Schalk Willem van der Merwe (1833-1904)

23 February 1833 – 17 January 1904 · van der Merwe line

Names

Baptismal name: Schalk Willem Burger
Given: Schalk Willem
Surname: van der Merwe

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: Jacobus Adriaan van der Merwe (1813-1855)
Mother: Anna Magdalena Lubbe (1815-1860)
Married: Elsje Johanna van der Merwe (1835-1882) 27 December 1854, Anna Maria Visagie 13 January 1851
Children: Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe

A life in the record

23 February 1833 born Born
7 April 1833 occasion Baptism at Clanwilliam
13 January 1851 married Married Anna Maria Visagie
27 December 1854 married Married Elsje Johanna van der Merwe (1835-1882)
1863 occasion Baptism of their child, Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe at Calvinia
15 June 1885 witness Witnessed a marriage · Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe
22 May 1887 witness Witnessed a baptism · Elsje Johanna van der Merwe (1887-1938)
17 January 1904 died Died
undated buried Buried, Calvinia main cemetery

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 Andreas Oberholster baptism · 7 April 1833
stood for them Maria Elisth. Louw baptism · 7 April 1833
stood for them Frans Jacs. Lubbe baptism · 7 April 1833 · maternal grandfather
dates known, no other trace here
stood for them Hester Johanna Burger baptism · 7 April 1833 · maternal grandmother
dates known, no other trace here
stood for them Schalk Willem van d: Merwe baptism · 7 April 1833 · paternal grandfather
dates known, no other trace here
stood for them Anna Jacoba Louw baptism · 7 April 1833 · paternal grandmother
dates known, no other trace here
they stood for Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe marriage · 15 June 1885
dates known, no other trace here
they stood for Elsje Johanna van der Merwe (1887-1938) baptism · 22 May 1887
dates known, no other trace here

Stories

subject The van der Merwes of the Hantam
ancestor The van der Merwes of the Hantam

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

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

Baptism 7 April 1833: Schalk Willem Burger, child of Jacobus Adriaan van der Merwe and Anna Magdalena Wilhelmina Lubbe, born 23 February 1833[TO VERIFY] Dutch Reformed Church baptism register, pages 106-107. The congregation is not printed on this opening; this model already places the baptism at Clanwilliam and the date on the page agrees with it to the day.Pages 106 and 107, the entry of 7 April 1833. Supplied as a photograph of the register opening in conversation on 11 Aug 2026. [TO VERIFY] the collection, film, DGS and image number: none is visible on the photograph and per 5a-ii the reading and the citation are two separate claims. The transcription below is read off the image and is not in doubt.
Marriage 17 of 15 June 1885, Brandvlei: Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe S.W.B. zoon and Christina Elizabeth Nel[TO VERIFY] Dutch Reformed Church marriage register, division of Calvinia.Entry 17, 15 June 1885. Supplied as a photograph of the register opening in conversation on 11 Aug 2026. [TO VERIFY] the collection, film, DGS and image number: none is visible on the photograph and per 5a-ii the reading and the citation are two separate claims. The transcription below is read off the image and is not in doubt.
Baptism 22 May 1887, entry 407: Elsje Johanna, born 28 March 1887, child of Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe and Christina Elizabeth Nel[TO VERIFY] Dutch Reformed Church doop-register, pages 451-452, division of Calvinia.Pages 451 and 452, entry 407, 22 May 1887. Supplied as a photograph of the register opening in conversation on 11 Aug 2026. [TO VERIFY] the collection, film, DGS and image number: none is visible on the photograph and per 5a-ii the reading and the citation are two separate claims. The transcription below is read off the image and is not in doubt.

Research notes

[TREE, via a FamilySearch fan chart Name, dates and the FamilySearch id only. NO PLACE IMPORTED: the tree's place strings are systematically wrong and are not evidence (see PER-000760).

[9 Aug 2026, SRC-348] BORN AND DIED ON THE SAME FARM, SEVENTY-ONE YEARS APART: OUDE MUUR, 23 February 1833 to 17 January 1904. FamilySearch writes it Oumuur on his page and 'Farm Oude Muur' on his son's; Christened at CLANWILLIAM on 7 April 1833, which is where this family baptised between Tulbagh and Calvinia. FamilySearch carries him as Schalk Willem BURGER van der Merwe; the Burger is his mother's mother's line, Hester Johanna BurgerM (PER-001638), and it fits the vernoemingspatroon in 5b. His wife Elsje Johanna van der MerweL (PER-001630) was his FIRST COUSIN, which SRC-346 established and nothing in this model had noticed.

[10 Aug 2026, SRC-373] HE MARRIED TWICE. Anna Maria VisagieH (PER-001770) died in 1853; Elsje Johanna van der MerweL (PER-001630), his first cousin, is the second wife. Only the second was in this model until now. His de Villiers-Pama code is a1b3c10d2e8f1g1h1.

[11 Aug 2026, SRC-377 and SRC-381] TWO ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS NOW STAND BEHIND HIM. His baptism, 7 April 1833, gives his name in full as SCHALK WILLEM BURGER and his birth as 23 February 1833, both of which this model already held, and puts ALL FOUR OF HIS GRANDPARENTS at the font: PER-001635 and PER-001636 for his father, PER-001637 and PER-001638 for his mother. His name is made out of two of them - Schalk Willem from the paternal grandfather, BURGER from the maternal grandmother's surname. HIS DEATH REGISTRATION, entry 13 of 1904, gives the date as 17 January 1904, his age as 70, his occupation as GENERAL FARMER, the cause as suppurative inflammation of the kidneys after one month's illness, and the burial as CALVINIA CEMETERY. It gives his usual residence and place of death as CALVINIA, not Oude Muur as this model has held on the compiled tree's word. On these forms Calvinia is as often the division as the town, so the farm is not ruled out; the point is that the Oude Muur death has no document behind it and this does. THE FORM SAYS HE HAD NINE CHILDREN. One of them is in this model.

[11 Aug 2026, SRC-404] THE 1854 MARRIAGE REGISTER ENTERS HIM AS A WEDUWENAAR AT TWENTY-TWO, and that settles the first marriage from a document that owes nothing to any compiled tree. He married Anna Maria VisagieH in January 1851 at seventeen; she died in 1853; by December 1854 the register calls him a widower and marries him to his first cousin ON THE FARM WELBEDACHT, her father's ground and her birthplace, by N. J. Hofmeyr of Calvinia. He was a VEEBOER of ONDERROGGEVELD.

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.

Elders

FamilySearch profile 9689-D3F