Francois Jacobus van der Merwe (1832-1903)

1832 – 1903

Names

Given: Francois Jacobus
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: Schalk Willem van der Merwe (1794-1866)
Mother: Anna Jacoba Louw (1793-1868)
Brothers and sisters: 1813Jacobus Adriaan van der Merwe (1813-1855)

1814Jacobus Adriaan van der Merwe (1814-1868)

1815Elsje Johanna Jacoba van der Merwe (1815-1860)

1817Carel Aaron van der Merwe (1817-1838)

1819Maria Catharina Elizabeth van der Merwe (1819)

1822Schalk Willem Jacobus van der Merwe (1822-1910)

1823Anna Jacoba Louisa van der Merwe (1823-1893)

1825Petrus Johannes Jacobus van der Merwe (1825)

1827Johanna Christina Adriana van der Merwe (1827-1898)

1829Jacobus Nel van der Merwe (1829-1907)

1836Elizabeth Susanna Louw van der Merwe (1836-1892)

A life in the record

1832 born Born
1903 died Died

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

[11 Aug 2026, SRC-391] Imported 11 Aug 2026 as a SIBLING of a direct ancestor, with a FamilySearch id so the row can be re-checked against the live tree. Name, dates and the family link only. NO PLACE IMPORTED: the tree's place strings are systematically wrong and are not evidence. NAMED ON HIS FATHER'S 1866 DEATH NOTICE (SRC-346), which lists nine children in order; this is one of them. That is an original document and it is why this row is safe to make. A CANDIDATE FOR THE 1863 FONT: the third witness at PER-000762's baptism is entered "Frans Jacobus v.d. Merwe", and this man was 31 that year and an uncle of the child's father. LEAD-0157.

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 LZ8C-1RM