About this Site

In the nineteenth century several Irish families with the surname Daly immigrated to South Africa. I am descended from one of those immigrants. In 1830 William Daly sailed into Cape Town. He married Barbara Magdalena Croeser and they had 6 children. William and Barbara died untimely deaths that saw the young family disperse but some family ties persisted. This website aims to bring us all together again by sharing stories of what we have discovered about our ancestors, or what we remember.

Other Daly families in South Africa will have had similar experiences. We would all benefit from sharing these stories – whether we have an identified common ancestor or not, we probably came from the same soil in Ireland.

This is not a genealogy but I have provided some details of aspects of the family tree to help us locate people (in particular the generations who have all named a son Ramsay L’Amy!) Any additions to this family tree are very welcome. I also invite you, wherever you are, to comment or point out mistakes in the Comment section after each story. I know full well that family legends can be edited or distorted and I have made use of a few stories that my siblings and I remember from our childhood. Any mistakes are, of course, mine alone.

My hope is that there are Daly descendants who might like to contribute further stories – generally I have tried to limit each piece to 1,000 word or so with two or three photographs. Stories that you want to tell about yourself are very welcome but if you write the story of a family member who is still alive, please get their agreement. Please send any new contributions to me at jdaly9515@gmail.com.

I now live in Melbourne, Australia and this has seriously limited the time that I can spend in the field, tracing through the valuable South African Archives or speaking to distant relatives to ask to see their family photographs.

Photograph by Berto Voigt