Dutch & German roots · at the Cape since 1748
Ten recorded generations, traced from a monastery in the Low Countries to the vineyards of the Hottentots Holland.
Origin
The descendants of the South African surname Steyn have Dutch and German roots. The name appears in historical records in several forms — the Dutch commonly spelt it Steijn, the German Stein. It is also possible that the surname Steen was written as Steyn.
There were no common spelling conventions set by academies as there are today, and a high rate of illiteracy contributed further. Official scribes wrote most records and often wrote names as they heard them in their own language. At the Cape, for example, the French name Couchy was recorded phonetically as Coetzee. The same could well have happened to the variations of Steyn.
The earliest mention is of Erasmus, born 1466, who entered the Augustinian monastery of Steyn.
At the Cape of Good Hope
In 1748 Johannes Steijn arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, most likely from Darmstadt in Germany. On 1 June 1760 he married Anna Elizabeth Diemer. Their 1761 will determined that, should they die, their children were to go to Johannes's mother, Anna Margarieta Meyer, in Darmstadt.
Only their son Gabriel Pieter (1762–1819) left descendants in South Africa. In turn, only two of Gabriel Pieter's sons — Elbert Lucas (1792–1859) and Gabriel Hendrik (1800–1870) — left descendants beyond the fourth generation. The line can therefore be traced to the split in the third generation, some 350 years ago.
The register
Codes in the margin follow the South African genealogical convention — each letter marks a generation (a = first, b = second, and so on), each number the child's place among siblings. Indentation shows descent.
The family, through the years
