23 enquiries, 22 of them still owed an answer

The letters

Every enquiry this archive has sent to an institution or a person, what came back, and what is still outstanding.

Why this page exists

Every enquiry this archive has sent, what came back, and what is still owed. It existed in three places — prose on the open-questions page, entries in the research log, and drafts in a folder — and no one of them showed what was outstanding. Reconstructing it took a search of an inbox rather than a look at this site, which is the failure this page is here to stop.

It sits beside the errands, which is the list of things that can only be got by standing in a reading room, and the work list, which is who has to move what. This one is narrower: it is only the post.

Sent, and what came back

Date	To	Asking for	State
9 Sep 2026	Western Cape Archives, Cape Town	MOOC 7/1/104 refs 42 and 43, and CO 3972 ref 17 — the Mountjoy and Slier wills of 1818 and 1827, and the 1834 Colonial Office memorial from “the widow of J Mountjoy” Six days out. Not chased: a reading room that has had one working week is not late.	No answer
9 Sep 2026	Western Cape Archives, Cape Town	MOOC 6/9/17017 ref 1847/50 — the death notice of Robert Paul Lerena, d. 19 March 1950 Sent the same evening as the Mountjoy request.	No answer
9 Sep 2026	SANDF Documentation Centre, Pretoria	UDF service and pension records, Booyzen and Booysen, Barkly East and Johannesburg, 1914–1945 sandfdoc@mweb.co.za returned 550 relay access denied. archive@dod.mil.za did not bounce and has not answered. HALF-DELIVERED IS RECORDED AS HALF-DELIVERED, NOT AS SENT. 15 SEPTEMBER: LOOKED FOR A REPLACEMENT AND THERE ISN'T ONE. sandfdoc@mweb.co.za is the ONLY address the Documentation Centre publishes — it is the address on its own directory entries and on every guide that lists it — and it is dead. What is left is the telephone, (012) 339-4600, the Schweikert Building at 20 Visagie Street, and archive@dod.mil.za, which did not bounce. A PUBLISHED ADDRESS THAT BOUNCES IS WORSE THAN NO ADDRESS: every enquirer is sending into it and none of them knows.	Half delivered
12 Sep 2026	National Archives of South Africa, Pretoria	Six Transvaal estate files — TAB MHG 1095/48, 3734/46, 769/52, 5155/51, 10/57 and 52653 15 September, Ms Mavis Xaba, Reading Room: “ALL THE ESTATE FILES YOU ARE REQUESTING ARE BOUND FILES. Unfortunately, we are therefore unable to scan these files and provide complete digital copies by email.” Not a refusal — a physical fact about the record. She corrected none of the six references and put a private researcher on copy.	Answered
15 Sep 2026	Ms Mavis Xaba, National Archives, Pretoria	Thanks, and one question only — whether TAB MHG 52653 looks like a valid reference, since it carries no year suffix and is the one file never found on microfilm Framed so she can ignore it.	Sent
15 Sep 2026	A private researcher, Pretoria	The same six bound estate files — what she charges and how, her own view of whether the work is worth doing, and an offer to begin with one THE FIRST PAID-RESEARCH APPROACH THIS PROJECT HAS MADE. Everything before it went to an institution and waited. No payment details were sent and none will be: the letter asks her to name her own arrangement.	Sent
14 Sep 2026	Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository	Six Natal estate files — NAB MSCE 2032/1969, 965/1956, 131/1959, 414/1960, 2183/1958 and 600/1974 DELIBERATELY NOT SENT. The National Archives' own record gives pmbarchives@dact.kzntl.gov.za on an entry last touched in 2015 and kzntl.gov.za is a retired domain; other listings give pmbarchives@kzndac.gov.za. The postal address and the telephone agree everywhere. This archive has already posted one enquiry into a mailbox it could not confirm. 15 SEPTEMBER, AND THE REASON FOR HOLDING IT IS WEAKER THAN IT WAS: both domains ACCEPT MAIL. kzndac.gov.za and dact.kzntl.gov.za each have MX records and no website, which is an ordinary shape for a government department. A domain taking mail and a person reading the mailbox are different facts, so telephoning first is still the better plan — but “almost certainly dead” was more than the evidence supported.	Drafted
—	The National Archives, Kew	WO 97 and WO 12 for the 21st Light Dragoons — the discharge paper that would give James Mountjoy his parish of birth Raised 15 September, on one sentence in a newspaper. The first errand this archive has had outside South Africa. 15 SEPTEMBER — AND IT CANNOT BE POSTED AS AN EMAIL. The National Archives take records and research enquiries THROUGH A WEB FORM and publish no enquiry address; the domain has a mailbox but no address anybody is invited to write to. This archive does not send letters into mailboxes it cannot confirm — it has said so about Pietermaritzburg for two days and will not make an exception for itself. The letter is written and waiting on a decision about the form.	Drafted
—	The National Archives, Kew	Guidance on tracing James Mountjoy, a saddler discharged from the 21st Dragoons (Light) at the Cape in 1816 or 1817 — which series after WO 97, and whether WO 12/1430 is the musters to read DRAFTED AFTER SEARCHING, NOT INSTEAD OF IT. Discovery was searched for four spellings across the WO series: the name-catalogued discharge series hold two Montjoys and neither is this man. The control says the absence is real — 95 WO 97 records for “21st Dragoons (Light)” in a single page — so the letter asks whether the reading is right (pensioners' papers would not hold a man discharged at the Cape without a pension) and points at WO 12/1430 and the WO 25 description books. 15 SEPTEMBER — AND IT CANNOT BE POSTED AS AN EMAIL. The National Archives take records and research enquiries THROUGH A WEB FORM and publish no enquiry address; the domain has a mailbox but no address anybody is invited to write to. This archive does not send letters into mailboxes it cannot confirm — it has said so about Pietermaritzburg for two days and will not make an exception for itself. The letter is written and waiting on a decision about the form. ··· CORRECTED 17 SEPTEMBER, BEFORE POSTING. The draft named WO 12/1430 as the piece to read. THAT IS THE 20TH AND 21ST DRAGOONS FOR 1867–1868 — fifty years late and the re-raised regiment. The 21st Light Dragoons has its own run and the piece is WO 12/1450, 1816–1817. The draft now names it, gives the newspaper evidence for a SEPTEMBER 1817 departure, and tells them plainly that an earlier version had the wrong piece.	Drafted
15 Sep 2026	National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town	MSB751, the GA Kolbe Collection — a copy of the letter of 23 August 1830 from Johan Kolbe in London to his son — described by the catalogue as written on his ordination, which it was not, and whether it carries a London address SENT 15 September to specialcollections@nlsa.ac.za, after checking that the domain takes mail. A DIFFERENT BUILDING FROM THE ONE THIS ARCHIVE KEEPS WRITING TO: the library at 5 Queen Victoria Street, not the archives at 72 Roeland Street. It asks for the letter of 23 August 1830, for whether it carries a London address at its head, and for two things about the item itself — where the original is, since the catalogue calls this a photocopy, and whether “LMS missionary” comes from the papers or from the donor. THAT LAST QUESTION IS THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST: the only other evidence for his mission work is a recollection written down forty-five years later, and whether the two are independent witnesses or one family memory told twice is the difference between corroboration and an echo. ··· ANSWERED IN TWENTY-THREE HOURS, 16 SEPTEMBER, BY MELANIE GEUSTYN. “I have placed a request for the George Augustus Kolbe manuscript to be retrieved. THE MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS ARE KEPT IN OFF-SITE VAULTS, and it should get to my desk after 11:00 tomorrow. I HAVE ALSO ASKED THAT THE BACKGROUND FILE ON THE COLLECTION BE RETRIEVED FOR ME — hopefully there might be additional information regarding the donation there. Once I have these items at hand, I will be able to assist in answering your questions.” NO ANSWERS YET AND TWO THINGS ALREADY GAINED. The manuscript is not lost, not missing and not unfindable — it is in a vault and somebody has sent for it. AND THERE IS A BACKGROUND FILE, which this archive did not know existed: the library’s own paperwork on the 1985 donation, which is where an answer to “where is the original” and “who was Dr Jean Griffiths” would live if it lives anywhere. NOTHING TO REPLY TO YET; she has not asked a question and has said she will come back. ··· AND ON 18 SEPTEMBER THE DOCUMENT ITSELF ARRIVED — THREE DAYS AFTER THE ENQUIRY WENT IN. Melanie Geustyn sent the four-page manuscript and, unasked, a two-page DICTIONARY OF SOUTH AFRICAN BIOGRAPHY entry written by DR KAREL SCHOEMAN with a list of sources. THE LETTER DOES NOT CARRY A STREET ADDRESS — “London” and nothing finer — so the Brunswick Square question stands. IT DOES SETTLE THE OTHER ONE: the LMS acceptance is in the father’s own hand in 1830, independent of a memoir written forty-five years later. And it gives Henry’s dropsy, Elizabeth in Edinburgh, Charlotte by name, and the line that dates the obituary — “kind love from your SISTERS & BROTHER”. THE BACKGROUND FILE HOLDS NOTHING FURTHER on the donation or on Dr Griffiths, so the original cannot be traced from that end. [The letter](/documents/#msb751)	answered in full
20 Sep 2026	Melanie Geustyn, Senior Librarian, Special Collections, National Library of South Africa	A thank-you, telling her what MSB 751 produced — and two remaining questions: was the DSAB entry ever published, and did the catalogue’s “LMS missionary” come from the papers or the donor DRAFTED 20 September, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. It goes as a REPLY to her email of 18 September so it keeps the thread and the MSB 751 reference. THE ENQUIRY WENT IN ON 15 SEPTEMBER AND WAS ANSWERED ON THE 18TH — three days, the whole manuscript scanned, and a second document nobody had asked for. A special-collections librarian rarely learns what a request was for or whether it came to anything; this one came to a great deal. The letter says what it settled (the LMS acceptance in the father’s own hand, Henry dying of dropsy, “sisters & brother” dating the obituary’s eight sons) AND WHAT IT DID NOT — the heading is “London” and nothing finer, so Brunswick Square against Conduit Street is still open. It also tells her the second attachment corrected this archive. ONE QUESTION ONLY, AND MARKED OPTIONAL: the typescript is unsigned, initialled and dated 18/2/92, and the Library is the only body that can say who wrote it and whether the entry was ever published. This archive would rather credit it than publish it as anonymous.	drafted
20 Sep 2026	Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh	CSWC 60 item 3 — a correction to the catalogue (Edinburgh calls Kolbe “a moravian missionary?”; he was LMS) and a request for a reproduction DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. THE ONLY LETTER IN THIS FOLDER THAT GIVES BEFORE IT ASKS. Edinburgh’s own description carries a question mark, so the cataloguer already doubted it; this archive can settle it with the NLSA catalogue of MSB 751 and with the father’s letter of 23 August 1830 — “fully accepted by the [L.M.S.] as one of their Missionaries” — and can add the service dates from the DSAB draft. It also tells Edinburgh what it appears not to know: the original watercolour is recorded in the Africana Museum, Johannesburg. THEN it asks for a copy of item 3, offers to pay the reproduction fee, and falls back on asking for the dimensions and any inscription if a scan is not straightforward. THIS ARCHIVE HOLDS NO LIKENESS OF ANYBODY BORN BEFORE 1850.	drafted
20 Sep 2026	Albany Museum, Makhanda (Grahamstown)	The photocopy of the 1819 Kolbe–Downing marriage certificate named in the DSAB source list, and anything else filed under Kolbe or Owen’s party DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. The Albany Museum holds A GENEALOGICAL ARCHIVE OF THE 1820 BRITISH SETTLERS, and he was one — Algoa Bay, 14 April 1820, the Nautilus, Owen’s party, entered as a chemist. The letter quotes the DSAB source line verbatim in Afrikaans, explains why the CERTIFICATE is not the ALLEGATION this archive already holds (witnesses and signatures, and the bride signed the allegation with a mark), offers to pay any fee, says plainly that David cannot visit and asks whether there is a research service. AND IT ASKS A SECOND QUESTION: anything else under KOLBE or under OWEN’S PARTY, because what this archive has of his first four years at the Cape is one sentence in a secondary work.	drafted
20 Sep 2026	Anne Brest, photographer-genealogist, Johannesburg	Stand down — don’t travel on Tuesday, put Invoice 463 aside, and a checked list to follow SENT 20 September 2026, as a reply on her own thread; Gmail message id `1a0bc8e25e24070d`. It asks her not to travel on Tuesday and to put Invoice 463 aside. Two reasons given, with the real one second: the transfer cannot arrive in time (her invoice rules out Wise and PayPal, and a bank transfer from Australia takes several working days), but mainly that the list has been changed too often — six files, then those six plus nineteen more across three unrelated families, then a reduced three, then a different three. And two of the six turned out to be answerable from sources already held: Catharina Maria Sophia Daschner’s parents from her 1891 Barkly Oost baptism, and John Barry Booyzen’s ten children from a public tree that matches his Brakpan gravestone to the day. She would have spent Tuesday photographing at least one file this archive did not need. NO DATE IS PROMISED AND NONE IS ASKED OF HER. The sequence set out is: one checked list → her price → payment before she travels → the visit. It offers to pay whatever the short notice has already cost her — a fee, or the hours spent arranging the files. She has arranged them twice. Cut from 506 words to 267 before sending, because a message whose whole content is an apology for wasting somebody’s time should not waste three paragraphs of it.	Sent
20 Sep 2026	Special Collections, SOAS Library — the Council for World Mission archive	Copies of four journals of George Augustus Kolbe, 1828–1834, and the incoming correspondence for 1835–1837 DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. THE MOST IMPORTANT LETTER IN THIS FOLDER, AND THE ONLY ONE THAT NAMES EVERY REFERENCE IT WANTS, because the SOAS catalogue is item-level and all seven were found in two searches. FOUR JOURNALS IN HIS OWN HAND: CWM/LMS/05/05/100 (Melvill and Kolbe, tour north-east of Philippolis, 13–22 Nov 1828), /102 (1828–1831), /106 (1831–1834), /108 (6 Oct 1832 – Sep 1833). INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE: /044 (1835, which names him), /046 (1836) and the 1837 file, Box 15 — asked for with the reason stated plainly, that this archive would rather read what the Directors were told about the 1836 accusation than keep repeating a summary of it. It offers to start with one item. AND ONE QUESTION THAT NEEDS NO SEARCHING: whether candidate papers survive as a class, since Frederick William Kolbe’s would settle Sibree’s error outright. `special.collections@soas.ac.uk` — AND IT IS IN LONDON, the one archive on this list a person could walk into.	drafted
20 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — reply, accepting a part invoice	Accept her proposal to invoice for work already done and credit it against the new list — and withdraw an excuse she was right to reject SENT 20 September 2026, Gmail message id `1a0bdccfbbce6040`, as a reply on her own thread. SHE ANSWERED WITHIN FIVE HOURS AND SHE IS RIGHT TWICE. (1) “You didn’t give me notice at all, I told you last night that I had organized everything.” Her message came at 21:21 Saturday; the stand-down at 02:03 Sunday. Five hours is not notice. (2) “BANK payments from Australia usually take two days and I sent you the Invoice a day or two ago.” THE ‘SEVERAL WORKING DAYS’ LINE WAS THIS ARCHIVE’S AND IT WAS WRONG — reasoned from general knowledge about SWIFT instead of from the person who takes foreign payments weekly. The invoice was dated 16 September; had it been paid when promised, the money would have been with her. The reply withdraws that reason rather than defending it. WHAT SHE HAS ACTUALLY SPENT: an assistant paid upfront, who asked for security for his day; contact with Ms Xaba about the contents of the files; work on Ancestry; and a professional favour called in to have the files pulled in advance at preservation. HER PROPOSAL IS FAIR AND SHE IS NOT ASKING FOR THE R11,400 — a part invoice, credited against the new list. David’s own letter had already offered precisely this, so accepting is not a concession, it is the offer being taken up. The reply does not re-litigate anything. It answers the one line that deserved an answer — “I am actually not sure what the issue really is” — with the plain reason and the bad excuse removed: two of the six files were answerable from records already held, which is a failure of preparation and not of her work.	Sent
20 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — her answer, and Invoice 464	She halves the invoice, credits it against the new list, keeps the free file, and wants to carry on RESOLVED, AND WARMLY. “Thanks for being such a gentleman about this.” INVOICE 464: R11,400 ‘Reduced to half’ = R5,700, plus the R200 South African transaction deduction she asks to be added to the final total — R5,900, about A$510. And she will deduct it from the new list, so it is a credit rather than a write-off. The free file still stands. WHAT SHE ACTUALLY DID, which is more than arranging a day: “I went online and found information on my own”, and “I also organized that all the files were taken out of the strongroom (Vault) and that everything you wanted was contained in the said file. I didn’t want to go and maybe the file was not in its folder.” She had the files pulled and checked that the wanted pages were in them before travelling. She pays for that herself. Her assistant is named: TEBOGO, English name COLMAN. AND SHE HAS SOFTENED ON PAYMENT METHOD. Her objection to Wise is a five-page “mandate”, because clients pay anne brest photography while Wise wants AP Lapedus Brest — but “someone paid me Wise the other day and I didn’t have to sign the Mandate, it came straight through… maybe you need to ask your Bank.” Worth testing: Wise would be cheaper and faster than SWIFT. She is back in the office on Tuesday.	answered in full
21 Sep 2026	MuseumAfrica, Newtown, Johannesburg	The Charles Bell watercolour of a church service at Philippolis, 1834, with Kolbe in the pulpit — the original behind Edinburgh’s photographic copy DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David’s. THE SECOND HALF OF A PAIR, AND THE HARDER HALF. The DSAB sends a reader to the Africana Museum — now MuseumAfrica — for this watercolour, reproduced in The Journal of Andrew Smith, ed. Lye (Balkema, 1975). It could not be checked from a desk because MuseumAfrica has no searchable online catalogue, which is the whole reason this is a letter. It asks three things in order of usefulness: the accession number, a reproduction and its fee, and — if the sheet is not theirs — where it went, which would be worth as much as the picture. It offers the museum a way in that does not depend on Kolbe’s name, by naming the other four subjects in the same Bell series that Edinburgh catalogues: Archbell, Edwards, Pellissier, and a service at Ebenezer. A collection filed by artist or by expedition may find the group faster than it finds one missionary. SEND EDINBURGH FIRST AND NOT AS A PAIR — CSWC 60 item 3 is catalogued, identified and in a university archive that answers email, and anything it sends back makes this request sharper. This archive holds no likeness of anybody born before 1850.	drafted
21 Sep 2026	Western Cape Archives, Cape Town — a second note	Chasing the two requests of 9–10 September: MOOC 7/1/104 refs 42 and 43 with CO 3972 ref 17, and MOOC 6/9/17017 ref 1847/50 DRAFTED AND DELIBERATELY HELD. It is not to be sent before the end of September, which is what row 48 says: two requests went on 9–10 September, and at the end of the month they are three weeks out, which is the point a second note stops being impatient. Both are in one letter because both went to the same address on the same evening — chasing them separately would make two enquiries out of one. It offers to make the order SMALLER rather than repeat it: the first page of each will, and the memorial's first page and signature, would answer the questions on their own. And it gives the reading room an easy way to close it — three of the four references came from NAAIRS and one from a secondary citation, so if a reference does not resolve, saying so is a complete and welcome answer. A reading room is not late; it is busy, and South African institutions have been generous to this archive all month.	drafted
21 Sep 2026	Free State Archives Repository, Bloemfontein (VAB) — Mr Tshitso Challa	Three references in one building: VAB A1 19 No. 244 (Herinneringe van genl. W J Kolbe, p.78), VAB MHG M777 (the Commandant's widow, 1896) and VAB MHG K71 (the Commandant, 1868) DRAFTED, NOT SENT; the sending is David's. ONE LETTER AND NOT THREE, because all three are in the same building and the two estate files are very likely pulled by the same person on the same morning. The memoir leads — page 78 is asked for, and the whole if it is short, plus its extent and any recorded author, because the identification rests on initials: a Renier-versameling at Pretoria lists a P Kolbe, so the collector dealt with more than one of this family and W J is not proved to be Willem Johannes until somebody opens the folder. The letter says so, and asks to be told if `A1 19` is a misreading of the journal's printed Al 19. For both estates it names the death notice as the page most wanted if the file is impractical — the Commandant left eight sons and four daughters and this archive can name two. It ASKS rather than assumes about the rest: there are four further VAB references, and the letter asks whether they would prefer them in this order or separately, on the principle that a short list is answered sooner than a long one. ADDRESS CONFIRMED from `sacr.fs.gov.za/?page_id=1080` on 21 September. A second address in wide circulation, `fsarch@sac.fs.gov.za`, differs from the department's own domain by one letter — `sac` against `sacr` — and is NOT confirmed. It is recorded in the letter as the thing to try if the first bounces.	drafted
21 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — the summary she asked for	What the archive is after, why the files were the wrong files, and her own list marked still need / don't need SENT 21 September 2026, as a reply on her own thread; Gmail message id `1a0c3a45abd88f27`. SHE ASKED FOR IT HERSELF — “Maybe you can tell me what is is you are trying to do and why the files were the wrong files. I can help with info if you need it.” IT ASKS FOR NOTHING AND OFFERS NO FEE. An earlier draft ended by commissioning the paper-index lookup and offering to pay for it; David is not committing to paying for more work, so that is gone, and so is any promise of a corrected list. The letter states the goal, marks her seven lines still need / don't need, sets out the two gaps, and stops. She offered information, and the closing line takes her at exactly that word. THE LIST: 1095/48 still need (a tree says 21 Feb 1947, the Johannesburg burial register says 11 Dec 1947); 3734/46 don't need (parents on her 1891 Barkly Oost baptism); 769/52 don't need (a tree names all ten children, matching the Brakpan stone to the day); 5155/51 still need (trees give parents and nothing else); 10/57 don't need (baptism, marriage, death and burial all held); 52653 not a file at all; 10245/69 Wear still need, and it belongs to the Johannesburg branch, not the Booyzens. THE TWO GAPS NAMED: MHG 40293, Kolbe 1918, one page, where “Downing” is Margaret Downing's maiden name carried as a forename; and the correct 1920s reference behind 52653, which is not consultable from outside that building. IT CORRECTS A NUMBER SHE WAS GIVEN — two of six became three, plus a fourth that is not a file. AND IT WITHHOLDS THE LUWINSKI DNA FINDING: an inference about a living man's parentage is not a contractor's business.	Sent
21 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — a postscript with the links	Four links to the published archives, sent an hour after the summary: the children's site, Booyzen, Luwinski and the Record Atlas SENT 21 September 2026, Gmail message id `1a0c3b1cdc859b23`, on the same thread. A postscript, not a second letter — it asks for nothing and says no reply is needed. Sent because “documented family history” was a vague answer to give somebody who does this for a living. ALL FOUR URLS TESTED BEFORE SENDING, ALL HTTP 200, which is this archive's rule about references and applies to its own links as much as to anyone else's. `Our-Family/` is framed as THE CHILDREN'S ONE, at David's instruction and because it is true: the only one of the seven written for children rather than about the family, and the hand-off to every grown-up archive. LUWINSKI WAS INCLUDED ON DAVID'S EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION AND THE CONSEQUENCE WAS PUT TO HIM FIRST. The summary an hour earlier withheld the DNA finding, because an inference about a living man's parentage is not a thing to volunteer to a contractor — but that archive publishes `/dna/` itself, so the link reaches it. Raised, answered, and recorded as a choice rather than an oversight. Volunteering a finding in a paragraph and linking to a site already public are different acts, and the second was his to make. It is given the JOHANNESBURG framing — Kurt Luwinski out of Berlin in 1933, dead there in 1969, buried at Chevra Kadisha — because that is the line most likely to interest a Johannesburg genealogist. Every one of these sites shows the living by initial only, with a build gate that refuses the build otherwise, which is why they are safe to send at all.	Sent
22 Sep 2026	Anne Brest — holding off, on cost	Her correction on 52653 accepted, and the Pretoria work held off because the cost is more than can be taken on now SENT 22 September 2026, Gmail message id `1a0c925de610b3a3`, on her own thread. IT IS A HOLD AND NOT AN ORDER. An earlier draft placed the five files she marked up and asked her to invoice; David cannot take on another payment of that size now, so the letter declines for the moment and gives cost as the reason and the only reason — no invented delay, nothing that would leave her expecting an order next week. IT RELEASES HER EXPLICITLY: no date, no files, and no favours at Preservation on his account, which matters because she spent one of those last time. IT CONCEDES 52653 IN HALF A SENTENCE and does not dwell — she was right, it is a file, and the record here was corrected before the letter was written. IT ASKS FOR NOTHING. In particular it does NOT ask for the missing part of the MHG 40293 reference, which she had volunteered: asking a person for free expertise in the same letter that says you cannot pay them is not a thing this archive will do. It keeps until there is an order. AND IT DOES NOT RAISE THE R5,900 CREDIT. That is David's money and his call; in a letter about not proceeding it would read either as asking for it back or as waiving it.	Sent

Nothing here was sent on this archive's own authority. Every letter above was drafted, shown, and sent only when the user said so — and the two that involve money or a public posting under his name are marked as his to send, not this archive's.