Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers

Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers (1850–1887), born in Swellendam[1] as the fourth son of a wagon-maker, and married in Wellington where he then settled, spent his last years as a printer's clerk in Cape Town. His passion for researching his own family's history eventually grew into his compilation of Geslachts-Registers der Oude Kaapsche Familiën,[2] a complete (in so far as it was possible) genealogy of colonists' descendants born at the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope during the Dutch period (1652–1806).[3]

He died of pneumonia with his life's work uncompleted and leaving his family in penury, having expended all his resources on his research. On his death-bed, he extracted a promise from his friend and mentor, the historian George McCall Theal, to finish the work and have it published.

Oude Kaapsche Familiën

The publication, financed by the Cape Government at Theal's insistence, had to wait until a few years after Theal's appointment (in 1891) as Colonial Historian. Only the first volume was sponsored, though: publication of the two others was conditional on sales of the first recovering its production cost. The public's reception was overwhelming and the three volumes are now collector's items. They set a standard of scholarship, aspired to but rarely equalled by later genealogists, and remain a standard reference work well over a century later.[4]

References
  1. National Archives of South Africa. 1887. Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers Death Notice. KAB MOOC 6/9/248 Ref. 1358.
  2. C.C. de Villiers, Geslachts-register der Oude Kaapsche Familien (red. G. McC. Theal), three volumes, Van de Sandt de Villiers, Cape Town, 1893–1904.
  3. Lombard, R.T.J. (1984). Handbook for Genealogical Research in South Africa. Genealogie publikasie. Human Sciences Research Council, Institute for Historical Research. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7969-0025-8. Retrieved 5 October 2018. His publication Geslacht-register der oude Kaapsche Familiën is still the standard work on the genealogy of the oldest Afrikaans families. Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers was born in Swellendam on 10 March 1850, and married Sara Susanna ...
  4. Oude Kaapsche Familiën is available as e-books: Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol.3
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