Hi Mark,
Congratulations on picking up his ABO medal; I also enjoy collecting and researching them.
Researching the Boer side is a lot more work but can be very rewarding; I took inspiration from Henk and I try to collect QSA's and ABO's from men who were on the same battlefield at the same time....lots of fun.
In your case David has included the bio from the City Coins Auctions so you have a very good starting point; you can skip a few of the points below.
For future medals this is how I go about researching them:
1. Always get a copy of the Vorm B; there are lots of clues such as (1) What farm/district they were living at (2) a copy of their signature. The signature is useful in matching to marriage certificates. Dewald has always helped me out and without him I would just be second guessing myself. It's also great to see who they fought under and what battles they took part in.
2. Know the suspender type; the one above indicates that it's a later issue so I would expect the recipient to still be alive post 1940's. It also means that he would be quite young (under 25 at least) in 1899.
3. Register with:
www.familysearch.org/en/home/portal/
It's Free (my favourite 4 letter F-word)
In the search function put in his details such as first name, surname, Place - South Africa, a birth range from 1875 to 1890, a death range from 1930 to 1950 and have a play from there.
Start with "Exact Matches" and back off from there.
Be prepared for some slight changes to the spelling of their family names; "z" and "s" and "c" and "k" become interchangeable and often the spelling was changed to match the pronunciation.
If you get a hit then look for his marriage certificate and compare signatures; next step is to look for his death certificate and see where he was residing and see if this is near where he was living when he applied for his ABO.
If he was a POW then the Anglo Boer War Museum Database will have his age and it helps to narrow down the search:
wmbr.org.za/view.asp?pg=research&pgsub=databases&head1=Search
If his death certificate sates military pension then have a look at the Anglo Boer War Museum Database under "League of Vetrens"; there will be more clues there.
It's like solving a puzzle from 100 years ago....lots of frustration but so much fun when it finally clicks into place.
Once you found the man the you can "Follow" him on Family Search and if anyone of those fantastic researches updates any of his information then you can track without have to search for him again.
Good luck and please let us know how yo go.
Regards,
Shaun
