Profiles

These articles have been highlighted as they have made the news and are fascinating reading:



Gareth Cliff - An Idyllic Family Tree

Most of us have interesting stories and rumours to tell about our family history and background. Sometimes the legacies left by our ancestors are small but important enough in our lives to be proud of those small things left behind and then there are those who are just darn lucky to come from an extremely long line of prolific ancestors who just keep getter better and better every time they go back another generation.

Some of us do not even know what our grandmother's maiden name was and clutch at any strand of family gossip to put some flesh on the bones of our forefathers.   Gareth Cliff, judge of the TV show Idols and 5FM DJ - has it all.  Not only is Gareth renowned for his wonderful sense of wit, charm and his dashing good looks but also is an avid family historian that has spent much of his spare time digging into the past.
Click [here] to read more.
Click [here] to see his family tree.

Frans “Ryk” Neethling

Frans “Ryk” Neethling, Olympic Swimmer born 17 November 1977 in Bloemfontein to Ryk and San-Marie Neethling.

Ryk was educated at Grey College in Bloemfontein and the University of Arizona where is obtained a degree in Business. He has two sisters Elsje and Marie in his very close knit family.

He has won 4 Gold Medals in Swimming. Ryk’s family history goes back to the original stamvader Christiaan Ludolph Neethling.

Click [here] to read more about the original Neethling family in South Africa

Click [here] to find out more about Ryk.

Hugh Grant

Suave and dapper film star Hugh Grant family ancestral roots did not begin in the lavish suburbs of Notting Hill, London but right here in our very own vibrant mother City of Cape Town.

Stumbling across an article I found about a year ago  mentioned  Hugh Grants' grandfather Major Ronald Grant being born in the Cape and passing away at his home in Newlands, Cape Town. This tempted me with my bloodhound instincts to dig a little deeper to see what I could find.

Click [here] to read more and see his Family Tree

Springbok Cricket Shaun Pollock has strong Scottish roots. His great grandfather Rev James Pollock biography reads as follows:

POLLOCK, Rev. James,M.A., B.D. (Glasgow), Honours Diploma in Theology of United Free Church of Scotland, Minister of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa ; b. 1873, at Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Educ. Hutcheson's Grammar School, Glasgow University and U.F. Divinity Hall, Glasgow; son of Andrew Pollock, Stonelaw, near Glasgow; married in 1902, Margaret, daughter of John Jackson, Corn Merchant, Glasgow; 3 children. Minister of St. Andrew's Church, Kingwilliamstown, from 1904-1913, of Erskine Church, Stirling, Scotland, 1914-1917 ; War service in Flanders 1917. Inducted as minister of St. John's, Bloemfontein, March, 1918; Clerk of the Presbytery of the Orange River. Address., St. John's Manse, Bloemfontein, O.F.S. Source: Who's Who 1923-24. Click [here] to see his Family Tree.



Carte Blanche on Ruda's Family Tree 

Ruda Landman's birthplace in the dry and dusty town of Keimoes, in the Northern Cape, is a far cry from where her family's humble beginnings started in the lush and fertile valleys of Europe.

Click [here] to see how Ruda is related to Charlize Theron







Charlize Theron's Family Tree 

The famous Hollywood actress from Benoni, South Africa. Charlize Theron (born 7 August, 1975) is an Academy Award winning actress and former fashion model. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster (2004). Click [here] to see how Charlize is related to Ruda Landman.







Enoch Sontonga 

Born c.1897 - c.1902, composer of ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’, choirmaster and teacher. Information on Sontonga is scarce and the sources differ.

He was probably born at Lovedale Institution at Alice in the Eastern Cape, around the turn of the 20th century, into the Mpinga clan of the Tembu.

[read more]




A Short History of Maynardville

Before it was named Maynardville, the large stretch of land below the military camp-site was government ground, first administered by the Dutch East India Company and after 1795 by the British authorities.