News – Morkel Family

Correcting Errors in our Book (April 5, 2017) - 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 family members. Apart from minor typos, three errors of fact have emerged by November 2015, five months after the book… ...
Writing and Self-publishing the Book (April 5, 2017) - 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 was creating a book and there were so many decisions to be made — program to use, paper size, fonts,… ...
Genealogies and Personal Privacy (November 10, 2015) - 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 details for living persons. With modern life expectancies, such genealogies in practice are close to being useless for readers. In… ...
Correcting Errors (November 9, 2015) - 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 many family members. Apart from minor typos, three errors of fact have emerged by November 2015, five months after the… ...
Updated Morkel Genealogy (November 7, 2015) - 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 other words, genealogy or family tree. I lack access to archives as well as the skills and interest to do… ...
Steenberg – in the same family 1682 to 1990 – longer than Die Bos (November 7, 2015) - 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 which could be older but where the family name changed as sons-in-law took over. Neil van Zyl has kindly filled… ...
The new book on Morkel Family History has been printed and is available (June 6, 2015) - 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 and distributing the book. The website has been key to this project. Over a period of more than ten years,… ...
Two anecdotes from the early days (June 2, 2014) - 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 have been posted under "Vanities, Fables and Foibles Pt1" in "Family Stories". One is a 'Moppie' praising 'Rich' Mister Morkel… ...
Saving wildlife from poachers in Central Africa. (May 29, 2014) - 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 in Chad and Congo Democratic Republic, Rhino in Angola and giant Sable in Zambia. Wonderful effort. See the story and… ...
The Morkel Rhoda connection (May 14, 2014) - 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, with the Christian branch of the Rhodas in Parts 2 and 3. Building on family traditions and family bible entries,… ...
DNA connection to the US – cousin Art Morrical (April 25, 2014) - 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 Philip Morkel, would share the same markers and haplogroup which is I1. Recently Art Morrical from Illinois in the… ...
Correcting a few errors in the Morkel Genealogy (April 25, 2014) - 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 modest compared to some genealogies, it took quite some effort to type them in and to proofread and correct errors.… ...
Rhodesia Beginning to End – Arthur, Cliff and Ron Morkel (April 19, 2014) - 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 Leander Starr Jamieson were establishing the colony which became Rhodesia. Ron wrote a book Rhodesia. Beginning to End which is… ...
The Wreck of the Schonenberg. (April 1, 2014) - 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 printed in 1725 to thank Philip. This historic document hangs on the wall at Die Bos. Thorough research on the… ...
We had the wrong Hercules link for the Beaufort West Morkels. (November 23, 2013) - 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 'Morkel Ancestors'. My contribution was to try and link Gert Thomas MORKEL and his descendants who became that branch… ...
Thanks to all who write in via ‘Contact Us’ (November 23, 2013) - 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 and the information on our website becomes richer and more authoritative. Sometimes the errors might seem minor - for example… ...
You, dear Reader (September 1, 2013) - 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 detailed statistics of visitors to the site. Please be reassured that your privacy is safe - the analyses contain only… ...
Nuwe lig op die Stranding van die Schoonenberg – New Research about the Wreck of the Schoonenberg (August 13, 2013) - 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 een van die besondere erfstukke in die familie. PW Morkel vertel die geskiedenis van die gebeure in sy boek en… ...
300 Jaar op die plaas. 300 Years on the farm (May 3, 2013) - 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. Daar was glo 'n ander plaas wat langer in 'n familie was, maar dit het deur 'n dogter op 'n… ...
The Family Crest (March 8, 2013) - 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 tradition of crests in Dutch middle class families. When the Dutch settled at the Cape in 1652, crests were… ...
Who was Willem’s mother? (March 7, 2013) - Who was the mother of Willem MORKEL 1803 - 1876, the 9th son of 3rd generation Daniel Johannes MORKEL? According to the Morkel Genealogies, Daniel's second wife Maria Dorothea LOUW, died in 1801, two years before Willem's birth. Daniel married a third time, to Sophia Alida BRINK (widow VAN AS), in 1808, five years… ...
Naamgee tradisie vir nege geslagte. Naming tradition sequence continued to the 9th generation. (March 7, 2013) - Daniel Henri MORKEL is op 20 Februarie gebore, die kleinseun van my nefie Daniel Johannes MORKEL. Sy ouers, Henri (Hendrik Wade MORKEL) en Rinke (Catharina Elizabeth PRETORIUS) het die ou familie tradisie voortgesit met die vernoeming van hul oudste seun na die paternale oupa. Die patroon van Daniel, afgewissel met Hendrik word nou reeds vir… ...
Why the Dovecote? (February 9, 2013) - The dovecote at Die Bos is a Morkel family icon. It was likely a copy of a similar one at Meerlust, with the same configuration of a center dovecote flanked by a side court on either side. The neo-classical centre gable dates it to the early 1800s, the time of Daniel Johannes Morkel (1764 -… ...
My 80th birthday (October 12, 2012) - We celebrated my 80th and Barbara’s 76th birthdays in September. The whole family was together in Perth. We had a lovely dinner with our sons and their wives – the grandkids stayed at home with babysitters. Our youngest son Charl said some warm words which were highly appreciated (balancing my 70th ten years ago when Daniel as… ...
Correcting errors and making changes. (October 9, 2012) - On the website I can correct errors and add new information as they come to light. I am toying with putting the most interesting family stories together in a book, and then that advantage will be lost. There are quite a few changes to make, and I shall do so over the coming weeks. Hennie… ...
The Morkel Genealogy (May 15, 2012) - A few days ago I posted the Morkel Genealogy, consisting of 29 busy pages of the family tree. It was a big task. I started by entering PW Morkel's Genealogy (Franklin Boonzaaier compiled it in the 1950s) into the Family Tree Maker application - all 195 pages! Then compared it line by line with the… ...
Videos of 270th Anniversary of Morkel Family at Die Bos, 22 December 1983. (April 24, 2012) - Nasate van "Hennie Bos" (H.J.L. Morkel 1854 - 1926) vier 270 jaar van die familie op Die Bos (voorheen Onverwacht). Hier is 6 videos van die saamtrek: (1) Die Bos - plaas, huis en fotos van voorvaders, (2 en 3) Die gaste daag op, (4) Seremoniemeester Charles Morkel verwelkom gaste, (5) Hanna Morkel, agste geslag… ...
The Beaufort West Morkels (April 15, 2012) - During 2011 Margaret Thebus in Sydney contacted me about her family. Her mother was a Morkel from Cape Town, and the family originally came from Beaufort West. They were not listed in either Genealogy - PW Morkel or GISA - although GISA had a brief entry of baptisms in 1855 under the "ongekoppelde" (unattached)… ...
Developing the website. (January 14, 2011) - I saw a short news item of a book about the Morkel family, published by Phil Morkel, the Chairman and founder of the chain of furniture stores of that name. That was in 1961. I contacted him and spent a fascinating time with him learning about the family. He provided a copy of his… ...