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Introduction to the Resolutions
of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope
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Searches in the Resolutions
The search function is one of the main advantages of a digital publication. The Resolutions contain approximately six and a half million words! By means of Free search the researcher can look for all the terms and names he or she needs. It should be kept in mind that there were no regular spelling conventions to adhere to during the VOC period. Therefore letters such as C and K, F and V, S and Z, T and D, I and J, and EI, Y and IJ were used interchangeably, and it happened frequently that in one sentence the same word was spelt with a uij or ui, eij or ij etc. In order to trace all the spelling variations of a particular word the researcher must identify its most essential element or ‘stem’ and then conduct a search. For example, in a search for slavernij one has to look for slaaf, slaav, slaef, slaev, slav and slaf, with sla- being the ‘stem’ of all the variants. Another possibility to cover an even broader field is to look for a synonym that was used during the VOC period, for instance lijfeigene for slave. Even after a search for a number of letter combinations, such as lijfei, lijvei, lijfey, leifei, leijfei, leijfey, leyfey, leyfei, leyfeij and lyfeij all the possibilities have not yet been covered. One really has to think creatively if one wants to list all the related forms.
In order to simplify the search, the names of ships and geographical references were coded as two separate groups. Since the spelling of the names was not normalised, similar inconsistencies apply in these categories. For example, the name of a particular ship was spelt in different ways: Boekenrode, Boekenroode Boekkenrode, Bouckenroode, Boukenrode, Boukenroode and Boukenrooden. The same occurred to a place name, for example Graaf Rynet, Graaf Rynet, Graaff Reijnet, Graaff Rijnet, Graaffe Reinet, Graaffe Rijnet, Graaffe-Reijnet, Graaffe-Reinet, Graaff-Rijnet and Graaf-Reijnet.
As far as geographical references are concerned, the researcher has to bear in mind that the most frequently used place names (with all their spelling variations), such as Cabo de Goede Hoop, Batavia, Asia, India, Africa, Java, Holland, Zeeland and Nederland, as well as Caabsche, Oostindische etc. were not coded, since coding these geographical references would only have resulted in numerous unnecessary and unwanted repetitions. When referring to the VOC Chambers the place names Amsterdam , Middelburg, Hoorn , Enkhuizen, Delft and Rotterdam were not coded. Terms or words with an apparent geographical reference were not coded, for example Mardyker (free Christian) and Moor (mostly used for a Muslim). Language names, i.e. Fransch were also not coded; the same applies to adjectives, for example fransche in fransche brief [a letter written in French], as this could barely be regarded as having any geographical reference. A letter written in French need not necessarily have originated in France , but might, for example, have been written by a French-speaking Englishman who lived at the Cape of Good Hope.
Derivations and adjectives of geographical names and references, however, such as brittanische in brittanische Majesteit [British Majesty] and Namaquase in Namaquase natie [Namaqua nation, Namaqua being the name of an indigenous people] were coded as were the names of fortifications, preceded by the particular type, for example Fort St.George.
The names of persons were not coded, because of the very large quantity, diversity of references and spelling variations. Normalisation would have been too time-consuming and costly, but with the aid of the Free search option it is possible to conduct a successful search for personal names.
One may also search for the year (1651-1795) and inventory number (C. 1 to C. 231). In this way all the Resolutions from one particular year or all the Resolutions collected in one archival volume may be found.
In the Introduction continual reference is made to the archival volumes from C. 1 to C. 231. These references can be traced in the search module under the search option reference number. The letter C. refers to Council of Policy, the archives of the Council of Policy with the Resolutions being part thereof.
Reference is also made to the Haagse Kopie (H.K.) [The Hague Copy] and Koloniaal Archief (abbr. Kol. Arch.) [Colonial Archives]. The Haagse Kopieë [The Hague Copies] in the Cape Town Archives Repository originated from the National Archives of the Netherlands to supplement the Resolutions that are lacking in the Cape series. Koloniaal Archief is the outdated reference to an archival section of the National Archives of the Netherlands from which the VOC archives have been separated, and is included in the archival inventory 1.04.02.
All the archival records of the VOC are described in inventories. The VOC inventories from South Africa as well as those from the Netherlands , Indonesia , Sri Lanka , India , Malaysia and the United Kingdom can be consulted on the Internet. On the Internet there are even more detailed descriptions available of many volumes containing VOC archival records, where a large amount of information regarding the Cape of Good Hope can also be found.
It is only human to err. It may thus be expected that during this challenging process of digitising the Resolutions errors were made. The digital documents are, therefore, corrected when and if necessary. Your recommendations and suggestions in this regard will be highly appreciated.
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