Marthinus Petrus du Plessis
- Born
- 10 May 1878 · Swellendam, Cape
- Died
- 19 August 1963 · Saint Helena, Welkom, Free State
- Spouse
- Martha Maria Jansen van Rensburg · m. 14 April 1903, Jacobsdal, Orange Free State
- FamilySearch
- View profile →
Parents
- Herklaas Gerhardus du Plessis 1845–1929
- Louisa Johanna Susanna Koen b. 1850
Children
- Josef "Jopie" Johannes Fourie du Plessis 1914–2006
Izelle’s paternal great-grandfather — Jopie’s father. Baptised 7 July 1878 at Fauresmith in the Orange Free State, having been born two months earlier at Swellendam in the Cape. Served in the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1901. Married Martha Maria Jansen van Rensburg at Jacobsdal on 14 April 1903, took up residence at Middel Erf in the Fauresmith district, and eventually became a member of the Philippolis DRC congregation in April 1913. Died at Saint Helena, Welkom, in August 1963 aged 85.
Ten children with Martha — the eldest three born before Jopie (Hercules 1904, Renier 1905, Sophia 1907), a Marthinus Petrus Jr. in 1908 (b. Luckhoff, later married Koffiefontein 1959), a daughter in 1912, then Jopie in October 1914, and further children through 1920.
His identification as Jopie’s father is anchored on two independent legs:
- Family memory (Izelle) names him as her paternal great-grandfather by his full Marthinus Petrus Christian names.
- The FamilySearch tree lists a “Jopie Johannes Fourie du Plessis” as one of his ten
children (albeit as an empty stub,
G8RC-GTB, duplicating the well-sourced Jopie profileG2N2-8K3that is attached to the 1951 marriage record).
The witnesses on Jopie’s 1951 Koffiefontein marriage register include an “M.P. du Plessis” — at 73, Marthinus was still alive and living within reach of Koffiefontein, so this is plausibly his own signature.
Marthinus’s parents Herklaas Gerhardus du Plessis (1845–1929) and Louisa Johanna Susanna Koen (b. 1850) — married at Hopetown in December 1866 — are documented one rung further up. The middle generations between Herklaas and the Huguenot stamvader Jean Prieur du Plessis (1638 Poitiers; Oosterland 1688) remain untraced.
Threads that mention Marthinus Petrus du Plessis
- The Fourie middle name — mother or martyr?
Jopie du Plessis carries a Fourie middle name. Once thought to point at a Fourie mother up the line, it now looks more like commemoration of the Boer martyr Jopie Fourie, added at baptism in the weeks after the martyr's December 1914 execution.
- Three Marthinus Petrus du Plessis's
The du Plessis side has its own name-carrying stretch. Marthinus Petrus (1878, Swellendam) → Marthinus Petrus Jr. (1908, Luckhoff) → Martinis Petrus (1952, Koffiefontein). Three generations of the same first two names, across seventy-four years.