Aunt Marge ( nee Smyth, born 27.02.1905) was the wife of Gletwyn RUBIDGE of Pienaars Baaken (1905 -1968) and it was she who maintained the Rubidge family records and produced the first Rubidge family register. I do not know the date of birth of the last child she entered into this register but I am there so the register must have been compiled sometime after 1944. She had no recourse to the internet nor English parish records nor wills and will have relied on family correspondence, newspaper clippings and old family records in South Africa. It is a remarkable achievement particularly as it is handwritten and would have been a painstaking task. The register has proved useful in cross-checking data now more easily available and it is clear that in some instances unintended errors of fact have crept in. Nevertheless, it remains a most useful resource for a RUBIDGE researcher. I will refer to this register in the related pages. I suspect that some of the very early KEMP and PAYNE records were derived from research in the 19th century to help Rubidge ancestors prepare for representations in the litigation in the Anthony MANGIN (d1803) and Maria Mangin BROWN Chancery cases (1871) in which members of the Rubidge family at the time attempted to claim Maria's intestate estate, of considerable value at the time. It is hard to see how else such a detailed record of such distantly related families could have been handed down through two or more hundred years. |