The arms of the Van der Walt family
Of the Forest · Since 1727

One name.
Three hundred years.

Tens of thousands of us carry one man's name. In our 300th year, we are finding each other.

Carry the name?
With your code, we place you exactly. With just a name, we help you find it.
or watch the film →
Where it begins

Watch the story

Of the Forest · the film2 min 40

Three hundred years in two and a half minutes: one poor migrant, one freed slave, and the family that grew from them. This is the line you come from.

A family three hundred years deep, begun by a marooned migrant and a freed slave, and carried now by van der Walts of every background, on six continents. In our 300th year we are doing one simple thing: finding each other.

From one, a whole line

The line, in brief

1727

Gaele comes ashore

On 16 March 1727 Gaele Andries steps off the ship at the Cape, the stamvader of every van der Walt in South Africa.

1800s

Across a continent

The line spreads as trekboers, commandants and farmers, through hardship the registers nearly lost.

1978

The arms, made honest

After three years of research the family registers its own shield with the Bureau of Heraldry: the Frisian eagle, the fleur-de-lis, and by law no helm or borrowed knight.

2027

Three hundred years

Thousands of us, on six continents, most never having met. The year we gather and carry it on.

Roots · the one tree

Find your place

Every van der Walt alive descends from one man and his eight children. Find where you sit, and watch your line trace three hundred years back to the stamvader.

Gaele Andries & Johanna
a1 · the stamvader · from 1727

You already belong

Every van der Walt has a place on this tree, whether you know your line or not. By birth or by bond, documented or still to be found, the door is open.

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Don't know your line?

Neither do most of us, and that is the whole point. Claim your place, tell us a parent, a place, a date, and we trace you onto the tree.

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Already carry your code?

If you know your line (like b5 c6 d6 ...), enter it and watch it trace three hundred years back to the stamvader.

See how a line traces Watch two cousins meet

Your place is not a rank or a number, it is simply where you sit on the family register. The earliest generations are well documented. The living branches are what we are still filling in, together, which is the whole point.

Every place on this tree is checked against the records. See what we have corrected →
Belonging is free · claim your place →
The mark of the line

The arms

Van der Walt-Familiebond arms

The family shield

The Van der Walt-Familiebond arms, registered with the Bureau of Heraldry in 1978. Shared by all, altered by none.

The same family shield, made personal by name, line and motto

Your personalised mark

The shield never changes. You make it yours with three things only: your name, your place in the line, and a motto. See how →

Ten

registered van der Walt arms stand in the national register. The family's own shield, from 1978, is the one we all share; the others are personal grants individuals made in their own name down the years.

Familiebond, 1978 · Sarel Jacob · Louis Stephanus · Charles Peter · Nicolaas Tjaart Snyman · Nicoline Marguerite · A.P.J. of Pretoria · and more
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A shield can be filed away. A family cannot. So we keep our own, the line, the names, the stories, handed from one van der Walt to the next.

We do not ask to be recognised. We recognise each other.

Open to everyone who carries the name, or the line. No politics. No grievance. Just three hundred years, and the door held open.

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What you find here

Take your place

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Roots

Find where you come from and your place on the one tree, back to Gaele.
♚

Crest

Your own personal arms, built with respect on the family's registered shield.
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Story

The family history, the honest one, told in a way worth reading.
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Network

Van der Walts in every field and country, finally able to find each other.
In our 300th year

Bring a van der Walt home

We are gathering the family to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of one surname. The mark to beat is 1,848. Every name counts.

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Build it with us

Carry the name forward

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Become a sponsor

Back the family in its 300th year and be seen across the portal and the commemoration. Platinum, Gold, Silver and in-kind.

See opportunities →
☯

Join the steering committee

We are looking for volunteers, a few good hands to help shape the portal and the 300-year commemoration.

Volunteer →
🎓

Back a bursary

Van der Walts who have done well helping a young one study or land a first job. Help mekaar, made real.

How it works →
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Share your story

We are gathering 300 stories, one for each year. Add yours to the family record.

Add a story →
Fund the gathering
R0 of R250,000 toward the party
Placeholder for the live event fund
Every rand goes to things that grow: the gathering, a tree planted, a first chance for a young van der Walt. Never to a filing fee.
Platinum
Tiguri tiguri In-kind · founding
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Gold
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Silver
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A sponsorship tree that grows the way the family did, from one at the top. ·

Take your place in the line

Adopt the family mark, receive your number, and stand with the rest of us. Belonging is free. Our roots go down three hundred years.

★ Be one of the first 300 · Founding Members
Claim your place
Your place in the line, e.g.  b5 · c6 · d6 · e10 · f1 · g2 · h1 · i1 · j2