Hercules des Prez and Cecilia d' Athis : founders of the Du Preez family in South Africa

Abstract

Afrikaans 

Hercules des Prez en Cecilia d' Athis : voorouers van die Du Preez familie in Suid-Afrika Die Des Prez's wat in Julie 1688 in die Kaap aangekom het, was die voorouers van die Du Preez's van Suid-Afrika, waarvan die manlike lyn in getal tans 25 000 tot 30 000 tel. Moontlik dra 'n gelyke aantal Suid-Afrikaanse burgers die bloed van Hercules des Prez en Cecilia d' Athis in hulle are deur die vroulike lyn. Van die benaderde vyftig Franse Vlugteling familiename wat vandag nog in Suid-Afrika voorkom, tel agt onder die 36 sterkste families in ons land. Hulle is : Nel (Néel), Du Plessis, Fourie, Du Toit, Le Roux, Viljoen (Villion), Marais, en Du Preez (Des Prez). Deur familie onder-trouery vloei die Des Prez bloed ook sterk in die are van ander families. Die storie van Hercules des Prez en Cecilia d' Athis, hulle ses kinders en 37 kleinkinders, is die kulturele geskiedenis van die eerste drie geslagte van die Suid-Afrikaanse Du Preez's, insluitende die vroulike lyn. Dit is ook 'n kulturele geskiedenis van hulle tydgenote soos die Franse setlaars en hulle afstammelinge vinnig 'n integrale deel geword het van die samelewing van die dag, en opgeneem is in die ontwikkelende Afrikaner komponent van die Suid-Afrikaanse bevolking.

English

The Des Prez's who arrived at the Cape in June 1688 were the ancestors of the Du Preez's of South Africa, the male line of which numbers about 25 000 to 30 000 today. Probably an equal number of South African citizens carry the blood of Hercules des Prez and Cecilia d' Athis in their veins through the female line. Of the approximately fifty French refugee family names which survive in South Africa today, eight feature among the thirty-six most populous families in our country. They are : Nel (Néel) , Du Plessis, Fourie, Du Toit, Le Roux, Viljoen (Villion), Marais, and Du Preez (Des Prez). Through interfamily marriages, Du Preez blood flows strongly in the veins of the other families too. The story of Hercules des Prez, his wife, and their six children and thirty-seven grandchildren, is the cultural history of the first three generations of the South African Du Preez's, including the female line. It is also a cultural history of their contemporaries, as the French settlers and their descendants rapidly became an integral part of the communities of their day, and were assimilated into the developing Afrikaner component of the South African population.