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From: "V NIEDERBERGER" <>
Subject: [ZA] Fw:
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 10:45:48 +0200





Greetings Fellow Genealogists

New to 'The List', but not to genealogy, I wish to tell you that my Mom, Gloria Joey Frances du Plessis, nee Jacobs was an avid genealogist for about 45 years before she passed away on 9th August this year. Mom was healthy and strong and passed on without prior illness, nor warning to her family, who love her dearly, from brain stem stroke within 4 days. Her input into the LDS libraries and other brons will be really missed, I know. My sincere sympathies to April Blakely and her family, I know how you are feeling right now as we are all still reeling in shock. But great news about the new little one - congratulations!
Mom and I have spent the last 30 odd years seeking my great grandfather on my fathers' side of the family - du Plessis. We suspect that his names were Andries Jacobus du Plessis, born possibly from 1850 to 1860-ish, wife unknown. One of his son's we suspect was Philip or Philippus who married into the Muir family, in the Eastern Cape or Transkei. Philip's brother, my grandfather, was Willem Frederick du Plessis *1886 and + 1850, buried in Umtata,married to Hilda Augusta Arnold, my grandmother. They lived in the Lady Frere area, close to Queenstown, where my Dad was born in 1922, named Andries Jacobus du Plessis. His was one of the few du Plessis families who had English as their home language, although his father was typically boertjie. I passed through Queenstown and Lady Frere a month ago only to find that most of the graves in Lady Frere have been destroyed. If anybody out there has any info at all, however small and seemingly irrelevant to share I would be most gra!
teful.
The other SA families that I am researching are;
Black, Bain, Muir, Alexander, Johnston, Smith, Arnold, Berger, Lorenz or tz, Wait, Jacobs, Rautenbach, Viljoen, Trafford, Stanton, Pringle, Dodds, Corbett, Rodgers, Glenister, Waters, Gray, Kymdell.
Well, actually, the list goes on and on as I do not stop my family research at du Plessis and Jacobs [my parents] and I have a rather large database on PAF 5, of most of the families connected in any way to mine, SA, Dutch, German, British etc. I also have the complete collection of South African Genealogies by Dr Heese up to the latest [Pi-Q], as well as a number of other books, so I am able to offer assistance to anyone on 'The List', although, sadly, listed info is not always accurate.
I realise this is a long letter, but one last request to any of the du Plessis families out there. I am currently involved with a Professor at Stellenbosch University in the research of all du Plessis families for a du Plessis book which we hope to publish in the near future. This book will hopefully be as near to absolutely correct and accurate, and up to date, as possible. We need your data, du Plessis', as far back as can be remembered! Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require further details.

Best regards to you all,
Viv Kymdell
[PS In case you're confused by V Niederberger, that is my 1st marriage surname - my alias!]


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