Sleutelfontein (Groot and Klein)

District: Prince Albert

This parcel has no matched survey polygon, so it cannot be drawn on the map. That is a gap in the cadastre match, not an absence from the record.

Why this farm is here

Ground a written history is set on. Not yet placed on the map.

story A written history names this ground Eighty-one thousand morgen
story A written history names this ground The church at Zeekoegat
story A written history names this ground De Claar Stroom: the farm the town stands on

Stories

mentions this farm Eighty-one thousand morgen
Frederik Simon 'Oom Frikkie' Oosthuizen died in 1936 holding, by one account, 81,000 morgen around Zwartkraal - about a quarter of all the ground on this map. This project holds not one deed in his name. What the money was probably in, what it was certainly not in, and the one document that would settle it.
mentions this farm The church at Zeekoegat
Three generations of Oosthuizens in the Zwartberg church, and the rich farmer who built a chapel 65 km out on the dirt for a hundred people.
mentions this farm De Claar Stroom: the farm the town stands on
The loan farm De Claar Stroom (Klaarstroom No. 178), granted 1777, is the ground Klaarstroom village stands on, not to be confused with Klaarstroom No. 184, which is Christian Hatting's grant 19 km west. Meiringspoort opened in 1858; twenty-seven erven were laid out on Petrus Oosthuizen's land and the village was called Petersburg for him. The erven were sold WITHOUT water rights. Who Petrus was is still unknown, and the one testable fact about him is a brother named Ockert.

What the record holds, in order

No dated record on this parcel yet. It is on the map because the Surveyor-General has a polygon for it; the history is not transcribed.

Research notes

[SRC-068] Two farms, Groot and Klein Sleutelfontein, in the Traka ward west of Prince Albert. Named as part of Frederik Simon "Oom Frikkie" Oosthuizen's holding, which Judy Maguire puts at 81,000 morgen around Zwartskraal and "most of the farms from the N1 to the Traka and westwards". Groot and Klein Sleutelfontein and Zeekoegat. Sleutelfontein is also where PAT AND HELENA MARINCOWITZ farmed in the twentieth century (PER-000179, PER-000945). NO CADASTRAL MATCH ATTEMPTED and no geometry: the source gives a name and a district, not a farm number, and a wrong pin is worse than none. See 5.

*** [3 Aug 2026] THIS ROW IS A DUPLICATE, AND THE FARMS WERE HERE ALL ALONG. *** It was created from the Zeekoegat cameo's mention of 'Groot and Klein Sleutelfontein' with the note that no cadastral match had been attempted because the source gave a name and a district, not a farm number. The 1971 Rhemhoogte diagram (SRC-212) supplies the numbers - GROOT SLUITEL FONTEIN NR. 126 and KLEIN SLEUTELFONTEIN NR. 127 - and this model has held both of them PINNED AND DRAWN ON THE MAP since long before: PAR-000071 (126, 4 199,1 ha) and PAR-000073 (127, 14 398,3 ha), with their portions PAR-000072 Noorsdoringkop and PAR-000074 Kleinbotterkraal. So one holding was represented twice, once by name and once by number, and nothing joined them. THIS ROW IS KEPT, NOT DELETED - ids are permanent and it carries the Maguire citation and the Pat and Helena MarincowitzM fact. It is now a COLLECTIVE REFERENCE that resolves to PAR-000071 and PAR-000073, and should never be pinned: there is no single parcel called 'Sleutelfontein'. sg_farm_key set to NO-POLYGON so a name match cannot re-derive one.

[4 Aug 2026, FRANS, FAMILY] TWO DISTINCT FARMS, CONFIRMED, AND THE SPELLING IS THE ONLY THING THAT EVER VARIED: "Klein and Groot sleutel fonteint had various spellings over the years. sleutel, sluitel, etc but seems it was always 2 distinct farms - at least since surveyd." That closes the question this row's own note left open and matches the cadastre independently: two farm numbers (126 and 127), two drawn polygons, and the two touch. The spellings recorded here are Sleutelfontein, Sluitel Fontein, Sleutlefontein, Sleutle fontein and Sluitelfontein - kept as they were written, per 5a, and never normalised into one. AND AN ODDITY WORTH KNOWING BEFORE ANYONE REASONS FROM THE NAMES: KLEIN SLEUTELFONTEIN IS THE FAR BIGGER FARM - 16 916 morgen / 14 398,3 ha against Groot's ~4 870 morgen / 4 199,1 ha, a ratio of about 3,4 to 1. Both figures check against their own diagrams. The likeliest reading is that groot and klein name the SPRINGS rather than the farms, which is how these names usually work, but that is a reading and not established here.

The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.

Open questions

Three farms carry the same name twice or three times, and ten story links are held back because of it priority 2 · LEAD-0080
Which Rietfontein, which De Claar Stroom, and is Sleutelfontein (Groot and Klein) a real parcel or a composite of two?

What would settle it For each mention, which parcel the sentence means. For Sleutelfontein, whether PAR-000098 should exist at all given PAR-000071/072.

What the record is missing

Nobody is on record as ever having held this third order · B8 never-held
Sleutelfontein (Groot and Klein) is in the model, and carries no ownership record of any kind, not a grant, not a transfer, not an occupation.

What would settle it The Surveyor-General's diagram for the farm number names the grantee and the date; the deed reference on it opens the transfer chain.

Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand, each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data. The whole set is on the questions page.