Does anyone know where Gorgeda was located?
I have recently bought an item sent from the apparently unrecorded Postal Agency of Gorgeda with a "Dated Town Oval" strike of its head office at Hopedale.
For the life of me, I cannot find any reference to "Gorgeda" anywhere. Can someone help?
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Frescura (2002) list under Georgida (referred from Georgeda Uniondale) a postal agency (Uniondale) as having existed in the vicinity of Hopedale (=Uniondale). It appears that his source for the listing is exactly your cover since he refer the sender of the cover and its date.
I checked his new book now posted at Amazon.com for the postmaster's name but did not find a D.P. Marais although several of that surname existed, but that listing is only covering 1792-1910.
Thats all I can offer.
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Thanks. Strange enough though no amount of googling showed up anything. I wonder if it was some form of a temporary camp for road building or something. Thanks also for the scans. Your help is appreciated.
It may be a possibility that it was a field cornet or convict labor camp. However Frescura does not list Goreda/Georgida among any of these. But I am not familiar with this subject, although my understanding that not much is known. I should add that Frescura's new book is available in SA from Phansi Museum, https://phansi.com. It contains a large useful list of postal officials. He has a second book in the preparation containing selected essays of the Cape that should be available within a couple of month.
You are a welcome Blast from the Past, Yannisl. Nice cover! You ask and Peter answers. Wonderful! An excellent result for the SAPC.
I have never heard or Gorgeda before. Being a perverse South African romantic, I subscribe to the notion that it was a convict camp for road building. As an aside, 'gogga' is an Afrikaans word for 'insect', one that was I assume originally acquired from the Khoi (Hottentot). 'Gorgeda' might have been an English attempt to pronounce or spell a place name where an abundance of insects were to be found. (Afr. Gogga daar. Eng. Insects there.) Okay,okay, silly and it's not philatelic, I know, but postal history inspires my inner etymologist!
Thanks Steve. Missed the forums. Hoping to post more often from now, as I have more time now. Thanks also for the additional information.