GSSA HEADER ENG

Vice President - Johan Pottas 2022

Johan Pottas 1Johan Jacob POTTAS was born on 13 April 1961 in Windhoek in what was then South West Africa (Namibia), one of five children of Johan Jacob Pottas (Skerf) and Elizabeth Mathilde Potgieter (Lilli) from Windhoek. Johan is one of four surviving children and the only surviving son. He completed his school career at Windhoek High School where he excelled as a sportsman (acquired SWAAIKS colours in athletics and gymnastics, and played hockey for the first team).
After school he did compulsory military service before going to study at the University of the Free State, where he obtained BComm and BComm (Hons) (Capital Investment). He became a professional photographer for two years, after which he worked for Pick n Pay and for the University of the Free State in various capacities.
He married Eureka Dannhauser SMITH on 21 September 1985 in Bloemfontein. She was born on 26 Feb 1961 in Edenburg, the daughter of Gert Hendrik Dannhauser Smith and Maria Elizabeth Botha (Mary).
He writes: my interest in genealogy has come a long way. As a kid, I used to love listening to family stories over and over again. I joined the Genealogical Society of South Africa in 2000, but serious interest began in 2001 when I realised that the generation before me was dying out. By 2003, I was able to sort out the Pottas line and was persuaded to re-establish the Free State branch.
My first genealogical publication was "Die Van den(r) Berg's van die Kaap tot Witkraal, Petrusburg" 2005, which I compiled for a longtime friend Cas van der Berg; then my own family register, written for my father Skerf Pottas' 80th birthday: "The Pottas shards from Schwalenberg to Windhoek" appeared in 2006.
Families I am still working on: VAN DEN(R) BERG(H), KLOPPER, POTTAS, MENTZ, parts of BEKKER, SMIT, POTGIETER, OOSTHUIZEN, DANNHAUSER, all the descendants of Elizabeth VOOGD, the daughter of Claus VOIGT (a German ) and Christina, a Khoisan woman. Then there is also the Free State progenitor project, i.e. all the men and women who entered the Free State in the period 1820 to 31 May 1902 and who settled there.