Hendrik Willem Storm (1797-1855)

15 July 1797 – 19 August 1855 · Storm line

Names

Surname: Storm

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.

Immediate family

Father: Hendrik Storm (1757-1812)
Mother: Aletta Jacoba Potgieter
Brothers and sisters: Neeltje Johanna Storm
Married: Magdalena Frederica Botes 4 April 1819
Children: Hendrik Jacobus Storm, Jan Willem Storm

A life in the record

15 July 1797 born Born
4 April 1819 married Married Magdalena Frederica Botes
19 August 1855 died Died

Stories

mentioned Eight stones on Varsche Fontein

What we don't know

No dated record ties this person to a specific piece of ground.

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

Research notes

[FS LHZQ-LKJ] THE STORM WHO DIED IN THIS DISTRICT. Born STELLENBOSCH 15 July 1797, DIED AT PRINCE ALBERT ON 19 AUGUST 1855 [FS, ten sources]. Married MAGDALENA FREDERICA BOTES at BEAUFORT WEST on 4 APRIL 1819; seven children: Hendrik Jacobus 1822-1879 (G823-2D3), Elsie Dorothea 1824-1901 (GNBC-BZD), Jacobus Abraham 1826-1895 (LHZQ-V1Z), Willem Johannes Stephanus 1827-1907 (9ZD9-FX1), Andries Stefanus 1832-1898 (9CFX-HSQ), Aletta Jacoba Magdalena 1835-1928 (LHZQ-KM5), Jan Willem 1839-1862 (L5BC-TRK). HE IS THE BROTHER OF NEELTJE JOHANNA STORM, who married into the Niehaus - so the Storms and the Niehaus are one household two ways, and both are in this district. IN SCOPE UNDER 9a AS AN ARRIVAL QUESTION, not as kin: the Storms are affinal to this family through the Niehaus-Zulch marriage, and the oldest grave on Varsche Fontein reads B. STORM 1848. LEAD-0124.

[SRC-302] HE IS IN THE PRINS ALBERT LEDEMATENREGISTER, under GESTORVEN for the church year 1854-1855, fifth of six: 'Hendrik Willem StormH Senr'. That is the first record in this project's hands putting him in this congregation, and the church year agrees with the 19 August 1855 death FamilySearch gives him. 'SENR' MEANS THERE WAS A JUNIOR. The word is only written to distinguish a man from a living namesake, and four of the six dead on that page carry it. So a HENDRIK WILLEM STORM JUNIOR was at Prins Albert in 1855. None of his seven recorded children is a Hendrik Willem; the private tree holds a Hendrik Willem StormH born 13 May 1854 and died 1924, born the year before this death. Grandson, nephew, or a child not in the recorded seven - open. LEAD-0124.

[SRC-304] HIS SON'S DEATH NOTICE NAMES HIM, and it is the first primary document to do so. Hendrik Jacobus StormH, who died at Groenvontein in the district of Ladybrand in 1879, gives his parents as HENDRIK WILLEM STORM and MAGDALENA FREDRICA BOTES. IT ALSO EXPLAINS THE SILENCE AFTER 1855. No Storm appears in the Prins Albert ledematenregister for 1856, 1859-60 or 1860-61 [SRC-303]. The notice shows why: THE FAMILY WENT TO THE ORANGE FREE STATE. He died at Prince Albert in 1855 and his children farmed at Ladybrand. AND THE JUNIOR IS FOUND. His grandson HENDRIK WILLEM STORM, eldest of the thirteen and of age by 1879, is the living namesake that made the register call him 'Senr' in 1855. The private tree holds a Hendrik Willem StormH born 13 May 1854, which fits.

[SRC-305] A SECOND SON'S DEATH NOTICE NAMES HIM. Jan Willem StormH, cattle farmer, died 14 September 1862 aged twenty-three, gives his parents as HENDRIK WILLEM STORM and MAGDALENA BOTES. Two independent death notices now say the same thing. AND IT DATES THE MOVE NORTH. This son died 'IN THIS COLONY' in 1862; the other died in the Orange Free State in 1879. The family left the Cape BETWEEN 1862 AND 1879, not simply 'after 1855'.

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

Two Storms on Varsche Fontein, 1848 and 1849 - who were they, and what put them there? priority 1 · LEAD-0124
Who is the B. STORM buried on Varsche Fontein in 1848 (GRV-0030), and does the grave connect to either of the two Storm lines this family already touches?

What would settle it THE LIQUIDATION AND DISTRIBUTION ACCOUNT OF MAGDALENA STORM BORN BOTES, died Prince Albert 10 April 1884. Her death notice says she left IMMOVEABLE PROPERTY to be 'all sold immediately and the account filed'. That account names the land. It is now the single most direct route to whether the Storms held ground on or near Varsche Fontein. Failing that, the estate papers of her husband, died Prince Albert 19 August 1855.
Read the graves ACROSS the farms, and against the online grave indexes priority 1 · LEAD-0127
Storm, Botes, Niehaus, Botma, Beukes and Freysen appear on stones on Varsche Fontein and on Vredendal/Spreeufontein, and they intermarry. What does the picture look like when the burial grounds are read as one body of evidence rather than farm by farm, and what do the published grave indexes add?

What would settle it Nothing settles a question this shape. What it produces is a map: which families are buried where, who married whom, and which farms they moved between.
The Prins Albert ledematenregister is a census of this congregation. Work it as a run. priority 1 · LEAD-0128
Four openings of the members' register have now been read and they name well over a hundred people between 1854 and 1861, with ages, dates and the kerkraad's signatures. What does the whole register give if it is read as a run rather than looked up name by name?

What would settle it Nothing settles a question this shape; it produces a roll of who was here and when, against which every other record can be checked.

Elders

FamilySearch profile LHZQ-LKJ