Louna Coetzee fotoDavid Engela, 14 November 2020
The title of David's presentation comes from his school years when he was asked by a senior at the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies) in Pretoria: "From which Engelas are you?" He was very surprised, because until then David was under the impression that there were only two Engelas in South Africa, his father and himself.
Although his interest in the family took hold early on (from his maternal grandmother), David only started doing serious research as recently as 2018.
However, following his mother's death in 2016, he found a booklet by Hercules Jurgen Engela: The Engela Family 1738-1991. His aim now is to update the book's data.
His methodology was to join MyHeritage and Ancestry, which is free if you build a family tree on it, and he also soon realised Google and FamilySearch were valuable: "invaluable" as he puts it. So is Facebook.
He became a member of GGSA's Northern Transvaal branch in October 2018. He has great appreciation for the Erfenisstigting (Heritage Foundation) library and spends a lot of time there.
Under the heading 'Questions, Discoveries, Damages, Shames and a Little Brag', David highlights interesting facts about the Engela ancestors. From the ship's register of the 'Beukensteijn' that he obtained from the archives in the Netherlands, he noticed that Jurgen Hendrik Engelaar came to the Cape and worked as a teacher for one Casper Batenhorst.
A will shows that Jurgen's surname was Engela, so no longer Engelaar. He married Anna van Staden, widow of Van Niekerk, in the Cape in 1746. There is no reference to a first wife, who may have died, or never came to South Africa herself. The other possibility is that Jurgen was a bigamist, if he was never divorced from the first wife.
David's great-grandfather Thomas Willem Engela (1880-1928) was a Cape Rebel who fought in the Anglo-Boer War and was captured. He was tried at Graaff-Reinet and banished to Bermuda, sentenced to lifelong hard labour. However, the sentence was shortened and later amnesty was granted. He ran a tobacco dealer and hairdressing business in Bureau Lane in Pretoria.
Some of the Engela family also died in the Spanish flu of 1918. Other family members made great strides in cultural circles, including Johann Engela, a composer and radio broadcaster who was once married to Mimi Coertse. There was also a painter and composer, writers and Charl Andries Engela (1911-1994) who was a sculptor. Today, Engela family members find themselves all over the world.
Lessons David learned include pursuing a specific goal and always verifying information. Genealogy is an obsession and research never ends. It is also important not to run genealogy in isolation. Never give up; ask someone who can help.