For 2 years now I have had suspicions that there is a royal link in my ancestry, through Jacques de Savoye, who I spoke about in a previous blog post, who settled in the Cape Colony in 1688. There is almost certainty that he descended out of the aristocratic de Savoye family from France, but I have been unable to prove this link.

My aristocratic blood, however, comes from another source. I managed to trace the lineage of another one of my ancestors who settled in the Cape. That is Engeltjie Quint, who married Nicolaas Laubscher.

She is descended, through her mother, Wilhelmina Verweij, from a man called Jan van Hattem, who lived in the late 1300′s, who was the bastard son of a Dutch nobleman, Reinoud III van Gelre. From here on out, the ancestry looks like a who’s who of medieval history. I ma trace lineages to Atilla the Hun, Charlemagne, King Edward II of England, Alfred the Great, and many many more.

For those that are interested, here is an updated GEDCOM file containing my research.

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