There is a dignity to
history; and when we are gone, history is all that is left. History is about people, not only the biographies of
great men, but of those innumerable ordinary folk without whom the great would be
nothing.
W S Gilbert wrote : “I can trace my ancestry back to a
protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is
something in-conceivable”. With the
defining of the human genome, what was
spoken as jest is becoming a reality. To what degree we are
products of our environment or creations of our genetic make-up currently we
can only speculate on. What seems certain is that both influence our behaviour
more than we would care to admit.
Genealogy is not only
the study of pedigrees, it is an understanding of ourselves. An understanding
of those people that contributed to our physical structure , to our
psycho-social behaviour and to our spiritual dimension. It is a summation of people and of families,
and a distillation of a society.
So, here presented is a
catalogue of the people that have contributed to the creation of one
individual, Denise Kotzé.
“Our revels are now
ended. These our actors
As I foretold you, were
all spirits and
Are melted into air,
into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision.
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on,
and our little life
Is rounded with sleep”.
This research is
dedicated to my wife,
Denise Pelteret (neé Kotzé),
on the occasion of the
50th anniversary of her birth.