Paternal (Dempster) pages

• My interest in genealogy started with a paper cutting that in a sense served as an obituary for my paternal great grandfather, Robert Dempster, The Quarryman Propagandist. It was given to my Dad by his uncle, Alexander (Alec) Dempster. I was about sixteen years old when Uncle Alec, who I had never heard of before, appeared at our place one day. He stayed the night and left the next day. I never saw him again.

• The only photograph I ever saw of my father that had been taken before he married my mother, was the one on the left above. It was also given to my Dad by his Uncle Alec. If you read the page for the Quarryman referenced above, you will know about Mary, who I discovered through the Internet while trying to find out more about the Quarryman. As strange as it may seem, Mary had more photographs of my father as a young man, than I had. She subsequently sent me several of the photographs of my Dad and his brothers taken around the same time as the one on the left at the top.

  Then, some time after that, she sent me the photograph on the right above. It took my breath away. For me it truly represents the missing photographs of my father's youth. It does not tell the whole storey, but it did finally bring me to an appreciation of why my Dad did not talk about his youth. I have tried to explain it in my account of the missing photograph.

• My grandmother was Martha ((aka as Mattie) nee Wilson). All I know about her was that she was a fine looking woman, who like my Dad, and his much younger brother, Tommy, must have struggled with the loss of her two sons, and then shortly after that, her husband George. She remarried, but that sadly also ended somewhat tragically. Her second husband (X Davy) passed away when I was about seven years old, despite her best efforts to support him. In doing so, she abandoned her homes in Krause Street in Bloemfontein, to go to the Strand on the Cape False Bay coast, in the hope that it would improve his health.

  My family readily followed her as my maternal grandmother also lived in the Strand. The plan was that my Dad would to refurbish the home that she had bought in the Strand. My maternal grandmother's home at 8 Bernard Street, has been replaced by a block of flats. My paternal grandmother's home is still there, and can be found behind what was then known as, the Da Gama Hotel. From the beach road drive up on the right hand side of the da Gama Hotel. At the first intersection, stop, the house is across the road on the left corner.

  The only record I currently have relating to the Wilsons is a letter from Jean, probably my grand mother's sister.

date created: 2 August 2011

Robert Dempster [email protected]

last updated: 23 October 2011