PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY GRAND FATHER AND GREAT GRAND FATHER

On the far left hand side is my grandfather, Carel Johannes De Beer with his father, Barend Petrus De Beer and his wife on the right hand side respectively. Interesting to note is the black mark on the jacket of my great grand father which is the work of the photographer to erase his Mauser rifle ! This photograph was taken during the Anglo Boer War in Petrusburg. His son's photo was taken as a young man just before his marraige. As I explained in earlier blogs in my archive, they farmed on the family farm, Inhoek, 8 kilometers outside Petrusburg on the road to Kimberley. Their graves are to be found in the Petrusburg graveyard, (Bolakanong in Se Sotho which means where we bury together). I could not get much information on Barend Petrus due to the fact that he soon died after the Anglo Boer War, while my own father was only born in 1923. My grandfather, Carel Johannes was a very introvert person and did not convey anything about his past to me. My grandmother died when I was a few months old. Subsequently I gained information from my Aunt Hannatjie who is the eldest child, but also very vague about the family history. Except that my grandfather, Carel, told me that they were related to the famous De Beer brothers in Kimberley and whos name was used by John Cecil Rhodes for the De Beers diamond company. (Very interestingly to mention is the antique wooden buffet in the Petrusburg Hotel which got lost on the railroad for Cecil Rhodes's house in Kimberley. Most probably during his death and was never claimed. Consequently it landed up in the hotel and was consequtively sold with the furniture and all to the next owners !)

My grandfather Carel also told me about the dam on Inhoek that thay build. Remainders of the dam is still in tact next to a saltpan where they mined salt. The graves of his grandfather, Baren(t) and two wives are just next to the saltpan. According to the last owner of Inhoek, uncle Fanie Du Toit, the De Beers were quite richjust before the Anglo Boer War broke out in 1899. The whole area next to Petrusburg belonged to them. There are many traces of sheep kraals on the koppies which indicate their wealth a decade or so before the establishment of the town of Petrusburg. Although there is not much more to be told, this blog is an attempt to give justice and to honour my grandfather and great grandfather for their as well as my ancestors via modern technology. Something that I never could dream about when I was a child. I often went with my parents to Petrusburg when they visited him. He had a modern house for those times which he build with money that he won with a Rhodesian Sweep Stakes ticket ! Oupa Callie as he was called, once a year visited us in Bloenfontein with his annual free railway ticket. My father forbade him to smoke his pipe in our home, but otherwise got along quite well. He was a very strong man and worked all by himself in his lovely fruit and vegatable garden in Petrusburg's red and chaulky soil. He dug his own water hole next to the house. Unfortunately, one night, he got fately injured during an assault on his home and soon died afterwards in the Bloemfontein National Hospital. The attackers were never arrested. I went to his funeral with his nephew, Willem De Beer (who was a lecturer in English at the Bloemfontein Teacher's Training College, where I was also a student) and when he was laid to rest next to my grandmother, Anna Petronella De Beer(nee Van Rooyen) in the Petrusburg graveyard (cf. archive blogs).

I inherrted his .22 rifle, a Krigo, manufactured in Stuttgart, Germany. The police at Petrusburg took it away from my Oupa Callie becuase he sometimes scared off fruit and vegatable thieves in his garden. The police were concerned that he could injure innocent passersby. I recently had to re-register the rifle in my name according to a new arms controll act of the current SA Government. I fitted it with a silencer and variable telescope to snipe Meerkat. Often with rabies in the Verkeerdevlei district where my cousins farm. I first use a tracer and then a sub sonic bullet to hunt the Merrcats when they become a menace to the duglings daring heavy drought seasons. I will follow up on our hunting trips in the Free State at a later stage.

SWISS ICONS

On the left is the hotel Berne in Geneve and a Swiss shop icon with a bear which my wife and I collected on my research trip to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). UNITAR is hosting the Peacekeeping Operations Correspondence Instruction programmes on which our Centra;l University of Technology, Free State (CUT) wants to install at the National Institute for Higher Education, Northern Cape (NIHE) in Kimberley. Kimberley is very near to the largest Army Battleschool in southern Africa and where international peacekeeping soldiers have joint operations.

My wife, Christa and I both took German as a High School subject and could very easy found our direction in Switzerland, however, could not follow the spoken dialects. We travelled by train to Germany and spend a few days holday at the Tutsing lake(see). We felt more sure with our broken German knowledge in Munich than in Switzerland.

I also duplicated a copy of the old city of Bern which I borrowed from an ex staff member of our Department for Foreign Affairs. I will publish this image on another blog.

DIASPORA OF THE DE BEER FAMILY

In 1994, the undermentioned numbers could still be traced of the De Beer family in South Africa and other countries. However , after the new political dispenstaion, in 1994, White South African families started to emigrate to greener pastures. Subsequently, a vast number of De Beers are to be found all over the world. My third eldest brother's first born child, who carries the family first names Barend Petrus De Beer, emigrated to England where he joined the British Army. He was awarded as the best recruit for a special forces unit in 2005. And so we can continue to research the diaspora of the De Beers after the governmental transition when afirmative action became government policy to speed up the transformation stage. Unfortunately mostly White South African males were targeted, irrespective whether they were English- or Afrikaans speaking. The irony is that English speaking De Beers were more liberal in their political views than the Afrikaansspeaking section of the De Beer family who were more on the neutral Nationalist side or even to the extreme right. Ironically, the De Beers who sided with the liberal Progressive Party or the old United pro British party, are just as part of the rest of White males to be wiped out by the current government's Affirmative and Equity laws altogether ! In this sense the Equity and Affirmative action instegated Whites and subsequently some De Beers for that matter, into global dispersement. Globalization forced the Afrikaans section of De Beers to speak English, German, Dutch and other languages in the Global job market.

Altough my first language (mother tongue) is Afrikaans, I decided to publish my Blog in English only to be relevant in the Global market. The following numbers of De Beers in other parts of the world in 1994 are published with a view to update the new statistics as De Beers are starting to read my Blog and submit new demographic statistics. The idea of this exercise is to establish a virtual archive for all South Africans at the Voortrekker Monument's Heritage Foundation (Erfenistigting) in collaboration with the Freedom Park for Black South Africans. As a joint venture, all De Beers for example, can create their own Blogs, update it with their individual family history with photographs and even sound for I-pod's and video clippings in detail, submit it to one huge data base at the Voortrekker/Freedom Park for reference and research. Black people with the De Beer name as well as De Beers in Italy, Germany, USA, Canada and other nationalities can be compiled. Cross references could be linked to trace back the diaspora of all the De Beers, Beers, Behrns, Ursus or Ursanius... This project is not only for interesting sake of the De Beer family name, no, there are multiple advantages in compiling such a family archive, e.g for medical puposes. Their DNA's could be researched and recorded. International travel and accommodation, tourism, heritage foundations, clubs, consortia, family trusts, sharing financial resources like families do in Italy, Greece, Israel, India, Portugal and other cultures, testaments for inherritence, names, logos, icons and for many many more advantages.

The following effort of the Halberts's Family Heritage (circa 191/93) ,South Africa, Afrikaans version (MCMXCVIII) to compile the names of all the De Beers around the world, is a good example to design an electronic format for future research:

Totale Geraamde Huishoudings (possible households)
Totale Huishoudings in Register (household register)
Totale Geraamde Bevolking (average demographics)
Getal Graafskappe, State, Gebiede, of Provinsies Waar Huishouldings Woon (regions)
Graafskap, Staat, Gel Kanton, of Provinsie die Digste Bevolking (most prominent regions)

Verenigde State (USA)
179
128
394
33
Minnesota
Kanada (CANADA)
101
72
222
5
Ontario
Australia
85
61
187
6
New South Wales
Nieu-Seeland
17
12
37
2
South Island
Groot Brittanje (England)
76
54
190
23
London
Noord-Ierland (Northern Ireland)
1
3
1
Co Antrim
Ierland
3
2
8
1
Kerry
Oostenryk (Austria)
1
1
3
1
Wien
Duitsland (Germany)
7
5
18
4
Bayern
Switserland (Switzerland)

8
6
20
2
Zurich
Frankryk (France)
67
48
168
16
Nord
Nederland (Holland)
0
0
0
0

Suid-Afrika (SOUTH AFRICA)
10,108
7,220
28,302
4
Transvaal (Gauteng)
Spanje (Spain)
0
0
0
0

Italie (Italy)
1
1
3
1
Firenze

KING ARTHUR, WALES AND URSA MAJOR

This newspaper clipping from the Volksblad (circa 2004), a local newspaper in Bloemfontein, South Africa, shows a photograph of the grave of the legendary King Arthur. From the research done by ES Van Bart, he said it is clear that the Arthur-character originates from the Britanic resistance against the Saxions after the volte face of the Romans from England (ca. 449-600). After the Roman period Sir John Rhys (1840-1915) coined the term "Brittone" in re-naming the Roman British citizens of those historical times. The proper noun "Arthur" is especiallyof interest to linguists. Possible ethomologies of the name could be the Welsch form arth=bear and (g) wr= hero. Arthur is associated since ancient times with the Big Bear constellation, Ursa Major. With reference to my previous published blogs on ursus and bear/beer could thus also refer to the bear constellation.

The English surname Beer, could also be associated with the ex Roman British ancestors as explained above. The name went along with the British diaspora into all the British colonies in the proverbial sense of the word that the sun could literally never set over British territory ! Consequently many forms of first and surnames can be traced all over the modern world. In the United States of America, a certain Reinhardt Beer of the North American Space Administration (NASA), is for example managing the Aura satellite to study the interaction between industrial pollution and weather patterns (Volksblad, 17 December, 2004). His name is very interesting to me because my grandson's name is also Reinhardt De Beer. The two names are examples of the English and Dutch formats. However, Reinhardt is of German origin. But in actual fact, they are exactly sharing the same family name !

Dawid De Beer (2000, p.10) also states in his research that there is a definite German connection. Zacharias Ursinus changed his name from Latin to Andreas Beer. He was born in Breslau (1534) and studied from 1550-1557 in Wittenberg under Melanchton. His work was published with a German title "Christlicher Untericht wie der in Kirchen und Schulen der KurFur"rstlichen Pfalz getrieben wird", Heidelberg, 1563. (Cf Grosheide, 1929, as quoted by Dawid De Beer, 2000, p.10.)

Many paterfenalia, crests, icons, images and the like are to be found in Switzerland as well. My next blog will display some examples.

ROMAN TRACKINGS OF BEAR = URSUS

My previous post refers. When reading the history of De Beers in Google Search (cf. De Beer, Dawid W. 2000), we may link it with the familiy name Ursanius, Latin for Bear/Beer when the name of a certain theologian, Zacharias Ursinus is quoted in 1534-1583. He was co-responsible for the formulation of the "Heidelbergse Kategismes" which is still used in all the Reformed Afrikaans Churches in South Africa. It is the quote under Ursinus that interests me. Dawid De Beer also links the Latin form of the name to Beer on p. 10 of his book " Die De Beer Familie. Drie Eeue in Suid Afrika. (2000). My youngest brother Floris Petrus de Beer, also uses ursus@absamail.co.za as his e-mail address. Sometime ago I watched a BBC television programme in Birmingham, England (circa 1995) on a Sunday afternoon showing the beautiful statue that a certain Roman elitist build for his little daughter who died at a very young age. I vaguely remember that the name Julius Beer (could be Ursanius) was mentioned in the programme. Unfortunately my friend Johan Fourie, who is a teacher in Latin, could not get any trace of such a Roman noble man under that name. However, the reference to Ursus for Bear or Beer sounds a bell. I am not a genaelogist, but an ordinary layman when it comes to the research of familiy origin, traditions, crests and diaspora. Subsequently the rest of this blog is patchwork based on a lot of thumb sucking and gueswork.

According to possibillities my family line hop skip and jumped into history as follows: Karel Johannes De Beer, Bloemfontein, South Africa>Karel Johannes De Beer, Petrusburg, South Africa>Barent Petrus De Beer, Fauresmith, South Africa>??De Beer, Graaf Reinette, South Africa>?? De Beer, Prince Albert, South Africa>Zacharias De Beer, Stellenbosch/Cape /Utrecht, Holland> ??>Beer/Bern, Switzerland>?? De Beer, Waase, Sweden>??Beer/Ursus, England>??Ursanius>Rome.

It is history that the Romans ruled the Mediteranian region for a thousand years during the so called PAX ROMANA from where they conquered the rest of the adjacent ancient world of that time. In Birmingham, England, are still traces of the VIA ROMANA. Roads were build in "straight sort of high ways" through the conquered territories. With a little immagination, for a period of a thousand years, Roman soldiers, officers, administrators and other government officials, had to settle in what we know today is England, Germany, Holland and as far as Switzerland and France. Borders were irrellevant because the whole territory was part of the Roman Empire. The names of all the Roman Ursanius militia or government officials will most obviously pop up along the history of civilization, language, culture, architecture and traditions. Such as the origin of the family crest depicting a bear in the design through the ages. (Cf De Beer family crest on previous blogs or archive.) The Roman traditions made a permanent impact up to our date and age. such as art, philosophy, religion (the trial and crucifiction of Jesus Christ), Roman Dutch Law, administration, language in law, medcine, botany, astronomy and building practices.

According to history, Rome was established about 753 BC. Rome eventually fell 476 years after Christ. Democracy started in Athens, Greece, and the Romans used the same principles to rule their citizens. After civil disputes between the aristocarcy and the poorer citizens, a sort of a human charter was drafted to rule the rest of Italy. More civil unrest, the assasination of Julius Ceaser and the eventual appointment of Octavianus in August 27 BC led to the mighty Roman Empire. This was the beginning of the Pax Romana, longest time of world peace on earth according to historians. During this period the Romans spread their influence sphere to London, Paris, Lyon, Milan, Keulen, Bonn, Vienna, Barcelona and Lisbon. They appointed local citizens in government positions while the natural inhabitants of those regions joined the Roman army.

Vice versa Roman culture was integrated with English, German and French speaking cultures. In the case of Germanic tribal expansion into Switzerland, some of the Roman influences went along. (Cf. http://harpy.uccs.edu/roman/html/augustinus.html )In this respect the bear familiy insignia could be interpreted either as Beer according to Anglo Saxon English, or Bern in German and eventually De Beer in Dutch.

Back in Rome, government corruption, the outburst of Volcano Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeji and continuous civil wars all over the whole region contibuted to the final fall of Rome in 476 after Christ. However, the Ursaniuses/Bern's/Beer's/de Beer's were permanently distributed in all the afore said regions of.

The big question for me however remains: "Where does the German inscriptions derived from on my great great grandfathers' tombstone near Petrusburg in the Free State, South Africa ? " (Cf. the original photographs of the De Beer graveyard in a previous blog under: Archives.) Genealogists also differ about the origin of the De Beer family whether they are from Waase in Sweden or Utrecht in Holland or England where the family name Beer is also prominent in telephone directories. My intention is to visit Utrecht in Holland and do some genealogic research on possible family roots. When I visited Sweden, I visited the Vaasa Museum, in Stockholm. I came under the impression of the huge influence of the Dutch ship building industry since the very beginning in that trade. Dutch names for a ship's mast or mas and many other nomenclature of the trade can be referred back to Dutch tradesmen who assited to build ships all over the world. Subsequently the influence of Dutch in the shipping industry could even be traced in the Russian language. It is thus quite possible that my great great ancestors were carpenters who helped to build ships in Sweden from where they could have moved along with the diaspora of the trade. Eventually as part of maintanance staff on ships that traveled all the known sea routes of their time. Much speculation is still going on among the De Beer family researchers whether Zacharias De Beer, the forefather of the De Beer family in South Africa, came directly from Utrecht in Holland or Germany... Fact remains, the De Beer history stimulates those who are still interested to know more about their where abouts.

I close this blog with a kind request to Bern or Beer or De Beer or Ursanius descendants to play along in completing this wonderfull jigsaw puzzle.

INTERIM SUMMARY : DE BEERS FAMILY HISTORY

Thus far I have published the first historical roots of the De Beer family in South Africa with occasional references to their roots in Europe. I also published some personal photographs of my own grand father, father, mother and first born son. The De Beer crest as well as published historical references were added. My aim is also to copy the first maps of Bern in Switzerland which have been referred to in some of the sources. And then even further back into Roman history when the Latin for Beer/Bear/Bern namely Ursus, will be explored. Interesting roots, however much fragmented and guess work. Untill the publishing of the ancient Roman and Anglo Saxon period, this publication serves as an interim blog to inform the reader about the current status of my contemporary life story. My genealogical line links as follows to the published blogs:

Karel Johannes De Beer; 26 May 1946, eldest son of Barend Petrus De Beer ;26 May 1946, third child of Karel Johannes De Beer 5 September1883; son of Barend Petrus De Beer (?); son of Barent Petrus De Beer (?) son of (?) This part of the family history are to be traced back to Kweek Valley ( Prince Albert) to Graaf Reinette in the Northern Cape from where it splits to Kimberley and Fauresmith in the Free State. However, the two sections are related as nephews and cousins. In that manner related to the De Beer brothers who owned the renouned farm which Rhodes bought to establish the De Beers Diamond Company.

The Anglo Boer War graves at Magersfontein, on route from Graaf Reinette to Kimberley, the Carel De Beers who lost their lives, are buried in the war grave yard. Karel is written with a "C" on the tomb stones. Much of the detail about this part of my personal familiy history is lost due to the disruption of the Anglo Boer War. My grandfather, Carel De Beer, got interned with his mother and were put in a concentration camp on Spitskop in Bloemfontein. As a young boy, he helped to build a little dam for water which was called the "Dam of tears" due to the thousands of women and children who lost their lives in the British concentration camps. Emily Hobhouse, a philander from England, visted the concentration camps and reported back to her fellow British citizens about the scorged earth war policy of the British troops in the two Boer Republics, Orange Free State and Transvaal. She did a great deal to dispose the war monstrosities and after her death, she got an honourary place in the most sacred place of the Boers when her ashes were put to rest at the foot of a Womens memorial in Bloemfontein which commemorates the more than 26000 women and children who died in Britsh concentration camps. My great grand mother and grandfatejher Carel Johannes were fortunate to survive the war and returned to their farm Inhoek in the Petrusburg district near Bloemfontein.

Subsequently to the war, they lost everything and to survive the family went into a sort of a company for a joint effort to recover. Unfortunately they went bankrupt and was forced to sell the farm to a teacher, named Fanie Du Toit. My grandfather, Carel, got work on the South African Railways as a labourer on the lines. He was temporary transfered to Messina near the Rhodesian Border ( today Zimbabwe) where he met my grandmother, Ms Annatjie Van Rooyen. They got married and was transferred back to Petrusburg where they stayed in a shanty house next to the railway line from Bloemfontein to Petrusburg. My father, Barend, was one of six children. They were fortunate to went to school during the world wide economic depression of 1933. He told us many stories about the sufferings of the people of his time. Although he passed his matric (grade twelve) examination, my father could not get a job due to the Second World War policy of the South African government. The policy was that young boys who wanted jobs had to sign the "red ribbon" agreement to be enlisted as allied soldiers. When they signed the agreement, they got a red ribbon to wear and thus showing that they support the war against Germany.

Subsequently my father started as a painter, but was soon given the chance to become a cleaner on a steam locomotive. As the war progressed and the railway lines were increasingly used to transport logistical materials to the harbours from the Bloemfontein Railway Workshops, my father was allowed as a fireman on the steam locomotives. He met my mother Ms Susanna Wilhelmina Pelser, who stayed near the rest rooms for firemen. In 1946, when the Second World War ended, I was born and raised in Bloemfontein. My father qualified for a new railway subsidised house and got a telephone for call outs on the shifts to Kimberley and Naauw Poort. Round trips and book offs. He qualified as a first class train driver and earned the above average salary in our neighbourhood. We owned Ford, Chevrolet and Vauxhaul motor cars. My father got a free pass railway ticket once a year for the family to go on holiday. We usually went to East London in the Snymans Hotel or ocassionally used the ticket to travel via Cape Town and the lovely garden route to the tropical Durban in the KwaZulu Natal province. Long train trips with nice meals in the dining cart. Real steam train experiences with box camera photo's that I intend to publish on my blog. Indeed a very proud time in South African railway history ! Stations with buffets and grand cutlery..Starched serviettes and the smell of coffe and real English breakfasts. Mecano set like shunting yards with red and green and yello signals... and lots of reading and relaxation in the wooden cabins with real leather seats...bedding boys and blue blankets...steaming hot coffees in the morning with boiled milk...Stories about steam locomotives and their different classes that were built in England. My father use to work on a 15 F class. Something that I am still longing for, namely to go on a typical train holiday. (Unfotunately our railways in South Africa greatly collapsed after 1994 and became very dangerous to use as public transport due to thuggery).

We also lived next to the railway line from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg up in the North. We were railway children. Proud and fortunate to get all the luxuries of a proper medical fund and other social benefits. Yes, we also qualified for free education and schoolbooks. We had a school nutrition food scheme. My father was a leader in the LEMAS Trade Union for Engine Drivers and represented many colleagues in labour related disputes. He also took the lead to organise the annual christmas tree for the children of firemen and drivers. All in all a railway community that could be linked in a way to a typical British socialistic economic system. He showed me the tax forms that we had to pay to the Queen of England as part of the payment of the war debts of Great Brittain after World War Two. We read about the crowning of Queen Elizabeth and followed the upbringing of prince Charles and princess Anne in the news reels of the local movie theaters.

However, when visiting my grandfather on my mother's side, Petrus Cornelius Pelser, who also fought against the British in the Anglo Boer War, we were exposed to the other side of the coin. Anti British and a very conservative religious education. "Oupa Pietie" (grandfather Pete), could not even speak or understood a word of English ! His wife, my grandmother's, maiden name was Van der Westhuizen. During the Anglo Boer War, her father fled with his family into the Bushveld next to the current Botswana border and never got caught by the British troops. She was very good at arithmetic and taught me how to read the time on an old cheap kitchen clock. However, she also could not spoke neither understood English. The rest of my school holidays, when we were not going to the seaside, were spend on their little plot of five morgen 20 miles outside of Bloemfontein. They got retrenched on the South African Railway during World War Two when they refused to sign the "red ribbon" agreement of General Jan Christiaan Smuts, the then Premier and Minister for Foreign Affairs. ( General Smuts was one of the cornerstones in the British war effort against Germany and one of the founder members of the United Nations.) " Oupa Pietie was not very fond of this former Boer general who supported the British. He referred to Smuts as a traitor to the Afrikaner case. Subsequently he took his retrenchement package and bought a plot, made his own bricks from the red soil mixed with gravel and straw, fetched wooden poles from the poplar trees next to the Modder river (read mud river) and took an oath that he will not use the sink roof plates against the war effort when he purhased it with his windmill for a borehole on the plot. When I was a very little boy, he came to town to sell his vegatables at the market and also fetched me with his cart and horses to visit them on the plot. A real life experience to experience a life style of the prvious century. No electrity and running water except for candle light and borehole water that had to be fetched with buckets. Very humble and down to earth. Sack ceilings and mud floors that were polished. Small wooden window panes and jars full of canned fruit and vegatables. A coal stove with an attached geyser for hot water and heat in the winter. At the fireside, my grandfather told me the history of South Africa from the Boer point of view. That side was anti British and pro German. Pro Nationalist and aggresively against the United Party opposition of the day. Well informed by the Afrikaans news radio broad casts and old collected news papers that he got from my father. He and my grand mother made a living with cream and vegetables and chikens and dugs. Always a tug of war among the two of them which commodity was the most profitable ! My grandmother use to win these money teasers...Fortunately Oupa Pietie got a war pension for his part in the Anglo Boer War. Not much, but enough for the freezing cold winters and constant droughts of the Free State.