View Message

Hi Polyglot. This is what I have been told. There are two "clans" of Roelofses in SA. The Knysna Roelofses (descended from the Netherlands) and the Wilderness/George Roelofses (who I have been told are from Norway, my dad swore by this). The two families are apparently unrelated. I am from the George clan and I believe so are you. My grandfather, Hendrik was the son of Rosina Stander and Frans Antonie Roelofse (if that helps) and they lived in Langvlei.

---

If this is your tribe and you want to continue reading, here we go. I have been tracking our ancestry a bit and it seems that Christiaan had a son, Hendrik and that Hendrik , had a Christiaan and so forth right up to my dad's generation (my uncle and grandfather were both named Hendrik), so I believe that this is my lineage (and possibly yours). My dad and uncle always said that Christiaan originally left Norway due to religious persecution, but I have no further knowledge and this could be a convenient family myth.

---

My theory is that possibly the surname was originally spelt Roelofsen and due to the prevalence of the Dutch at the time, it was misspelt in the official registers. A second theory that I have (not so nice) is that he didn't want to be found and changed his surname when he got to SA.

---

I see this post dates to 2008 and you are unlikely to read this, but I wrote this just in case it still helps you.