de Ru: A tale of an international family

Three years ago, Kees de Ru, started to research his family tree, concentrating on the Dutch / South African limbs. Little did he know that he is part of a family branching out to the corners of the world. The family tree is constantly growing with distant relatives joining his Facebook group.

“Since I knew nothing about my family and assumed that I was probably the only one left of it, I started an investigation 3 years ago.

My gramps, Cornelis died in 1948. I was 6 years old and can just about remember him. My dad, Willem Cornelis passed away in 1950.

I have bad memories of him because he was a regular beater, my mother subsequently divorced him in 1947 when he hit my brother, who was born in1945, as well.

Later it appeared that the poor man suffered from a brain tumour, which caused his behaviour.

With the help of the Internet, we can now trace a huge number of family ties.

It also appears to be work that depresses a person. A lot of poverty and child mortality in old times. You are compelled to sympathise with those people.

Ernst and Wilma de Ru have asked me if there is a family heraldic, but I haven’t found one.

The family I have found were mostly labourers with heavy jobs, such as farmers, inland fishermen, ship hauliers (pulling boats through the canals with horses or manpower), porters carrying bags of coal or harbour workers – originating from the textile industry. It was not until my generation, after 1920, that the livelihood improved considerably because of better education and study opportunities.

The Armed Forces and the sea

I can imagine why the ancestor of the South African branch, Cornelis, fled. His conscription was not at a glorious time and there was no war underway. I myself went to the sea at a young age [just as my father did, PW]. My cousin Johannes (Amsterdam, 1922) was orphaned at the age of 14 and sent to a labour camp by the city council of Amsterdam to Veenhuizen, right around the corner from where I now reside.

From here, he likewise deserted and went to sea.

My direct cousin Pieter Johannes de Ru, (1915) went to the Navy and was as a Marine pilot shot down at East Java and drowned in 1942. He had then just been married for 2 years in Malang, Java in present-day Indonesia.

Another cousin, Lambertus Jan de Ru (1921), went to the UK during WW2 and spent the war as a radio operator on RAF bombers. After that, he has spent the rest of his days as a captain of tankers.

Cousin Pieter de Ru (1918) also joined the Navy and fought onboard HMS Tromp in [East] India during World War II.

Subsequently, his pension was collected from the U-boat service.

In short, going sailing or going into Service, gave the advantage that you had work, shelter, food and salary. Cornelis, of course, could not stay here and ended up in South Africa (ZA) in one way or the other.

And that is how we end up in ZA. Not an easy job because all these names are equal and connections are difficult to explain. You too have experienced difficult times and you still see a lot of trouble ahead.

For now, we just trundle ahead and hope to collect more data and photos.

~ Kees de Ru

de Ru’s in a concentration camp in South Africa during the Boer War. Photo: Bloemfontein War Museum.

On a side-note, the Norwegian branch of the family goes back to Utrecht and Arnhem. The two brothers, Gerard Pieter Bor Wijnen and Michael de Ru both found Norwegian sweethearts. The Arnhem branch further extends to Suriname, Malaysia, the US and Germany besides Norway.

Work on the family tree is in progress in Australia as well.

All branches can be traced back to the Huguenots having to flee France way back when, some like the de Ru’s retaining their names, others like my paternal forefathers taking their name from their trade [Wijnen in my case, PW].

de Ru: A tale of an international family