21 Windsor Road Kalk Bay 7975 South Africa

Phone 21-7885113 Fax 021-7889324 Email arcadia@49er.co.za

Circular 44/09 December 2009

Hi Everyone

If it seems like a long time since you last heard from me - it is! I know how many of you have just been dying to get another Flemmer family circular (!). I can only plead idleness and a surfeit of holidays this year. When I last wrote in April we were packing our bags for 6 weeks on 'our' island in Greece. We were no sooner back when we decided to go again. So after two months of Cape winter, sorting the post, paying the bills and so on, we left at the end of August for another month. No time for family circulars! Crazy to go twice some will say, but you only live once we say and who knows when the zimmer frame will be coming out. We had a great time of course and my brother Pad and wife Ronel joined us for my birthday in September. A great celebration took place.

I mentioned last time that several of the tribe had fallen off the mailing list and that we had lost touch with them. I'm glad to say we did hear from some of these missing links who have now rejoined the list. We were also glad to add two new family members, father and son Stephen and Shaun Neville (son and grandson of Avril Flemmer) - so a warm welcome to them. I also had emails from distant relatives - one in Denmark who is a descendant of Daniel Flemmer ('our' Johannes' brother) and another from one of the Moolman family. This latter is a descendant of Hans Micheal Naested and Camilla Flemmer. I also heard from two of the Lancaster family who sent me updates of their Whos Who entries. These are very welcome but we have decided that we will not update the Flemmer website at the moment. As a lot of you know the Who's Who was printed for the Cradock Reunion and we will look at a reprint and more entries at a later date.

I had mails about quite a few family events over the period as well:

Beryl Pickford (Flemmer) wrote to tell me that her son Andrew William Sterndale Pickford married Meike Meermann on the 21st July 2008 in Hamilton New Zealand -they have two children
Eric George Meermann Pickford was born on the 22nd April 2006 in Hamilton
Charlotte Lena Kate Pickford was born on the 24th January 2009 in Hamilton

Angela Sheard (daughter of Christian John and Linda Flemmer) told me their daughter Megan Ann was born on 1st January 2008

Another set of twins arrived! They are Nina Daniella and Kaylee Iris Bakker born on the 20th May 2009. These bundles of joy joined their 16 month old sister Faith and were born to Jacqui and Craig Bakker. They are the grandchildren of Mike and Sally De Villiers (Flemmer). Judy and I were fortunate to meet these lovely little girls soon after they were born and we saw them again this week. They are beautiful- and were as good as gold - I have no idea where they get this trait from. Amazingly they are the 15th set of twins we have on record in the family.
Another Flemmer arrived - he is Matthew David son of David and Cath Flemmer and grandson of Nolan and Jenny. I don't yet know when he was born - this information is eagerly awaited. This little chap is the ninth generation Flemmer we have on record - all the way back to Frederich in 1703. If only he knew what he was starting!

I had a call from Ann Richards who told me that a boy had joined the Lascaris family. Unfortunately I can't find the note I made about this - so apologise for not including all the details which will be in the next circular.

So the great family tree grows and spreads - congratulations to all of these proud parents and grandparents and of course great grandparents.

And now please pay careful attention!! I told you in the April circular that we were going to put the Story of the South African Flemmers on to a CD. I had orders from Geoff Pallister, Noel Mast, Joan Geyser, Fay Lea, Debbie Flemmer and Karen Trenor for which thank you.
Fay and I had a re-think on this. We are sitting on a mass of family photos, documents and other photos, collected over years of research. We also have 1400 (yes - 1400!) names on the family tree. We have other papers that we thought should be made available to everyone. We have got someone to assemble a DVD which we think is really quite stupendous. It has on it:

The History of the SA Flemmers Part 1 - self published in 2003 covering the Flemmer family from 1703 to 1870
The Story of the South African Flemmers
The Little Dane
Reminiscences of Cradock
Who's Who in the Flemmer Family
Flemmer and related families tree and interactive tree with 1400 names
Flemmer and related family photos - over 1 000 including sub-folders of the Cole Rouses, de Villiers, Flemmers, Gilfillans, Herberts, Hopleys, Howard Brownes. Mast and Mast Ingles, Naesteds, Nolan Neylans, Pallisters and von Abos. There are literally hundreds of other family members' photos as well

So my dear people - a veritable cornucopia of family and well worth having.

We have had to increase the price a bit because of production cost. For South African orders it will be R110 and for overseas orders R150 - this includes postage and packaging. Still incredibly reasonable. If we manage to make any profit it will go towards the cost of our website.

If you would like a copy of the DVD please email me right now at arcadia@49er.co.za. You should include your postal address. I will confirm payment arrangements. If you want to pay from overseas this can easily be arranged at very little cost via Paypal

So all that remains is for me to wish all of you a happy and peaceful Christmas and everything of the best for 2010

Steve