GSSA - Northern Transvaal Allegaartjie

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Northern Transvaal Branch - Allegaartjie 2020

The Allegaartjie meeting has become an annual institution of the Northern Transvaal branch, during which branch members present a variety of talks - usually something of everything. The Afrikaans word ‘Allegaartjie’ actually means that one accumulates, collects or combines different things to be jointly entertained by the variety.

Navigate to the presentation video, text or slide set. Each presentation is in the language of the topic. For a summary of each presentation, see below.

			Click on the ✔ to open
DATE	SPEAKER	TOPIC	VIDEO	TEXT	SLIDES	CV
2020-11-14	Oosie Oosthuizen	Programme Director
2020-11-14	Louna Coetzee	Op gister se spore	✔	✘	✔	✔
2020-11-14	Tinus Kühn	Die foto in die gang	✔	✘	✔	✔
2020-11-14	David Engela	Van watter Engela's is jy?	✔	✘	✔	✔
2020-11-14	Flip & Leonie de Witt	Familiegeskiedenis, aan die hand van foto's en gepaste musiek:	✘	✘	✘	✔
		Piet Retief: Lenie de Wet-soektog	✔	✘	✘	✘
		Zuurberg Soektog – Jan Christoffel Greyling	✔	✘	✘	✘
		Leonie Greyling Familie-register	✔	✘	✘	✘
		Flip de Witt Familie-register	✔	✘	✘	✘
2020-11-14		Afsluiting	✔	✘	✘	✘
	Wendy Cox	Bedank die sprekers
	Wilhelm Bernhardt	Spreek die laaste woord
ALLEGAARTJIE FOR UPCOMING YEAR
2022	Northern Transvaal Branch - Allegaartjie
2021	Northern Transvaal Branch - Allegaartjie

Prof Tinus Kühn - The Portrait in the Passage

Tinus Kühn, 14 November 2020

The story that unfolds in Tinus' PowerPoint presentation is disturbing. Although he remembers the photograph in the passage of his parents' house well, he had little information about it. His father did not know much either.

It was Tinus' paternal grandfather: Willem Johannes Kühn, the 6th generation from the progenitor Hans Kune. The latter worked from 1688 to 1726 at the Castle in Cape Town. Tinus' research on the ancestors shows that Willem Johannes was born in Swellendam in 1854 and married a Combrink lady in 1887. They had two children.

After this he was married a second time: to Hester Johanna Petronella Cilliers with whom he had six children.

During the Anglo-Boer War he was on commando while his family was in the concentration camp. After the war, with only the clothes on their bodies, he moved with his family and other relatives to German West Africa (later South West Africa, now Namibia). They were not part of the Thirstland Trekkers; only four families who moved out in April 1904. Tinus' father Danie was a few months old.

They trekked from Sendelingspos in Marico via Mafeking (now Mafikeng) to Rietspruit on the border, and further to the vicinity of Mariental. Meanwhile, their oxen had died and they had to borrow a cart and oxen. Willem and his son-in-law Tom Knoesen went into the interior with £ 3,000 (three thousand pounds), where they were allegedly killed by the Witboois - against whom they were warned.

According to a statement made by one Wouter Gronum, Willem was strung up from a tree, while Tom first fled but was later shot by the Witboois and also hanged.

The survivors were housed at a mission station for a time and later returned to the Cape via Windhoek and Swakopmund. Eventually, they returned to Sendelingspos.

Tinus concluded by showing a photograph of a doll his Grandpa Willem had bought for the one daughter Hester; still in its original packaging. It is with a family member in Pretoria.

David Engela - From which Engela’s are you?

David Engela, 14 November 2020

The title of David's presentation comes from his school years when he was asked by a senior at the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies) in Pretoria: "From which Engelas are you?" He was very surprised, because until then David was under the impression that there were only two Engelas in South Africa, his father and himself.

Although his interest in the family took hold early on (from his maternal grandmother), David only started doing serious research as recently as 2018.

However, following his mother's death in 2016, he found a booklet by Hercules Jurgen Engela: The Engela Family 1738-1991. His aim now is to update the book's data.

His methodology was to join MyHeritage and Ancestry, which is free if you build a family tree on it, and he also soon realised Google and FamilySearch were valuable: "invaluable" as he puts it. So is Facebook.

He became a member of GGSA's Northern Transvaal branch in October 2018. He has great appreciation for the Erfenisstigting (Heritage Foundation) library and spends a lot of time there.

Under the heading 'Questions, Discoveries, Damages, Shames and a Little Brag', David highlights interesting facts about the Engela ancestors. From the ship's register of the 'Beukensteijn' that he obtained from the archives in the Netherlands, he noticed that Jurgen Hendrik Engelaar came to the Cape and worked as a teacher for one Casper Batenhorst.

A will shows that Jurgen's surname was Engela, so no longer Engelaar. He married Anna van Staden, widow of Van Niekerk, in the Cape in 1746. There is no reference to a first wife, who may have died, or never came to South Africa herself. The other possibility is that Jurgen was a bigamist, if he was never divorced from the first wife.

David's great-grandfather Thomas Willem Engela (1880-1928) was a Cape Rebel who fought in the Anglo-Boer War and was captured. He was tried at Graaff-Reinet and banished to Bermuda, sentenced to lifelong hard labour. However, the sentence was shortened and later amnesty was granted. He ran a tobacco dealer and hairdressing business in Bureau Lane in Pretoria.

Some of the Engela family also died in the Spanish flu of 1918. Other family members made great strides in cultural circles, including Johann Engela, a composer and radio broadcaster who was once married to Mimi Coertse. There was also a painter and composer, writers and Charl Andries Engela (1911-1994) who was a sculptor. Today, Engela family members find themselves all over the world.

Lessons David learned include pursuing a specific goal and always verifying information. Genealogy is an obsession and research never ends. It is also important not to run genealogy in isolation. Never give up; ask someone who can help.

Flip en Leonie de Witt - Family history, using photos and appropriate music

Flip en Leonie de Witt, 14 November 2020

During the break, a series of videos were shown by Flip and Leonie de Witt. It was put together with great effort, containing photographs and beautiful music and song. The informative production was about Leonie's ancestors and the search for their graves or where they died:

The first was about Magdalena Johanna Greyling (born De Wet) who was married to Piet Retief. In the following video, Flip and Leonie searched the Zuurberg area (in the Eastern Cape near Somerset East) for the place where Jan Christoffel Greyling and his men were ambushed and killed. Finally, Leonie Greyling's family tree was highlighted and thereafter also Flip de Witt’s family tree.

Wilhelm Bernhardt - The final word

"The past slips away and is lost, flows away like water, drains away like sand, and we hear the low murmuring of noise and notice how it is lost. I am the one seeing it, the only observer, the only witness: the dust on the shiny black boots, the tracks of the horses in the road, the swaying curtain in front of the window or the ribbon on the threshold; I'm the only one who knows about it, and if I did not record it, it would be lost as if it never existed. I alone hear, and if there were voices sounding from this darkness, the words would be lost if I did not listen and record them”.

Direct translation from: Verliesfontein, Karel Schoeman ,1998

he only observer, the only witness: the dust on the shiny black boots, the tracks of the horses in the road, the swaying curtain in front of the window or the ribbon on the threshold; I'm the only one who knows about it, and if I did not record it, it would be lost as if it never existed. I alone hear, and if there were voices

The past slips away and is lost, flows away like water, drains away like sand, and we hear the low murmuring of noise and notice how it is lost. I am the one seeing it, the only observer, the only witness: the dust on the shiny black boots, the tracks of the horses in the road, the swaying curtain in front of the window or the ribbon on the threshold; I'm the only one who knows about it, and if I did not record it, it would be lost as if it never existed. I alone hear, and if there were voices sounding from this darkness, the words would be lost if I did not listen and record them”.

Direct translation from: Verliesfontein, Karel Schoeman ,199

sounding from this darkness, the words would be lost if I did not listen and record them”.

Direct translation from: Verliesfontein, Karel Schoeman ,199