AUNT HANNETJIE VAN DER BERG (Née De Beer)

My father, Barend Petrus De Beer's sister in her late eighties with my wife Christa in an old age home in Bloemfontein (2010-03-13). Aunt Hannetjie is the second eldest sister in the family. She was born and baptized in Petrusburg and married Willie van der Berg. Initially they lived in the East Rand, Johannesburg, where uncle Willie was a miner in the goldmines to save money and to buy a farm. Eventually they moved to their farm, ALFA, between Bloemfontein and Verkeerdevlei until uncle Willie died in the middle ninetees. When her sister Dolly was born, my grand father, Karel J De Beer and his wife were very poor due to economic conditions in South Africa. They gave the little baby to a wealthy family on the farm Voigts post next to Petrusburg to look after. (I was surprised that the indigenous Indian families of the very cold northern parts of Canada, still have this practise, that is to get their off spring adapted by wealthier families to ensure that their children will be carrying forth their blood line.) As my grand father became a permanent railway worker, the family got a sink cottage next to the railway line near Petrusburg. Little Dolly then moved back to her parents and later on helped to raise her sister, Hannetjie, and her four brothers, Barend, Philupus, Willem and Carel. When my grandfather won a lottery ticket in the Rhodesian Sweep Stakes, he build a permanent house for the family in Petrusburg. Aunt Hannetjie has three sons and one daughter. Some of her grand children are living in New York and elsewhere in the Free State.