- Van Zyl
Some members of the van Zijl family emigrated from Holland to the Cape Colony, in the late 17th century (1696?)
In the early 1800's H C van Zijl moved from Stellenbosch? to Colesberg where he settled on the farm Hangklip, where his great? grandson Maeder Osler farms today.
In July 1842 H C van Zijl bought the farm 'tZamenkomst from van der Walt, and his son Johan Wilhelm Sr. settled there. On 24th January 1888 he married Emma Katie Weakley. They had six children. The eldest Johan Wilhelm Jr. took over the farm after the death of his father on 4th October 1908. He married Doris late in life. They had no children. After his death in November 1974 the farm passed into the hands of Christopher Anthony van Zyl, youngest son of Benjamin van Zyl, youngest son of Johan Wilhelm van Zijl Sr.. Christopher farmed with his wife Ute (known as Dassie - born Nieswandt) for 18 months. He then moved to Fort Beaufort as a senior lecturer in Land Survey at the University of Fort Hare. Christopher subsequently emigrated to New Zealand where he worked as a Senior Lecturer in Land Survey. He is now a professor of Land Survey at the "Hochschule vir Techniek und Wirtschaft" in Dresden. Ute died in January 1996. They had three children - a son Benjamin who was stillborn, Catherine Valerie who is studying Business Administration at the Technical University in Dresden and Caroline Joyce who is studying Film? at the University of Mainz. In June 2005 Christopher married Birgit Schmallfuss, who has three sons, Ivo, Sascha and Roman.
van Zyl is an Afrikaans surname, and may refer to:
*
Annette Van Zyl , South African tennis player
*Corrie van Zyl (born 1961), South African cricketer
*Damien Van Zyl (born 1978), South African male model
*Gideon Brand van Zyl (1873-1956), South African politician
*Ian van Zyl (born 1980), Namibian cricketer
*L. J. van Zyl (born 1985), South African hurdler
*Piet van Zyl (born 1979), Namibian rugby union player
*Frederik van Zyl Slabbert (born 1940), South African politician
*Nikki van der Zyl , voice actress
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