DID YOU KNOW?

 

• The Futters (and indeed many of the Settler families) were certainly "breeders" of note and 6 to 8 children the norm. Large families provided necessary "help" on the farms which many of them ran. William Futter (son of the Settlers George and Sarah took it to a brand new level - he had 2 wives and 19 children!  

• 2 Futter brothers married 2 James sisters and each family had 11 children. The one (William James) had 1 son and 10 daughters and the other (Charles) had 1 daughter and 10 sons. William must have felt a bit "short-changed" having all those girls, but they were all pretty tough and had to do plenty of manual labour on the farm!                                             Both wives died in their early 40's - undoubtedly after having so many pregnancies - and left a lot of very small motherless children. As was the norm in those days, the husbands would generally take on another wife to look after their children, or these were brought up by various family members. 

• One Futter wife had 21 pregnancies with 17 surviving beyond infancy!  The very robust mother (1846-1946) lived to the ripe old age of  80. Pretty good after what she's been through!  She is reported to have said: (every time she fell pregnant) "John you old bugger, you've done it again!" All I can think about is the amount of meals which had to be prepared and the vast amount of laundry - and where on earth did everyone sleep?!

• Many babies in the early days did not survive infancy - to be expected without access to anti-biotics and much in the way of medical care. It is surprising in fact how many did survive. TB was a killer - as well as the flu epidemic. An aunt of mine died of from what was believed to be a spider bite.  

• We have 2 family members with photos of themselves with Madiba and one with the "Arch" - Desmond Tutu.

• Shaun Pollock's wife is connected to our family

• One of our family members successfully fought off a would-be rapist while climbing the Berg - by biting him!