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| Settler women, if not Sarah, then she would have known them |
Sarah married Robert Rogers in 1817. This sealed her fate into coming to a wild land and living a stressful life.
She had two daughter before leaving England, One named Jessica and the other named Emma. When they left England on the Weymouth on the 7th of January 1820 she was a mother of a 4 year old and a 1 year old. By the time she reached the Cape on the 25th of April she had lost a daughter. The baby did not survive the harsh trip from England to the Cape colony. The baby died on the 10th of February. I don't know what was going on board the boat but during a two week period a whole lot of children died.
Sarah eventually got off the ship in Algoa bay, Port Elizabeth to everyone that doesn't live there, on the 15th of May 1820. Can you imagine sailing for 4 months and 1 week, watching so many people dying on the way. At which point did she realize that this may not have been such a great idea.
She seems to have got over it soon enough as 2 month later she had conceived her next child. I think at this point she had lost her mind a bit as she named her new child Emma. Thank goodness she had a girl. A boy would have had to grow up tough with a name like that.
Over the next few years she had 4 more daughters. A far as I can see these all went forth and reproduced. There seems to be a plethora of individuals that share dear Sarah's DNA. The thing is that only producing girls does tend to lose the advantage of having an easy surname to follow. Though in this case every one seems to have named their daughters Emma or Mary. Chances are if you are currently named Emma, be wary you may be a Sarah carrier.
Sarah and Robert pottered about the Eastern Cape, creating babies every two to 3 years until about 1833. This may or may not be a coincidence, but, they marry off their oldest, now aged 16 to Jacob
Trollip. Jacob is a mature 25 year old. Well by the end of the year they have made Sarah into a grandmother and poor Rob stops having his own babies to bounce on his knee.
Before Christmas in 1834 (22nd), Sarah experiences loss once more. Her husband is slaughtered by the locals. Now what is a girl to do. She now is a mother of 5 girls ranging from about 2 to 13 years old. She is living in the wildest part of the Eastern Cape. This must have been a devastating blow to the family.
The next blow to Sarah is the news that her eldest daughter was killed on the 14th of May 1835. This is now both Christmas and Easter messed up! Her grand daughter, Esther is younger than one and a half and only has a father. The worst part, is that her mother died protecting her father. What a silly Trollip! She get a step-mother when she is 6 years old. This lady is named Margaret, she is 3 years older than her father and will only be around for another 12 years.
Hopefully Sarah and Esther saw each other. Two years later we have a wedding. The wedding is held in Grahamstown, Albany. So I think they have moved off their farm and back into town. The person getting married is not Sarah but rather her 15 year old daughter Emma. The thing is as far as I can see, Emma (15) marries a man who is 41. Surely he should have married Sarah and taken on the children. Sarah at this point would have been 43. I supposed when faced with a dilemma of just to old or just too young, we all know where the pendulum will swing. James Welch is my great
XX grandfather so thanks to him, I have my genes.
Sarah had another wedding to go to. Elizabeth born in 1823 married 1844 (21) Grahamstown. She married John Brooks, fresh from England. They had 8 children with the first being born in 1850. Here husband reached the age of 91 which implies that they did not have such a hard life.
I found a sad little side note in the archives.
First we have the fact that Sarah has a Memorial for Robert. It has taken her 5 years to get this done. She now asks to get to Roberts' burial site to lay down this commemoration. Being a widow she has learned to be cheeky and asks for free passage to where she thinks her husband is.
DEPOT KAB
SOURCE LG
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 532
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 634
PART 1
DESCRIPTION MEMORIALS RECEIVED ORDINARY. S ROGERS. REQUEST FOR FREE PASSAGE FROM
PORT ELIZABETH TO TABLE BAY.
STARTING 18390000
ENDING 18390000
She spends three years looking for the body and then in 1842 she asks for help. I will need to ask for this to see what the whole story is.
James and Emma only made Sarah a grandmother again in 1846 when she was 52. Emma eventually had 4 children, 2 husbands and lived until she was 88.
According to the South African Commercial Advertiser Mrs Rogers died on the 20th of July 1847. They said she was a widow which is correct but then said she was aged 58 , not so correct. She would have been 53 at the time. This may be her or the National archives have a record where Sarah dies in 1887. This would make her 95. That would be nice but highly unlikely, it is more likely that is her daughter that was born in 1926. This would make her 61. Sarah does not seem to be married and produced no children. This is far better a match.
Her youngest two, Mary Ann and Maria were both married and both produced a child.
Sarah did South Africa proud. In just one leg of her family I know that we have gone forth and made genetic spreaders.
All hail Sarah!
Please leave a comment if you like Sarah, she could be yours or someone you knows ancestor!
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