Category: News
Correcting Errors in our Book
Corrections to our book MORKEL A Remarkable South African family. Three major errors. In spite of efforts to avoid them, errors are bound to occur in a book with a wide scope covering so many …
Writing and Self-publishing the Book
I had a start with the website and many chapters were already basically written. It was an opportunity to improve the style, to check for errors, and to add new information. he really new experience …
Genealogies and Personal Privacy
Having just posted the updated Morkel Genealogy, the issue of personal privacy is relevant. How dare I publish personal information of age, family details (spouse, children, parents) and so forth. Some subscription websites blank out …
Correcting Errors
Corrections to our book MORKEL A Remarkable South African family. Three major errors. In spite of efforts to avoid them, errors are bound to occur in a book with a wide scope and covering so …
Updated Morkel Genealogy
I finally managed to update the family genealogy. My main interest has been family history but in doing so it was important to know where the family came from and how we were related. In …
Steenberg – in the same family 1682 to 1990 – longer than Die Bos
In my earlier blog ‘300 Years on the Farm’, I mentioned that the Morkel farm Die Bos (formerly Onverwacht) has now in 2013, been 300 years in the Morkel family. I was uncertain about Steenberg …
The new book on Morkel Family History has been printed and is available
I have been working on the book for more than a year, and finally it is available. Nickey Cilliers, a specialist publisher in Cape Town, is married to my niece, Karen Morkel and is publishing …
Two anecdotes from the early days
Through ‘contact us’ I received two anecdotes from the early days of the Morkel family. Thanks so much to those who passed them on. They do much to bring the history of the family alive. They …
Saving wildlife from poachers in Central Africa.
I have changed the Morgenster Morkel series to include the family of Francis Sievewright Morkel. One of his sons is Pete Morkel, a vet who is active with wildlife preservation in Central Africa – elephant …
The Morkel Rhoda connection
The research by Ebrahim Rhoda about the Muslim branch of the Rhoda family has been on our website for some time, under “Morkel Family Stories”. This has now become Part 1 of a series, …
DNA connection to the US – cousin Art Morrical
I recently updated the Deep Ancestry posting to include the STR markers (short tandem repeats) for my y-DNA test. y-DNA is handed down father to son and all male Morkels, including back to stamvader …
Correcting a few errors in the Morkel Genealogy
I combined the two main Morkel Genealogies (PW Morkel and GISA) into a Family Tree Maker software package, as well as new items collected over the years. While the more than 1,600 names is fairly …
Rhodesia Beginning to End – Arthur, Cliff and Ron Morkel
Ron Morkel who now lives in North Carolina is the grandson of Arthur Loreth Rubidge Morkel who in 1891 made the arduous six month journey to Salisbury at a time that Cecil John Rhodes and …
The Wreck of the Schonenberg.
I finally updated our story about the Wreck of the Schonenberg. Stamvader Philip Morkel and his brother Willem hosted 80 shipwrecked crew on his farm Onverwacht in 1722. An epic poem, Liefdekrans, was composed and …
We had the wrong Hercules link for the Beaufort West Morkels.
Compiling the family line for the Beaufort West Morkels was quite an achievement. Margaret Thebus and her late mother Margaret Lodewyk were the main drivers with assistance from others, as described in the article under …
Thanks to all who write in via ‘Contact Us’
Every now and then someone writes in via the ‘Contact Us’ facility to point out errors and/or to contribute new information about the family. We all benefit from this – errors are caught and corrected …
You, dear Reader
For years I wondered how much interest there is for our website. Occasionally someone would use the ‘contact us’ facility but how many others were/are there? Recently I became aware that Google Analytics provide amazingly …
Nuwe lig op die Stranding van die Schoonenberg – New Research about the Wreck of the Schoonenberg
Die Liefdekrans, gedruk in 1725 is ‘n dankie sê epiese gedig wat vertel hoe stamvader Philip Morkel meer as 80 skipbreukelinge van die Schoonenberg (in dokumente word dit ook die Schonenberg genoem) gehuisves het. Dit is …
300 Jaar op die plaas. 300 Years on the farm
Ek het groot geword met die wete dat Die Bos die oudste plaas in die land was wat vader na seun in die familie oorgedra was – dus het die Morkel naam behoue gebly. …
The Family Crest
I used to be ambivalent about the Morkel family crest. We do not come from European aristocracy and there are strong indications that it was acquired at the Cape. However, further reading showed a long …