The Retief spine has two stretches where the same name carries down three generations in a row — Andries Johannes at Gens 5–6–7, and Adriaan Albertus at Gens 8–9–10. Izelle’s side of the family has its own, less advertised version of the same pattern.
- Marthinus Petrus du Plessis — b. 10 May 1878, Swellendam; d. 19 August 1963, Welkom. Izelle’s paternal great-grandfather.
- Marthinus Petrus du Plessis Jr. — b. 6 November 1908, Luckhoff (Fauresmith district); m. Koffiefontein 1959; d. 22 November 1983, Fauresmith. One of the elder Marthinus’s ten children — a sibling of Jopie (b. 1914).
- Martinis Petrus du Plessis — b. 1 March 1952, Koffiefontein. Izelle’s father. Named for his paternal grandfather Marthinus, not his uncle.
Three men, one name, seventy-four years and three generations. And the geography carries too: Fauresmith district → Luckhoff → Koffiefontein → back to Koffiefontein, all within a half-day’s ride of each other in the southern Orange Free State. A surprisingly small world holding a surprisingly persistent name.
The middle Marthinus (Jr.) is not on the site as his own person page — he sits behind the scenes as the sibling of Jopie whose existence, on the FS tree, is one of the pieces of evidence tying our Jopie to the elder Marthinus as father.