Form of Information of a Death, entry 58, district of Calvinia, registered 10 May 1896: Maria Magdalena Strauss born Visagie of Beeste Water

death registration (original scan) · consulted 2026-08-11

Type

death registration (original scan)

Repository

[TO VERIFY] Cape Colony civil death registration under Act No. 7 of 1894, form B. & D. 2, district of Calvinia.

Reference

No. of entry 58, registered 10 May 1896. Supplied as a photograph in conversation on 11 Aug 2026. [TO VERIFY] the film, DGS and image number, per 5a-ii.

Consulted

2026-08-11

The citation as it was given

TRANSCRIPTION. 1. "Maria Magdalena Strauss born Visagie". 2. Female. 3. Usual place of residence: BEESTE WATER WARD No. 2. 4. Age: 66 years and 7 months. 5. European. 6. WIDOW. 7. Occupation: FARMER. 8. Date of death: twenty-ninth of April 1896. 9. Place of death: Beeste Water Ward No 2, Calvinia. 10. Intended place of burial: ON THE FARM. 11. Cause: inflammation of the heart, seven days, Dr Smuts. Informant: H. F. STRAUSS, present at death, of Beeste Water Ward No 2 Calvinia; signed in the presence of Sydney Wright, Field Cornet, Ward 2. Registered 10 May 1896, district of Calvinia, by Percy Wright, Deputy Registrar. Footnote (b), children: FIVE. THIS IS THE DOCUMENT THAT REFUTES THE 1884 MARRIAGE. FamilySearch carries Maria Magdalena Visagie GWG8-WJW with a second spouse, Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe, married 1884. Eight years after that date she is registered under the name STRAUSS BORN VISAGIE, as a WIDOW, dying on a farm in Calvinia with a Strauss present at her death. Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe was alive until 17 January 1904. A woman married to him in 1896 is not his widow and is not a Strauss. AND THE 1884 DATE IS IMPOSSIBLE ON ITS OWN TERMS. Sybrand Albertus Strauss, whom she married in 1846, lived 1812-1890 on FamilySearch's own dates. In 1884 she was his wife. SO SHE WAS NEVER A WIFE OF SCHALK WILLEM BURGER VAN DER MERWE, and the FamilySearch link is an error. FIX-0004. Note this does NOT dispose of a later wife: his own death form gives his marital state as MARRIED, and Elsje Johanna died in 1882. LEAD-0158.

Kept verbatim. This project contradicts published genealogies and corrects a family's own oral tradition, so every claim has to be checkable by someone who was not in the room.

Nothing in the model cites this source yet.