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Pery Valentine Seward

Replies: 3

Pery Valentine Seward

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 1:36AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Seward
I'm researching my family tree and am completely stuck. My maternal grandmother's father was Percy (maybe Percival) Valentine Seward.
As the story goes, he was a British soldier in the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa. My great-grandmother, Maria Magdalena Cornelia Wiese (born 1890), together with her parents, grandparents and 4 siblings were prisoners of war in the Orange River Concentration camp in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1901.
There she met Percy and against the wishes of her family, married him. Percy was seen as the enemy who was responsible for burning down the family's farm and put them in a concentration camp where Maria's youngest brother, age 1 yrs, died.
My grandmother, Alice Mabel Seward, was born in 1911. According to my grandmother, her parents got divorced due to the pressure from the Wiese family who could never reconcile with the fact that their eldest daughter married the enemy. Percy wanted to go back to England, but Maria's family refused. In 1913 Maria remarried.

I cannot find any information on Percy coming to South Africa or being in the British army. Nor can I find any record of their marriage. The record showing the marriage of Maria in 1913 to her 2nd husband, gives her surname as Wiese. My grandmother's names Alice and Mabel are not
Afrikaans names and was maybe taken from a relative of Percy.

Any information will be most appreciated.

- Almare Smith
Alexandria, South Africa
SubjectAuthorDate Posted
Almare Smith 17 Sep 2013 7:36AM GMT 
sherene field 29 Mar 2014 6:16AM GMT 
1_pamela65 19 Jun 2014 12:36PM GMT 
A Smith 12 Oct 2014 6:22PM GMT 
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