South African genealogy site to close

I've just read on Dick Eastman's blog that the South African focussed genealogy site Ancestry24 (www.ancestry24.com) is about to close its doors for good. From the site:

We regret to advise that the Ancestry24 business will close on 28 February 2013. After this date, the web-site www.ancestry24.co.za will cease to function.

With regard to any premium subscription, which was planned to continue past 28 February 2013, we will be refunding the entire subscription amount that you paid to us. This effectively means that you will have been able to utilize the premium access at no charge during the portion of your subscription that is expired at 28 February 2013. We trust this relieves the inconvenience.

It's very unfortunate, because this was such a good site, with many records of value to those from a British background who settled there, including many parish registers, school magazines, photos, immigration records and more. No new content is to be added for the remainder of its existence, or new subscribers taken on, but content will remain available until February 28th. What will become of the data on the site is equally unclear.

The full announcement is at http://ancestry24.com/closure-of-ancestry24/.

If you do have African connections, I have an article appearing in a forthcoming issue of Your Family Tree magazine on some useful resources that might help, including additional resources for South Africa.

(With thanks to Eastman's Online Genealogy newsletter)

Chris

Pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, through Pen and Sword (30 April 2013), or purchase early at Who Do You Think You Are Live 2013 in London. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.