Our Family

Harold Oscar McQueen, the eldest of three brothers, emigrated from London to what was then the Cape Colony towards the end of the 19th century, arriving in Cape Town about 1895. He married Julia Fourie and had a number of children, five of whom reached adulthood, married and had families. Four generations later, most of Harold Oscar's surviving descendants are still living in South Africa although many have moved from Cape Town.

We have been interested in our family history  since at least the very early 1900s. This was probably sparked by a family heirloom in the form of a powder horn, originally owned by a James McQueen, who served in the British army during the Peninsula wars and who was killed at Waterloo. This powder horn is now held by the Cape Town branch of the family. Births, marriages and deaths, from the early 1800s until about 1920, have been recorded in the back of a family bible in the possession of a New Zealand branch of the family.

Subsequent research has filled in missing details of past family members, but we have been unable to trace back the line with any certainty beyond the James McQueen of Waterloo. Although military records provide information on his date and place of birth, records for the Scottish village of Girvan show that three children named James McQueen were baptised within a few weeks of one another (all possible related and at least two of them almost certainly cousins). Efforts to identify "our" James by eliminating one or two of the others through tracing their descendants have so far been unsuccessful.

Although we seemed to have reached a dead-end as far as tracing back further, we have managed to "trace forward" and find a number of our co-descendants (see our genealogy page).  The first James had two sons (that we know of) who grew up in the Colchester area, with the elder son (Alexander) having a large family of 10 children.  We have been able to make contact with a large group of Alexander's descendants now living in America. 

The second son, another James, moved to nearby Manningtree where he had a saddle and harness business before later moving to London.   We still have some of his business cards, dating from around 1840, plus the engraved copper plate from which they were printed. Our "line" is descended from this second James.

Present Day Family

Table Mountain, from across the bay

Central Cape Town shelters in the bowl of Table Mountain, with it's suburbs spreading around the mountain and down the Cape Peninsula.  The Cape has beautiful beaches and a wealth of spectacular scenery, both around Cape Town and inland. The area is noted for it's fine wines. There are several comprehensive websites for the Western Cape, which include maps, pictures, tourist guides as well as hotel and similar information.

There are a number of excellent schools in and around Cape Town, many of the older ones being boys- or girls-only schools. Three generations of McQueen boys have attended SACS (who have a web-site well worth visiting).  There are several universities in or near Cape Town - the world's first heart-transplant was undertaken in 1967 at the University of Cape Town's medical school, attached to Groote Schuur hospital.

The Cape has a large variety of indigenous flora.  Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, on the slopes of Table Mountain, is one of the oldest botanical gardens of it's type and exhibits a large variety of Cape vegetation.

Much further afield, the Transvaal Lowveld offers some excellent game-viewing.  You can get the feel for this at the Africam site (or it's North American mirror), which provides live images from a range of waterhole cameras. It's well worth a visit.

Usefull Links to "McQueen" and other sites

Cape Town Links

http://www.gopassport.com

http://www.safarimaps.com

Western Cape