Jan
Frederik Reitz (1761-1824)
![Jan Frederik Reitz](jfr2a.jpg)
No known portrait of Jan Frederik, the
South African stamvader, is known to exist.
However, this silhouette, dating from 1811, in the Otto Reitz (Somerset
West) collection, is said to be a likeness.
Under construction
He married Barbara van Reenen (1777-1818), the
eldest daughter of Dirk Gysbert van Reenen and Aletta Catharina Hurter of De Papenboom, Newlands, Cape, on
March 23 1795, and so joined the large circle of the bride's relatives
living in the settlement. Her father's diary, Joernaal
van Dirk Gysbert van Reenen 1803 was published in 1937
as no. 18 in the van Riebeeck Society series of
publications. Another classic and rare item of Africana, on a
trip in search of the wreck of the Grosvenor,
by her uncle Jacobus van Reenen, was also published by the van
Riebeck Society, in 1927.
Dirk Gysbert's Joernaal
contains an extensive biography, and information about his antecedents
(p. 1-80).
The van Reenen family
originated in Memel, in Prussia.