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From: "Marielle Ford" <>
Subject: Re: [ZA] Jan Christiaan SMUTS' descendants.
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003 21:21:38 +0200
References: <E1AIWJ4-0003tI-00@yankee.rb.xcalibre.co.uk>
Well, I know one personally, and understand that this is his line of ancestry, so would be inclined to say "False"! He has two young sons as well, so the line continues.
Regards
Marielle Ford
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: 08 November 2003 18:51 PM
Subject: [ZA] Jan Christiaan SMUTS' descendants.
My genealogical path crossed that of a smuts descendant once, and I was told
that, while many of his descendants live, none of them bears his surname.
It makes me question, anew, the extreme bias of male line domination in
genealogy. Somehow, there is an assumption that "there are no Smuts
descendants". True or false?
--
I remain, as always,
Your Most Humble Savant,
Francois Greeff
www.Hiddencode.co.uk
Second Floor, Elmfield House
5 Stockwell Mews
London
SW9 9GX
Tel 020 77373 5500
--------- Original Message --------
From: Editor <>
To: <>
Subject: Re: [ZA] Jan Christiaan SMUTS
Date: 08/11/03 09:49
>
> Hi All
>
> Discovered among my books "Jan Smuts. An Illustrated Biography"
by Trewhella
> Cameron (Human & Rousseau, 1994). Must note that throughout Christiaan
has
> the double 'a' spelling.
>
> Chapter 1. Cape Youth
>
> Jan Christiaan Smuts was born on 24 May 1870 in a house named Bovenplaats
on
> the farm Ongegund, near Riebeek West. He was the second son of Jacobus
> Abraham Smuts, whose father owned Ongegund (Begrudged) and Catherina
> Petronella (Cato) né De Vries. His ancestry was both German and Dutch, as
> his paternal ancestor, Michiel Cornelis Smuts, had emigrated to South
Africa
> from Middleburg, Holland, around 1692, and his maternal ancestor, Johann
> Christiaan Davel (after whom he was named), had emigrated from Bautzen,
> Germany, in 1734.
>
> The Smuts family had settled in the prosperous wheat- and wine-growing
> Swartland in 1786, on the farm Zoutfontein, and had purchased Ongegund in
> 1818. The house Bovenplaats was situated on the upper reaches of the farm,
> overlooked by the heights of Riebeek Kasteel.
>
> The De Vries family, also well-to-do, lived in Worcester, northeast of
> Riebeek West, in the Breë River valley. Jan Christiaan de Vries, Smuts's
> grandfather, the owner of a shop in Worcester, provided his children with
> excellent educations. Cato de Vries, after completing her years at
Worcester
> School, was sent to the renowned Miss Syfrets's school in Cape Town, where
> she studied French and Music. She accompanied her brother, Rev Boudewyn
> Homburg de Vries (who had studied theology at Utrecht), to Riebeek West on
> his appointment as minister there, and impressed the congregation
> tremendously: "so fyn, so goed geleerd" (so refined, so
well-educated) they
> commented. Before long, Jacobus Abraham Smuts and Cato de Vries were
> married, and set up house on his father's 3 000 acre farm. Their completed
> family consisted of four sons and two daugthers. Jacobus Abraham entered
> politics as a supporter of the Afrikaner Bond, and represented his
district
> in the colonial parliament. Cato Smuts died during the Anglo-Boer War in
> 1901, and Jacobus Abraham later remarried, with the happy approval of his
> children, a girl named Maria van der Westhuizen who had been at school
with
> his son Jan.
>
> In 1876, when Jan was six, his father purchased the farm Klipfontein, some
> 16 km from Riebeek West, with a beautiful panorama of the Winterhoek
> Mountains, which Smuts later nostalgically referred to as "the hills
of my
> beginnings". He spent the greater part of his boyhood in the Riebeek
West
> area, and retained the distinctive "Malmesbury accent" for the
rest of his
> life. His lifelong interests were acquired there, and his beliefs and
values
> were formed. His intense interest in flora and fauna, his deeply
> philosophical nature and his love of simplicity, home and family were all
> nurtured by the environment of his childhood. His superior intellect was
> well balanced by a practical streak acquired as a child, when he worked on
> the farm and took responsibility for the free-ranging cattle. He was
alloted
> a share of the farm livestock, which he later sold to raise funds for his
> studies at Stellenbosch and Cambridge.
>
> His elder brother Michiel, like his Uncle Boudewyn, was destined for the
> ministry, and began his formal education at T.C. Stoffberg's school in
> Riebeek West, where he lodged with the family of Daniël Francois Malan
> (later Prime Minister and one of Smuts's main political rivals). The
younger
> Smuts children were educated at home and Cato Smuts supervised their
> education most competently. Jan, who had been "delicate" as a
baby, grew
> into an intelligent, healthy, lively boy, whose philosophical
introspection
> was balanced by a curiosity about all natural things.
>
> When he was twelve years old, the course of his life changed completely.
His
> older brother Michiel died of typhoid, and Jan took his place at T.C.
> Stoffberg's school. He board at Die Ark (The Ark), the quaintly named
house
> at the foot of Riebeek Kasteel where Mrs Stoffberg supervised many of her
> husband's pupils. The headmaster commented in later years on Smuts's
> brilliance, his remarkable memory and his unique capacity for hard work.
He
> mastered Ancient Greek in a week for his matriculation examination, and
> passed at the head of the list for that subject. In 1885 he came ninth in
> the Cape Colony's elementary examination, and a year later, after four
years
> of formal schooling, he came second in the Colony in the School Higher
(Std
> 8) Examination.
>
> Besides attending school, he taught the younger boys (among them D.F.
Malan)
> at the Sunday School in Riebeek West, and spent his vacations at
> Klipfontein, where he worked on the farm and ran messages for his father,
a
> leading figure in the social and political life of Riebeek West. He
> experienced the spiritual and physical satisfaction of mountain climbing
> which, together with his interest in nature, remained a life-long passion.
>
> The school at Riebeek West did not cater for matriculants and in 1886 he
> enrolled at the Stellenbosch Gymnasium and then at Victoria College.
> <snip>
> In 1887 Smuts obtained a first-class pass in the higher matriculation
> examination, and was placed third in order of merit. "Isie"
Krige, the
> remarkable girl who was later to become his wife, was placed ninth.
>
> Sybella Margaretha Krige, or "Isie", as she was nicknamed, was
born on 22
> December 1870, the second daughter of the nine children of Jacob Daniël
> (Japie) Krige, a respected wine and dairy farmer, and his wife Susanna
> Johanna (né Schabort). Their imposing Dutch-gable home, Libertas Parva,
was
> situated in Dorp Street, Stellenbosch.
> EXTRACT ENDS
>
> And the Kriges still live at Libertas, which descendant Johan Krige &
his
> wife Ode run as a B&B. I stayed there last year when I attended a VOC
> history conference in Stellenbosch. Johan & Ode have been involved
with the
> GSSA for many years & Johan was made an Honorary Member of GSSA this
year
> for his contributions. They're lovely, friendly people, most helpful &
very
> knowledgeable, so if anyone is planning a visit to Stellenbosch any time
> soon, try & stay there. The house is filled with wonderful antiques --
& the
> breakfasts are fantastic! I don't have contact details handy, but they're
> listed in many tourist accommodation directories, including online.
>
> Johan's study is filled with books on genealogy, which he allows visitors
to
> browse through, & on the walls hang portraits of his ancestors. He has
a
> deep & broad knowledge of Stellenbosch's history, & between him
& Dr Hans
> Heese, whom I met at the conference, I found the location of the farm
> Patryskloof that Pieternella & Daniel Zaaiman lived on briefly in the
teens
> of the 1700s, after their return from Mauritius, before poverty forced
them
> to sell the farm -- they could not afford to buy slaves to work it.
>
> Sorry, another long message, but hope it's of interest to some of you.
> Regards
> Maureen
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Snook" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: 03 November 2003 03:34
> Subject: Re: [ZA] Jan Christiaan SMUTS
>
>
> Hi Ralph
>
> In 'Jan Christian SMUTS, by his son J.C.SMUTS' pub 1952, his son describes
> his ancestry as follows:
>
> pp6
> His christian names he inherited from his maternal grandfather Jan
Christian
> de VRIES. Like his grandfather, he spelt Christian with one "a".
>
> pp 7
> Jacobus Abraham Smuts, my parternal grandfather, was a man of some
> prominance in these parts, for he was a member of the old Cape Legislature
> or supremem parliament of the province. he was the sixth generation of
> Smutses to be born in the Cape, he was almost pure Dutch extraction.
>
> The first Smuts to settle in the Cape was Michiel Cornelis who came out
from
> Zeeland in the service of the Dutch East India company in 1692.
>
> My fathers mother was plump Catherina (Cato) Petronella de Vries, a sister
> of Bodewyn, the local padre. She was the seventh generation descendant of
> Jacob Cloete who arrived in 1652 with Van Riebeecks's entourage, and in
old
> age was murdered on a farm by natives. In Ouma Cato's veins was about
> one-sixth French blood, which perhaps accounts for her mercurial &
> impressionable temperament. Boplaas was, in the 1870's, considered to be
> quite an attractive farm, lying high on the sloping ground above Kasteel .
> ... .
>
> Regards
> Deirdré Snook
> Researching Helberg / Hellberg / Buckle
> / Schultz / Pinches / Cramer / Brazer in Southern Africa
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ralph Anderson
> To:
> Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 2:34 PM
> Subject: [ZA] Jan Christiaan SMUTS
>
>
> Hi Listers,
>
> In a Cape Archives Depot article of unknown date, possibly entitled
" Jan
> Smuts as a young man" , Capter 1, CAPE YOUTH, the following sentence
appears
> in the opening paragraph :-
>
> "His ancestry was both German and Dutch, and his paternal ancestor,
> Michiel Cornelis Smuts, had emigrated to South Africa from Middelburg,
> Holland, around 1692, and his maternal ancestor, Johann Christiaan Davel
> (after whom he was named), had emigrated from Bautzen, Germany, in
1734."
>
> Can someone kindly tell me where to find the genealogical links which
will
> show how this has occurred especially in connection with his maternal
> ancestor.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ralph.
>
> ______________________________
>
>
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