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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2002-12 > 1039010164


From: "Frans Theunissen" <>
Subject: [ZA] First generation-founder
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 15:56:04 +0200


Hi listers

I do not think there is a problem in labelling the first-born and the
siblings of a family in a new country as first generation. But I have
always understood that their father must be the stamvader
(ancestor).

In my opinion, the ancestor is the one that arrived here, on our
shores. This could be with wife and children, or he married and had
issue sometime after arrival here. By one South African convention,
the ancestor is labelled as "a" and his children b1, b2, b3 etc.

In my own family, we had 4 different ancestors, so they are labelled
as a1, a2, a3 and a4 in my records. The American notion does not
make sense to me; I fail to see how the stamvader and first
generation can be the same. I suppose the American equivalent of
our stamvader is "founder".

Frans Theunissen
Cape Town

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