Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers (37), compiler of South African genealogical registers, dies

Location: back to this day in history search archive Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers was born on 10 March 1850 in Swellendam, in the Cape Colony (now Western Cape). De Villiers is known as the 'father of South African geneaology' and began writing his significant three volume genealogical register called Geslachtregister der Oude Kaapsche Familien (Genealogies of Old Cape Families) in 1882. De Villiers died on 4 September 1887, and his work was published posthumously, prepared for the press by G. McCall Theal, and sponsored by the Cape Government from 1893 to 1895. The system of genealogical numbering that he developed later became known as the de Villiers/Pama system, after it was refined in a new edition in 1966 by Dr. Cornelius Pama, one of the founding members of the Genealogical Society of South Africa. De Villiers was married to Sara Susanna Celliers, aunt of the poet Jan Celliers. His son, Dr. L.C de Villiers, was a professor of geology at the University of Pretoria for many years, and the university sports grounds are named after him.