 1686 - 1746 (~ 60 years)
-
| Name |
Teunis/Theunis Botha |
| Suffix |
b1 |
| Born |
Mar 1686 |
Libertas Farm, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa  |
| Christened |
15 Apr 1686 |
NG Church Cape Town, Cape Colony, South Africa |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
Jun 1746 |
Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa |
| DNA Y-Chromosoom Holplogroep= R1b |
6 May 2013 |
Pretoria University, South Africa |
Short communication
Appel Botha Cornelitz: The abc of a three hundred year old divorce case
Jaco M. Greeff *, J. Christoff Erasmus
Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
1. Introduction
DNA evidence has been used to confirm paternity of a few
historically significant people by genotyping living descendants
[1,2] or the actual remains of people concerned [3,4]. One of the
earliest contested paternities at the Cape of Good Hope involved
not just one, but the first seven children of Maria Kickers and
resulted in a divorce from her husband, Jan Cornelitz, three
hundred and thirteen years ago [5–7, Supplementary Table 1]. At
the time it must have been a sensational affair as the divorce was
preceded by 15 years of adulterous relationships [7, Supplementary
Table 1] and it was one of only four divorces in the first 50
years of the Cape colony’s existence [6]. Here we use DNA from
descendants as many as 10 generations later to unravel the
paternity claims made during these proceedings.
Jan Cornelitz came to the Cape in 1666 and married Catharina
Harmansz on 22 May 1672 [8,9, Supplementary Table 1]. They had
three children but she must have passed away before 1683,
because on the 11th of July 1683 Jan got married to Maria Kickers
(Fig. 1) [8,9, Supplementary Table 1]. Maria and Jan’s first child,
Theunis, was christened on the 15th of April 1686, almost three
years after their marriage date [8,9, Supplementary Table 1]. A
second son followed shortly and was christened on the 2nd of
November 1687 [8,9]. But in May 1689 Jan gathered together two
female witnesses that testified that Maria told them that her first
child was in fact fathered by Ferdinandus Appel and the second
child by Frederik Botha (also known as Both and Boot) [7,
Supplementary Table 1]. At the time of conception Ferdinandus
was 20 years old and unmarried [8] whereas Frederik farmed part
of Jan’s land for him from 1686 [5]. The reason for these
testimonies was presumably to rein Maria in. Between these
testimonies and their divorce eleven years later, Maria had a
further five children [8,9]. Some popular accounts claim that Maria
and Frederik openly christened the children together, but in fact,
for all six children’s christenings that could be verified in the
registers Jan was named as the father and Maria as mother
(Supplementary Table 1).
In 1700 Jan seems to have had enough of Maria’s relationship
with Frederik and filed for a divorce. Here Maria admitted to
having had all her children with Frederik Botha and blamed her
husband for being impotent and suggested that he even encouraged
her [5–7]. Maria was not given permission to remarry. In 1702
the Muster roll gives Frederik living with 8 children, presumably
those of Maria, and Maria living on her own in Stellenbosch. This
record may have been a subterfuge to prevent authorities from
learning that Maria and Frederik were illegally co-habiting. In 1706
they were indeed found guilty of co-habiting (Supplementary
Table 1). After Jan’s death in 1713, Maria and Frederik finally got
married in 1714 [8,9].
In the end, all Maria’s children used the surname Botha rather
than the name they were christened under [7]. While we may not
know the paternity of Maria’s children we know that her
descendants did extremely well at the Cape. The Bothas grew
Forensic Science International: Genetics 7 (2013) 550–554
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 6 May 2013
Received in revised form 10 June 2013
Accepted 14 June 2013
Keywords:
Y-STR
Afrikaner
Non-paternity
Adultery
Pedigrees
Genealogy
A B S T R A C T
In 1683 Maria Kickers and Jan Cornelitz got married in Cape Town. Today, 330 years later, the living
patrilineal descendants of Maria’s four sons, number in excess of 76,000 people. Curiously, none of them
carry the surname Cornelitz – in fact, they are all called Botha and include former President P.W. Botha,
general Louis Botha and Minister Pik Botha. The reason for this anomaly is also the reason why Jan got
divorced from Maria in 1700. According to Maria’s testimonies she did indeed have a long term
relationship with Frederik Botha, but in her defence she claimed that her husband was impotent and that
he actually encouraged her. Other witnesses, presumably prompted by Jan, gave testimonies that
implied that Maria was in fact licentious. We combined haplotyping with the AmpF‘STR1 YfilerTM kit
with deep-rooting genealogies to show that Maria’s first son was actually fathered by Ferdinandus Appel
and that roughly half the living Bothas (38,000 people) actually descend from Ferdinandus Appel while
the remaining three sons all stem from the same father, presumably Frederik Botha, and this implies that
Maria’s husband did not father any of her sons.
2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 83 257 8761.
E-mail addresses: jaco.greeff@up.ac.za (J.M. Greeff),
christoff.erasmus@gmail.com (J.C. Erasmus).
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Forensic Science International: Genetics
jou r nal h o mep ag e: w ww .elsevier .co m /loc ate/fs ig
1872-4973/$ |
| Notes |
- (1) Theunis baptism name was spelled Teunis.
He was adopted by Friedrich Both/Frederick Botha SV/PROG in 1699, by changing his name to Frederick Botha by adding the "A" to his name presuming he used it from the Appel name (Knowing that Theunis was Appels child as to be his own son this happened on the 12 March 1699 on his will leaving all his worldly possessions to Maria Kickers which will then have gone to all the Children of the Botha offspring's
|
| Person ID |
I81 |
My Botha Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
19 Feb 2024 |
DNA Tests |
1 DNA test is associated with Teunis/Theunis Botha, b1  |
| Test Type | Taken by | Haplogroup | Test Information |
| atDNA |
Gideon Hendrik Botha, b1c7d1e9f1g1h6i5j1k2 | Y = Rib
|
Most distant ancestor:
Ferdinand Appel, b2, b. 1665, Cape Town, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 1713, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa
Most recent common ancestor:
Adam Johannes Botha, b1c7d1e4f1g1h6, b. 4 Apr 1868, Utrecht Republiek Natalia, (South Africa) , d. 3 Jul 1901, The Other Vlakfontein Battle, Elandskloof Farm Dullstroom, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek
|
| Father |
Friedrich/Frederick Both/Botha, SV/PROG, b. 4 Mar 1653, Wagenheim, Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, Thuringen, Germany , d. 21 Nov 1717, Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age 64 years) |
| Relationship |
Adopted |
| Mother |
Maria Van der Stel/Kickers SM/PROG, b. Feb 1674, Amsterdam, North Holland, The Netherlands , d. 2 Dec 1725, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age ~ 51 years) |
| Relationship |
Birth |
| Married |
21/Jun/1714 |
Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa |
| Family ID |
F34 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Father |
Ferdinand Appel, b2, b. 1665, Cape Town, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 1713, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age 48 years) |
| Relationship |
Birth |
| Mother |
Maria Van der Stel/Kickers SM/PROG, b. Feb 1674, Amsterdam, North Holland, The Netherlands , d. 2 Dec 1725, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age ~ 51 years) |
| Relationship |
Birth |
| Notes |
- They wear both very young when Teunis/Theunis Botha, b1 was conceived in 1668 and never got married
|
| Family ID |
F35 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 1 |
Maria Magdalena Snyman, b. 13 Feb 1692, Cape, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 25 Nov 1723, Somerset East, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age 31 years) |
| Married |
15/Nov/1710 |
NG Church Cape Town, Cape Colony, South Africa |
| Children |
| | 1. Theunis Botha, b1c1, b. 1711, Tulbagh, Cape Colony, South Africa [Birth] |
| | 2. Christoffe Botha, b1c2, b. Jan/1713, Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 17/Jun/1764, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age ~ 51 years) [Birth] |
| | 3. Magrita Botha, b1c3, b. Oct/1714, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa [Birth] |
| | 4. Jacobus Botha, b1c4, b. Jul/1717, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa [Birth] |
| | 5. Maria Elizabeth Botha, b1c5, b. 1719, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 1760, Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age 41 years) [Birth] |
| | 6. Philippus Botha, b1c6, b. 02/Mar/1721, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. Apr/1721, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa [Birth] |
| + | 7. Philippus Rudolphus Botha, a1b1c7, b. Aug 1722, Eendracht Farm Swellendam, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 18 Nov 1825, Somerset East, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age ~ 103 years) [Birth] |
|
| Last Modified |
19 May 2021 |
| Family ID |
F33 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 2 |
Maria Catharina van Eeden, b. Sep/1712, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, South Africa , d. 1772, Somerset East, Cape Colony, South Africa (Age ~ 59 years) |
| Married |
13/Jul/1734 |
Somerset East, Cape Colony, South Africa |
| Last Modified |
19 May 2021 |
| Family ID |
F116 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Photos |
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| Documents
|
 | Teunis Botha Farm Eendracht
Farm Eendracht VASSA Journal 11 June 2004 |
|
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Genealogie- & Familie-Erfenisfees 2013 |
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|
Greeff & Erasmus 2013 FSIGen. Appel Botha Cornelitz |
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Theunis Will 1735 |
| Histories |
 |
Libertas Farm Stellenbosch History and Botha family Birth Place |
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