK archives, Sam also examined the 1939 Register, made available only in 2016.
She commented on it being an important source of historical data, both in the past as well as in the present day.
“The 1939 Register is one of the most important documents in 20th century Britain. In December 1938 it was announced that in the event of war, a National Register would be taken that listed the personal details of every civilian in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This Register was to be a critical tool in coordinating the war effort as it would be used to issue identity cards, organise rationing and more. The information it contained also was later used in the founding of the NHS.
“Today it is a great source for genealogical research as it holds the names, addresses, marital statuses and other key details of more than 40 million people.”
It showed that the parents of Sylvester had lived in St Helens and that Herbert Eden, her great-grandfather, was a disabled ex-serviceman. Sam was able to create an Eden family tree from this research and was able to confirm the names, birth and death dates of Burnadine’s great-grandparents. She was also able to find the name of their six children – including Sylvester – as well as their own children.
She found that Burnadine’s Grandfather had passed away in 1993, something which Burnadine had suspected, but also discovered that some of his sisters and brothers were still alive.
Sam stated: “Burnadine’s story was so compelling that we thought it was something we should do for free, as a gesture of good-will in the week running up to Christmas”.
Burnadine’s “dream has come true” following Sam’s investigations, and she has now been reunited with Sylvester’s adopted son, Ernie, who contacted her directly after the original article was published.
