Dedication / Opdrag
To the most important people in my life. Then last but not least - the thank you's.

Genealogy / Genealogie
I now no longer publish notes or stories about individuals on-line. Please contact me for more information about any individual you may be interested in. This section is organised differently to the rest of the website, as it is automatically generated by the family tree software I use. This will always be work in progress - please send me your updates - and please come back again.

DNA Results / DNA Resultate
The results are in ...

Maps and Places / Kaarte en Plekke
This section will try and put the information about my families in some historical context.

Pays Huguenot
Une page consacrée à mes ancêtres de huguenot, les réfugiés originaux.

Historical Archive / Historiese Argief
Not about genealogy, this section of the website has a political nature. It has been cobbled together from remnants of old websites of mine, circa mid-1980s to early-1990s. I re-surrected it as it explains some of my life history, but politically it is totally outdated.

Familie JANSE VAN RENSBURG
Since early 2006, I have been writing a book about my Janse van Rensburg branch between 1708 and 2008. This book is nearing completion, and I will be publishing the first edition in this section, as it is released. Presented as large PDF files.

Anna VAN GROOTHENNING descendants
Since early 2006, I have been writing a book about those descendants of Anna van Groothenning's who were also my ancestors. This book is work in progress, and I will be publishing the first edition in this section, as it is completed. Presented as large PDF files.

WRIGHT Family
One of my ancestors was a Wright from Scotland. This is about the history of the Wright families in southern Africa. Compiled by Jack Wright. Presented as a large PDF file, with permission.

Familija TODOROVSKI
The history of my wife's Todd family and their roots are in the former Yuguslav Republic of Macedonia - and East Prussia Germany, now Kaliningradskaya Russia. This extract, from a book written by her father, covers his life in Macedonia, plus migration to and life in Australia. Presented as large PDF files.

Sources and Links / Bronne en Skakels
Where you can go to find out more.

Welcome to our family web site.

I have long been interested in the histories of my families, but never knew much about it, or even where to start looking. Our family histories have never been recorded before now. One of the main motivations I had for starting this project was the expected birth of my son. This is an event that I was very much looking forward to, especially since I will, in true family tradition, be 45+ years older than my first son. My father was 40 years older than me, and his father was about 40 years older still. This means that he was born 123 years after his grandfather! It was about time.

The age differences meant that I never spent enough time with my elder family members. Therefore, I have relied heavily on archival and other published research to complete my genealogy. But I also relied on the help and anecdotes of others, particularly on the memories of older family members. See the "Sources and Links" section for credits. I hope that my son will one day appreciate the effort that went into writing this down.

Initially my research (and this website) represented the family origins of my eight great-grandparents - their genealogy in South Africa, and their ancestry from Europe and elsewhere. As I learned more about other branches of my family, I expanded the focus to sixteen great-great grandparents. Two years later, and I have completed my research into all my ancestors back to about the 17th century. This was quite an effort. In the nine generations before mine, like everyone else, I had 1,022 ancestors in total - including my parents. At the time of writing this, my database contains 2,500 names. That is a tiny number compared to some researchers; still it took me 2 years to get that far.

On this website, I will pay particular attention to four family branches. The Janse van Rensburg family is important to me, as I carry their name. Furthermore, with today's technology, the Janse van Rensburg DNA is detectible in my body, as is the genes passed on to me by one of my slave ancestors, Anna van Groothenning. (Read more about this in the section on "DNA Results").

I have included research about the Wright family because it was available to me, and because not much is known about my branch of this family. My wife's Todd family is also presented, as her father wrote down the history of that family. The genealogy section is organised around our son, as the root person.

This website and the material presented in it will attempt and put our family history in some historical and geographical context. It will very much be work in progress - perpetually. I hope you that you will enjoy your visit, and find the material interesting. If you find mistakes, missing links, or can share additional data, I will be delighted to have that information, as I am constantly trying to learn more about our family tree.

The website is mainly presented in English, as that will allow my family members not born in South Africa to follow it. However, many of the quotes and notes are in other languages, mainly Afrikaans, but also Dutch, German, French, and English, the main languages of my ancestors. I have decided to use quotes and historical notes in their original languages.

Lastly, you'll find a hotch-potch of designs on this website. This is because