Our story
Three hundred years, from Friesland to today
Where the family comes from, how its name and arms came to be, and how the story is told today.
The book
Of the Forest
The story of the van der Walt family, free to read, one chapter at a time. A new chapter every week.
Read it →
The film
Teen die Stormwinde in
A short film in the making about Gaele Andries, from Ernst van der Walt's book. Watch the trailer.
Watch the trailer →
The arms
The Arms
Registered with the Bureau of Heraldry in 1978: what the shield means and why it changed.
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Heritage
Lineage in South Africa
A coat of arms, a totem animal, praise names: how South Africa's peoples keep their lineage, and where those traditions meet.
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Getting it right
How we lost an ancestor
For years the oldest man on our tree was Lieuwe Folkerts. Then we read the one document that could prove him, and took him off.
Read it →