Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen

18 January 1878 – 29 October 1961 · Oosthuizen line

Descends from the root couple, 3 generations up

Connection to the Koup

Held ground in this district: Hartebeest Voedpad (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 5) (1919-06-10).

land Elandsfontein (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 6) 1921-07-08
residence Drooge Kloof 1878
residence Drooge Kloof 1922-01-02

Names

Baptismal name: Almero Jacobus Hitge
Called: Almero
Given: Almero Jacobus Hitge
Surname: Oosthuizen

The formal baptismal name and the name a person was actually called are both kept, and neither is derived from the other. Spelling drift between records is evidence, not noise.

Photographs

Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen, about 1896 — Family collection

The back of the 1896 portrait, inscribed — Family collection

A. J. H. Oosthuizen and G. S. Marincowitz — Family collection

The back of the double portrait, inscribed — Family collection

Immediate family

Father: Ockert Almero Oosthuizen
Mother: Aletta Catharina Maria Helena Hitge
Brothers and sisters: Jan Adriaan Oosthuizen, Charles Frederick Wright Oosthuizen
Married: Johanna Fredricka Malherbe 19 May 1903
Children: 1904Ockert Almero Oosthuizen (b.1904)

1906Isabella Zulch Oosthuizen

1908Aletta Catharina Oosthuizen

1909Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe Oosthuizen

1912Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen (b.1912)

A life in the record

1878 land Lived on it, Drooge Kloof
18 January 1878 born Born
10 February 1878 event Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen baptised at Prince Albert
Born on 18 January 1878 and baptised three weeks later - by now the family is in the Prince Albert congregation, founded within living memory, and the church is close enough that a baptism no longer waits fourteen weeks as his father's did in 1837. Third son, so by the naming pattern he carries his
10 February 1878 occasion Baptism at Prince Albert
1892 event A fourteen-year-old drives three teachers over the Swartberg Pass
Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen, aged 14, took three lady teachers from the Prince Albert school over the new Swartberg Pass to Oudtshoorn in a mule cart, down the 'Die Top' zig-zags at dusk to make Droewaterval before dark, and came home by moonlight complaining about the shrieking. During term he
19 May 1903 married Married Johanna Fredricka Malherbe
19 May 1903 event Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen marries Johanna Fredricka Malherbe
[SRC-074] Five children, of whom Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe (1909-1979) is Frans's grandfather. Almero Hitge is the boy who drove the schoolteachers over the Swartberg Pass in 1892 (STO-0001) and who bought 4,311 morgen on Rondabel in 1919 and 1921.
12 September 1909 event Hendrik Lodewijk Malherbe Oosthuizen baptised at Prince Albert
Born 17 August 1909, baptised four weeks later by ds David Wilcocks. Six witnesses, four of them MALHERBES - the mother's people had come. Among them stood HENDRIK LODEWIJK MALHERBE himself, the man the child was named for. The fifth generation of this family read from an original register, and the
12 September 1909 occasion Baptism of their child, Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe Oosthuizen at Prince Albert
10 June 1919 land Held it, Hartebeest Voedpad (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 5)
10 June 1919 event Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen buys Hartebeest Voedpad on Rondabel
1,606 morgen 79 sq roods. Frans's great-grandfather, aged 41, taking ground on the farm next to Middelwater.
8 July 1921 land Held it, Elandsfontein (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 6)
8 July 1921 event Elandsfontein on Rondabel transferred to A. Oosthuizen
2,705 morgen 257 sq roods, two years after Hartebeest Voedpad and adjoining it. [TO VERIFY] the same Almero.
2 January 1922 land Lived on it, Drooge Kloof
2 January 1922 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen dies in Church Street, Prince Albert
A retired farmer of 85, dead of gastro enteritis after a month, attended by Dr P.C. Luttig, and buried in the DR church cemetery at Prince Albert. His son signed the form from DROOGEKLOOF - the piece of annexed Government ground that sat inside the Middelwater loan farm when Stretch surveyed it in 1
3 January 1922 witness Witnessed a death registration · Ockert Almero Oosthuizen
1961 buried Buried, Prince Albert, burial ground not identified
29 October 1961 died Died

Ground they are on record on

Hartebeest Voedpad (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 5) held it · 10 June 1919
Elandsfontein (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 6) held it · 8 July 1921
Drooge Kloof lived on it · 1878
Drooge Kloof lived on it · 2 January 1922

Who stood with them

Who signed at a baptism, a will or a survey is not incidental. It is the clearest surviving record of which families stood close to which.

stood for them Nicolaas Cornelis van den Hoven baptism · 10 February 1878
no other trace in this model
stood for them Fredrika Johanna Oosthuizen baptism · 10 February 1878 · father's family
no other trace in this model
stood for them George Joseph Roy Hitge baptism · 10 February 1878 · mother's family
on Vondeling No. 139 · stood at 1 other occasion
they stood for Ockert Almero Oosthuizen death registration · 3 January 1922
on Middelwater

Stories

subject Almero Hitge and the teachers over the Swartberg
subject Almero
subject Rondabel No. 124: a farm history
mentioned Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
mentioned The Prince Albert gold rush
subject The Oosthuizens of the Koup
ancestor The Oosthuizens of the Koup

Others of the same name

Afrikaans naming repeats hard, and the Cape Dutch naming pattern reuses a name on purpose, a child who died young has the name given again to a later sibling. These are different people. Never match on a name alone.

What we don't know

2 other people in this model carry the same name. Never match on a name alone.

A sourced gap beats an unsourced fill. These are the open questions on this person, stated rather than papered over.

Sources

Rondabel Portion 5 "Hartebeest Voedpad" diagramSurveyor-GeneralSG Dgm 270/1919
Rondabel Portion 6 "Elandsfontein" diagramSurveyor-GeneralSG Dgm 891/1921
FamilySearch Family Tree - Oosthuizen direct line FamilySearchperson pages 972X-2LJ, LZ1Q-GDF, LDQC-R1B, LDQC-R17, LDQC-RTX and their family views
Form of Information of a Death, 2 January 1922: Ockert Almero Oosthuizen, Prince Albert FamilySearch, "South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Records, 1840-1972"ark 1:1:W46D-53W2; registered 3 Jan 1922, district Prince Albert, entry no. 5; form B.&D.2 under Act 7 of 1894 (Cape)
Baptism, 10 February 1878: Almero Jacobus Hitge, child of Ockert Almero Oosthuizen and Aletta Catharina Maria Helena Hitge, Prince Albert FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994"; State Archives, Cape Provinceark 3:1:3Q9M-CSK6-T996-Z; cc=1478678; Doop Register, Prins Albert, page 458, entry 59
Baptism, 12 September 1909: Hendrik Lodewijk Malherbe Oosthuizen, Prince Albert FamilySearch; NG Kerk Prins Albert doop register (catalogued by FamilySearch under a wrong waypoint - see notes)ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSKX-97ZS-3; image 166 of 406; Image Group Number 008150240; register page 481, entry 128

Research notes

Drooge Kloof; Frans great-grandfather

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-084] LIKELY THE INFORMANT on his father's 1922 death registration: "A.J. Oosthuizen, son, present at death, of DROOGEKLOOF, Prince Albert". A.J. fits ALMERO JACOBUS better than his brother Jan Adriaan (J.A.), but the signature is not clean [TO VERIFY]. If it is him, it places him ON DROOGE KLOOF (PAR-000007) in January 1922 - the annexed Government ground inside the Middelwater loan farm on the 1833 diagram. He was buying Rondabel ground in 1919 and 1921 and living on Middelwater ground in 1922.

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-088] BAPTISM REGISTER READ, PRINCE ALBERT: born 18 January 1878, baptised 10 February 1878, entry 59. Three witnesses: NICOLAAS CORNELIS VAN DEN HOVEN, FREDRIKA JOHANNA OOSTHUIZEN (his father's side) and GEORGE JOSEPH ROY HITGE (his mother's). By the vernoemingspatroon he is the third son and should carry his FATHER'S name - and he does, ALMERO, with his mother's surname Hitge added as a given name, which is how the Hitge got in permanently. NOTE "ROY" in the Hitge witness's name - the same Roy that turns up much later in Roy Don OosthuizenM (PER-000019), the Zwartskraal fossil finder. Worth tracing [TO VERIFY].

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-089] Named as the father on his son's 1909 baptism, Prince Albert entry 128.

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-084/DOC-0061]: documented AT DROOGEKLOOF, Prince Albert, on 2 Jan 1922 - informant ("Son, present at death") on his father's death record, residence given as Droogekloof. Corroborates the legacy note on PAR-000007 ("Almero Hitge & Hendrik").

[11 Aug 2026, MED-000019] THERE IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIM, and it is the earliest likeness in this project of anyone in the Oosthuizen direct line. A studio portrait of a young man of about eighteen, inscribed on the back "Almero Jacobus [Hitge] Oosthuizen +/- 1896". He was born on 18 January 1878, so 1896 makes him eighteen and the sitter looks it. The inscription is in a later hand than the print. A check made at the same time is worth recording because it came out clean: NO FAMILYSEARCH ID IN THIS MODEL IS HELD BY MORE THAN ONE LIVE ROW. The other three rows of this name are a different man (1912-2001), his tombstoned duplicate, and a boy who died in 1965.

[11 Aug 2026, MED-000022] A SECOND PHOTOGRAPH OF HIM, and this one is not alone: a studio double portrait with a G. S. Marincowitz, both in wide-brimmed hats beside a plinth, from the later 1890s. The back is inscribed "A. J. H. OosthuizenM (Pa)", so one of his children kept it and captioned it.

These are working notes, not finished prose: they carry the reasoning, the corrections and the things still marked to verify. They are kept here so the page itself can read as what is known.

Open questions

Where is Drooge Kloof, the house Frans's father grew up in? priority 1 · LEAD-0064
Drooge Kloof is a werf name in family use - Frans's father grew up in the house - and it is NOT a farm name in the Prince Albert cadastre. It appears twice in the paper, on two DIFFERENT pieces of ground: as the Government ground annexed into Middelwater No. 169 by the 1833 diagram, and as a struck-through 'Droege Kloof' against Portion 3 of Bloemendal Annex No. 164 on its 1913 verso. Which one is the family's?

What would settle it Frans saying which farm the house is on, or a coordinate.
Two Jan Adriaan Oosthuizens, one wife: are PER-000163 and PER-000398 one man? priority 2 · LEAD-0098
PER-000163 (tree, FS GQKX-JX7) and PER-000398 (tree, FS GHXS-ZVD) carry the same name and the same wife, Johanna Susanna De VilliersM born 3 August 1867. Are they one man duplicated upstream, or two men the tree has confused? And whose dates does PER-000163's row actually hold?

What would settle it A death notice. The two candidate deaths are fourteen years and a province apart, so one notice decides it outright.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1921 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Elandsfontein (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 6) was worked as far as 1921-07-08, with Almero Jacobus Hitge OosthuizenL the last owner on record. 105 years follow with nothing. Who held it after that, and is it still one farm?

What would settle it The current title deed traced backwards, each transfer names the one before it, or the Surveyor-General's subdivision diagrams, which are what usually explain a farm going quiet.

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.

Elders

FamilySearch profile LDQC-R17