Researcher Tilmann Ziegenhain re: General Christiaan Rudolf de Wet

I (or my great grandmother rather) had a personal friendship with Gen de Wet. My grandmother was Hedwig Wronsky who lived on the farm Rhenosterput in the Western Transvaal in the late 1800"s - early 1900's. They were Jewish traders who actually "sat on the fence" w.r.t. her alliance. She did provided good to Gen (?) Huddleston and his troops as well as trading with Gen de Wet and was a friend of President Paul Kruger. The same was true for one of their sons Fritz/Fridriech Wronsky. Fritz was compensated for goods comandeered by the English troops by the South African Gov in the form of 2 solid gold bars. I have documented proof of all of the above. Paul Kruger gave her a Dutch Bijbel with a fatherly note on the indide cover. Also have proof of that. Ive been researching my paternal ancestry for many years.

https://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000033507852280 - if you follow this link it will take you to the family tree, maybe contact the living relatives could be that this became a family heirloom. Good luck

The Torah dictates that life should be sustained in any way possible. Should that be befriending the Enemy (the English et al) or sitting on the fence so to speak, trading with all and sundry, so it had to be to sustain life. Their internal turmoil must have been devastating given their tenuous circumstance. The "stories" of which i spoke, have been verified through letter, newspaper clipping and Archival documents.

I am unable to add to this discussion directly. I am, however, very interested in that period in South Africa. My paternal great grandparents were the Raes, who farmed in the Klerksdorp area. They were of Scots descent and could not stand "the English." Family legend has it that my great grandmother was so determined to show her allegiance to the ZAR, that her children were born under the Vierkleur flag of the ZAR My father told me that as a child he sat on Grandpa Rae's lap and asked him what the wax seal attachments on his watch chain were. The old man told him that they were Englishmen's toenails. Clearly no love lost there. My graandmother, Helen Hutcheon Rae Gibson, died in 1921, so there was no connection with that branch of the Rae/Gibson family, at least in my lifetime. We had more contact with the Whaleys of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.

I suggest you look at familysearch.com. its free and very comprehensive. My Jewish grandparents lived on a farm Rhenosterput also in the Schweiter Reineke near Klerksdorp area.