This story is based on fact. It began in the year 1892. Kate, her full name was Catherine Elizabeth de Ponselle, the same as her mother. Together with her mother and father, they left France, first to live in the Hoek of Holland, where her father worked for a short spell, before taking up the challenge to emmigrate to the Cape Colony.
When they arrived at the dock of the Cape, Monsieur Duval, a Frenchman, who had a blacksmoth shop where Papa would be working, picked them up. He took them to the van Soelen boarding house.
Some time later, Monsieur Duval was killed in a freak accident and his shop was sold. Papa was out of work and he met a farmer, Hendrik van Heerden, who offered him a job on his farm in the Free State Republic.
There, Kate had many difficulties to face before settling down.