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The Hayter Family

I was born Cryilene Carol Hayter, but my name was changed to Margaret Carol Kent when I was 3 weeks old and adopted by Gerald and Hansi Kent.  I had a wonderful childhood even though my father was killed when I was only 6 months old.  My mother took me to visit many interesting places throughout South Africa and in Europe.  I spent wonderful holidays in Holland with my grandmother and Switzerland with an uncle.

In 2000 it became legal, in South Africa, for adopted children to trace their birth parents.  I was very unsure if I should trace my birth mother, but I wanted to let her know what had happened to me.  I started the ball rolling, knowing full well that she may not want to know me at all, but then I also knew I had let her know.  After only a few weeks looking I received a fax from her through the Adoption Agency in Pretoria South Africa.  That was one of the happiest days of my life.  That year, my husband, children and I went to America to meet her, my step-father and youngest brother in November and in December we all went to South Africa where I met my two aunts, cousin and other brother.

It was while meeting my aunts that I discovered that I was a descendant of the Bowker family who were 1820 Settlers to South Africa and descended from the Thomas & George Smith Hayter who were silversmiths of London during the reign of George V and Queen Victoria.

The earliest Hayter I have been able to trace in my family is John Hayter, whose son Thomas Hayter was a silversmith and died in 1840. Click here to see the Hayter Family Tree.

If there is any information you can add to the Hayter family, please email me.