Jan Christian Smuts was born on 24 May , in the house “Bovenplaats” on the farm Ongegund near Riebeeck West in the British Cape Colony. He had Dutch-German roots, as his paternal ancestor, Michiel Cornelis Smuts hat emigrated around from Middelburg, Holland and his maternal ancestor, Johann Christiaan Davel from Bautzen, Germany in.