EARLY HISTORY OF THE AXSEL FAMILY IN SOUTH AFRICA

THE FIRST GENERATION

Christian Friedrich ACHSEL arrived in South Africa with his wife and family from Wartin in Prussia in late 1859, early 1860. They had sailed from Hamburg aboard the "Peter Godeffroy", departing on 19^th November 1859.

He and his wife Johanne were 37 years of age at the time, the passenger list giving the names and ages of their children as Gottlieb(12), Wilhelmine(6), Friedrich(3) and Ferdinand(under 1).

Christian was a farm labourer and the family settled in the Worcester area.

A child, Ferdinand, was born of the union on 03 May 1862 and christened on 12 October 1862. This is the earliest South African record of the family I have found. One may presume that little Ferdinand born in Prussia died after their arrival.

In 1868 the eldest son Gottlieb, a labourer in the Hex River area, married Caroline HOFFMANN, their first child Friedrich Wilhelm Michael being born on 16 September 1869 and christened in Worcester. This combination of first names remains popular to this day. Gottlieb acquired some property in Worcester and became a trader. In 1883 he was declared insolvent and the sale of his movable and unmovable property was advertised. Court records reflect the reason for his insolvency as "continually drunk and unfit to attend to his business".

Unfortunately, his father Christian was faring no better! At the age of sixty six he perpetrated an act of arson on the farm Glen Heatlie in the Worcester district. He was imprisoned the day after the arson attack, tried and found guilty four months later in April of 1888.

Gottlieb’s brother Friedrich, married Anna ELSKE in Worcester on 03 April 1883.

The youngest brother Ferdinand, a baker at the age of 24, married Elizabeth Francina EVERT in Dutoitspan, Kimberley in 1886. Their first child was born in Dutoitspan ten months later, the christening being witnessed by Friedrich and his wife Anna.

Christian died in 1901 in Vrededorp, Johannesburg.

Gottlieb survived POW imprisonment in Kimberley during the Boer War.

Wilhelmine married a farmer in the Mafekeng area, and died at the age of 47 in 1900.

Friedrich, a blacksmith, died in Pretoria in 1932, and

Ferdinand died in 1924 in Melville, Johannesburg.

Christian Friedrich ACHSEL

(I think!!)

Updated: 20 November 2005