Simon's Town Museum
Current & Long
Term Research Projects
We would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
Any information concerning current and long term research projects is
greatly appreciated.
Research Queries Answered
Email Cathy Salter-Jansen at the museum
| Looking
for information on H.M.S. Neptune
HThe HMS Neptune was sunk during World War Two
when she hit a minefield off Tripoli. There was only one survivor
from a crew of 750 men. Some of these men were South Africans and
at least one was a Simonite. Mr Nigel Fawcett, a volunteer at the
Simon's Town Museum, has researched the Neptune and is looking
for any further information that may be available. In the past
he has had a great deal of correspondence with Mr Ivor Ellis, who
lives in New Zealand. Mr Ellis has also very kindly, assisted the
Simon's Town Museum in its research efforts. Correspondence can
be addressed to stmuseum@mweb.co.za - for attention, Mr N. Fawcett.
Correspondence to Simon's Town Museum - stmuseum@mweb.co.za Please address correspondence for attention Mr. N. Fawcett.  |
-
Project Phoenix Phase II
Research for Project Phoenix Phase II has been ongoing now since November 1999. A great deal of new material about our former Simon's Town residents has been gathered to date and the project continues. Artefacts, documents and many photographs have been collected and form the basis of the new display in the entrance hall of the Museum. -
The Blacksmiths of Simon's Town
-
The Military in Simon's Town
-
The Dutch East India Company in Simon's Town 1743-1795
-
The Royal Navy in Simon's Town 1814-1957
-
Oral histories of residents of Simon's Town
-
Oral histories of former residents of Simon's Town forcibly removed in the 1960's under the Group Areas Act
-
Ongoing research into "Persons" and "Families" in Simon's Town - civilian, military and naval
-
Ongoing research into Ships that visited Simon's Town
-
Research into Trades and Traders in Simon's Town
-
The islanders from St Helena and Tristan da Cunha who settled in Simon's Town - removed under the Group Areas Act
-
The employees of the Sir John Jackson Company that built the East Dockyard in Simon's Town
-
The large Jewish Community who lived and/or had businesses in Simon's Town
-
The Italian Community of Simon's Town
The
De Nys Stone - Article By Cathy Salter-Jansen
The inscription on the gravestone of the Postholder Adriaan
de Nys reads:
"Ter gedagtenis van De Heer Adriaan de Nys In Zyne leeven Onder Coop Man En Hooft, van de Baay, Fals Gebooren, Den 27 Sep, 1711 En Over Leeden Den 1 Maart Ano. 1761"
De Nys was the second Postholder of the Dutch East India Company’s anchorage at Simon’s Bay, succeeding Justinus Blas in 1750. He lived next door to the Residency (which is now the Simon’s Town Museum) in the Postholder’s House (now West Gate Residences). He had married Maria Magdalena Meyer on 25 February 1742 and they had six children. Adriaan came from Amsterdam and Maria Magdalena was the second daughter of the French Huguenot, Pierre Meyer, who arrived in the Cape in 1688.
On his death Adriaan De Nys was buried at Cole Point. His gravestone became "well-travelled" around Simon’s Town, being moved from Cole Point with the building of the police station in 1934, to the Old Burying Ground at Seaforth. Here it changed positions at least twice.
Moving the stone must have occasioned much "blood, sweat and tears" because it measures 2560mm by 1280mm and is 200mm thick. A geologist writing in 1968, thought it to be a type of reconstituted, impure sandstone. It is not a local stone and must have been procured from much further afield. It would have been a very expensive stone to import into Simon’s Town.
The De Nys stone has finally been "laid to rest" in front of the Simon’s Town Museum at the request of the VOC Foundation and with assistance and funding from the Simon’s Town Historical Society and the Van Ewijks Society, together with the much-needed physical assistance of the SA Navy riggers. It lies next to a Dutch East India Company gun dating from c.1780.
Research
Queries Answered
We receive research queries from not
only all over South Africa, but from all over the world - many from Britain
and even some from as far afield as Mauritius and Reunion Island. If
you would like us to research a project send us email with details of
the project for our reply. Send email to stmuseum@mweb.co.za