- Gegevens
- Geschreven door: Tes Rogers
- Categorie: Ongecategoriseerd
DNA: New Beginnings
At the same time that Andries Pretorius and his Wen Kommando (including our Erasmus men) were burying the remains of Piet Retief and his delegation to Dingane, nearly a year after those terrible murders on the hill of Kwa Matiwane, another contingent of the commando were at the Italeni battlefield to locate and bury the bones of Piet Uys, the Malans and seven others who died there. We know our 4th-great-uncle Hercules Malan is buried in the communal grave with Piet Retief, but cannot be sure that our 3rd-greatgrandfather Jacobus, his son David and nephew Johannes Malan’s remains were indeed found. If so, they all lie buried at Italeni in a grave that has lost all its markers. After the burials, the two Erasmus brothers returned to the laagers and said their farewells. Stephanus would stayin Natal with Pretorius while Lourens and his son Daniel headed back across the Drakensberg mountains to their families across the Vaal River. I wonder if they had became friends with the Malans while in Natal? It seems possible, seeing as both families were at Gatsrand/Veglaager, and the men fought together during two major battles. Helena was still small, though. It would be another twelve years before Daniel and Helena would bring the Erasmus/Malan families together through their marriage to one another.
Het bespelen van de accordeon (men sprak toen van een harmonica) in verenigingsverband is in Zaandam een populaire bezigheid geweest. Men kon erop rekenen dat geen kaart onverkocht bleef als, in ieder geval vóór de Tweede Wereldoorlog, de vereniging "Crescendo" een concert aankondigde, dat in "Ons Huis" moest worden gegeven. Dan kwamen vooral arbeiders met vrouw en kinderen in drommen op zaterdagavonden om te luisteren en ook om na afloop, tijdens het afsluitende bal, enige vloeibare versnaperingen tot zich te nemen. Vooroorlogs burgerlijk klein plezier.
Before digging into the many, many South African ancestors on Ouma Hannie Lampen’s Erasmus/Malan side (which will ultimately lead back to the first century AD in Italy!), let’s take another tour through the Netherlands and see if we can find those elusive knights… or maybe a castle?
