At the beginning of the 20th century some shipping lines such as the Woermann Linie and Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie offered the service to travellers to publish their arrival in the German colonies for a small fee (see an advert in the Deutsch- Südwestafrikanische Zeitung, 20th February 1909 below). Here surnames and professions of the new arrivals were announced. There are more possibilities to search for people that arrived and lived in then German South West Africa. Clues can be found in the historic newspapers under various categories ranging from birth notices, adverts for brides, wedding announcements, insolvency and military announcements among others. Further information about people is retrievable from Address books (1908-1958, see below), the German “Kolonialblatt” (1890-1914) and other publications. These valuable historic documents as well as all local newspapers since 1989 are archived at the Sam Cohen Library Swakopmund.
The existing passenger lists of the years between 1902 and 1939 have already been sorted alphabetically. To enquire, kindly contact us at info<at>sciswk.com or visit us at the Sam Cohen Library.
