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Research in Other Countries => South Africa => Topic started by: Geordie daughter on Wednesday 13 March 19 16:26 GMT (UK)
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Does anyone know anything about this company and what it did/sold? The building was, I believe, built around 1887 or so, and I think the Beart mentioned in the business's name may have been William John Beart, who moved to the Transvaal from Durban around 1894, or so. So far I haven't been able to unearth anything more than the name of the company, so I'd be grateful if anyone could enlighten me.
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Hi,
The Wits University Archives which houses the Barnett Collection of photographs of old Johannesburg lists a photo of the Goodman Beart Building taken in 1906 in section 74 of the index. I do not know how to access this picture so you will need to contact them for more information at: www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za
Dave.
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google "the politics and ideologies of the greek community in south africa circa 1890-1924"
Of the hits returned select "PDF https://open.uct.ac ....." etc.
Two references to Goodman Beart (but doesn't answer your specific question).
I had a look at "NAARS (South African records)" - 1 reference to Goodman Peart but no clue as to nature of business.
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Thanks to both of you for looking. You hit the same problems as I did on this one, and frustratingly official documents aren't any help. While William was still in Durban, one daughter's baptismal record gave his occupation as "Manager of store," and his death notice gives his occupation simply as "Retired merchant," so neither are very helpful. One of his brothers was manager for Curtis & Co. in Jo'burg selling clothing, another worked for T.W. Beckett (possibly as a commercial traveller) in either Pretoria or Jo'burg, for a little while, before haring off to China, and the third ended up as a men's wear salesman in Edmonton, Canada. On the basis of this, I'm guessing that William was in a similar line, but it would be far better to have actual proof!
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Is this the same William Beart http://www.graves-at-eggsa.org/main.php?g2_itemId=2913879
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Pampoen, it isn't, but it's absolutely the next best thing because it's his only son who I know next to nothing about, except that he married a Daisy Parrett in Johannesburg, and was (according to her death notice) a publisher! At last, thanks to you, I have William junior's date of death! William senior died in October 1911 in England; he was either on a business trip or possibly visiting his daughter Marjorie who was a music student there at the time, and boarding with a couple in Hornsey.
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Calloo, callay, oh happy day! Following up your lead, Pampoen, I typed Beart+Ermelo into my search engine and got up a newspaper obit for John Beart of Ermelo who is, I am pretty certain, William's son. The information in the article matches with what I know of John from other sources, and came as a nice surprise as there were suggestions that he'd died young...obviously he hadn't!
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Have you seen this?
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I found a number of records when I looked up Beart on Familysearch https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?&count=20&offset=0&query=%2Bgivenname%3Awilliam~%20%2Bsurname%3Abeart~%20%2Brecord_country%3A%22South%20Africa%22
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Yes, there are a fair few and I've worked my way through all of them over the last month or so. ;D They were an absolute treasure trove and enabled me to fill in many of the gaps I had concerning the Bearts, though not quite all....
My biggest problem has been that most of the men had "itchy feet" and travelled all over the world, so in some instances the trail has gone cold because I can't access records in that particular country. Still, I can't complain, as in some cases I've had the most amazing success!
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Hi,
I had a look at the early directories for Johannesburg and found the following entries:
C H Beart (Curtis & Co.) is listed in the very first General Directory of Johannesburg in 1890 by Edwards, and later in the 1893 Longland Directory.
Both C H Beart (Curtis & Co.) and W H Beart (Payne Bros.) are listed in the 1894, 1897, 1898, Longland Johannesburg Directories, and were both clothing retailers and tailors.
The following info is listed in the 1903 Directory:
C H Beart (Curtis & Co.)
P.O. Box 96, Johannesburg
Residence: 70 Wolmarans Str. cnr Banket Str.
W H Beart (Payne Bros)
P.O. Box 1808, Johannesburg
64 Wolmarans Str.
George Beart
P.O. Box 2447, Johannesburg
Goodman, Beart & Co.(Specialists in high grade clothing) was situated in the Livingstone Building in Rissik Str.
I have a few images of the different businesses (unfortunately not great quality)
and also of the Livingstone Building but they are too large to attach here. If you would like copies I can email them.
Shirley
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Shirl, thank you so much for those directory entries! At last I have proof that William was in the clothing business, and the entry for George is a real bonus as it places him fairly and squarely in Johannesburg just after the Boer War. The last sighting I'd had of him was in Durban in the 1890s, when he was informant on a birth record for one of William's children, then all of a sudden he was in Canada. I knew that he had fought in the Boer War, courtesy of a couple of Canadian newspaper clippings, but had no other details of his time in South Africa. I've also just realised that the 1894 entry narrows down the time of William's arrival in Johannesburg, too.
If it's not too much trouble to email me the pics, that would be wonderful. I'll PM you with my email address shortly.
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Hi Shirl27
Could I impose on you again and ask if any of your directories contain listings for "Charles Beart and Co.," or "The George Beart Company, Ltd.," after 1909? Charles Henry split with the Curtis brothers in this year after disagreements about how he managed the Jo'burg establishment, and the references to George's company came up on the NAAIRS website, in relation to an "ex parte" application dated 1908/9.
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Hi
I've emailed you with some further information as well as this entry from the 1914 Braby's Directory listing Charles Beart & Co, gentlemen's outfitter, Rand Club Buildings, Cnr.Commissioner and Loveday Streets, Johannesburg.
Shirley
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Hi Shirley, do your Johannesburg directories show residences, eg between 1900-1914? I'm particularly interested in the Gordon family (Frank was a store keeper/grocer, residing at 18 Central St.) and the Klatzky/Kliatchko family (Gutman was also a store keeper/grocer). Do you see any such entries?
Cheers, Max