The van Vuurens of Wilgemond

Wilgemond No. 179 was surveyed in 1833 for a "Martinus van Veuren" and granted in 1841 to a "J.M.J. van Vuuren" - two sets of initials on Vrolikheid's western boundary. Four documents later they are a family, and on 22 December 1838 one of them married an Oosthuizen.

Wilgemond No. 179 is the farm on Vrolikheid's western boundary. The two documents that record its title give only initials: it was surveyed in August 1833 for "Martinus van Veuren", and granted on 15 April 1841 to "J.M.J. van Vuuren" on quitrent Bf.W. 5-9.

Four death notices put names to them, and the family turns out to be married into the Oosthuizens.

The join, and it is dated

On 22 December 1838, at Beaufort, Gert Adriaan Oosthuizen married Catharina Adriana Janse van Vuuren.

It is not a stray tie to a neighbour. It puts the family holding Wilgemond into the Oosthuizen households one farm boundary away. Their first recorded child, Ockert Jacobus, was born on 28 November 1839, eleven months later, and that birth is recorded twice, in the Beaufort West baptism register at entry BWB-232-09 and in the family tree. The two agree to the day.

Catharina Adriana is the hinge of everything below. She was the daughter of one Johannes Marthinus, the sister of another, the sister of Cornelis Petrus, and the aunt of the man who married at Welgemond in 1859.

Three generations, from a death notice

Three generations stand on the death notice of Cornelis Petrus Janse van Vuuren, filed as No. 682 on 13 October 1863.

Johannes Marthinus Janse van Vuuren, b. ~Dec 1775, Swartberg × Adriana Hermina Kock, married 25 January 1801 ├── Johannes Marthinus, b. 20 June 1801 — the likeliest 1841 grantee ├── Cornelis Petrus, b. 18 May 1813, d. 4 September 1863 └── Catharina Adriana, b. 12 November 1820 — married the Oosthuizen

The notice does the work that initials could not. It gives Cornelis Petrus's parents by name, which fixes the generation above him; it calls him a farmer; it gives his age as fifty; and it says where he died, though not legibly: "at the residence at [?Hoeagus], District of Prince Albert."

Where they actually lived

That place-name is the doubtful word on the 1863 notice. It becomes legible seventeen years later, on the death notice of his widow, which writes it plainly: "at the farm Hagas, District Prince Albert." A third spelling, Haagus, appears on FamilySearch.

It is Haggas No. 145, and the strongest part of the identification is not the spelling. Haggas was surveyed in August 1833 for P. van der Westhuizen, and the woman who died on it was Maria Magdalena Elizabeth van der Westhuizen. A van der Westhuizen dying on a van der Westhuizen farm is not a coincidence worth explaining away.

They lived there. No deed among the papers gathered here puts either of them on the title, and the notices say where a person died, not what they owned. One discrepancy stays open and is not argued away: the modern cadastre places farm 145 in the Willowmore division while both notices say Prince Albert. The farm lies on the district edge, directly east of Oorlogs Kloof and Vrolikheid with the provincial boundary between, so an informant could reasonably have named either side.

The widow, who was a farmer

Maria Magdalena Elizabeth van der Westhuizen is the most fully recorded person in this story, and only because her own death notice survives.

She was born at Cango, district Oudtshoorn. She was sixty-six when she died on 24 June 1880. Her occupation is entered in her own right rather than her husband's: agriculturist. Her moveable estate came to about £200. And she did not remain a widow. After Cornelis Petrus died in 1863 she married Gabriel Antonie le Roux, and was his widow when she died.

A small oddity sits on the form and has no explanation. She died in June 1880 and the notice was not filed until December 1887. The form itself demands six days, or six weeks where there is a will. Seven years is neither.

Five children, and what their names do

The 1863 notice lists all five as minors:

That last name is the one to notice. Gert Adriaan is his father's sister's husband, the Oosthuizen of the 1838 marriage. Under the Cape naming pattern the later sons go to uncles, and here it is doing exactly that. It is independent evidence that the Oosthuizen marriage was close family rather than a distant connection.

Welgemond, or Welgemoed

The 1859 marriage of the eldest son gives the couple's residence, and FamilySearch indexes it as Welgemoed: a Cape Town suburb four hundred kilometres from a wedding solemnised in the parish of Beaufort. Two of that spelling's occurrences in the family tree have already been auto-geocoded to Welgemoed, Cape Town.

The register appears to write Welge Mond. This farm's own spelling runs Wilgamount on the 1833 diagram and Wilgemond in the modern cadastre, and Welgemond sits between them.

Recorded as a strong reading and not a finding: the document names a place, not a farm number, and nothing yet ties the word to the parcel directly.

A van Veuren held the ward

The Beaufort West baptism register writes the veldkornetskap under each child's name, and between 1841 and 1843 one of them reads "Veldcornetschap P Janse v. Veuren."

A field-cornet was the government in a place that had no other government. He mustered the commando, kept the roll, and stood between his neighbours and Cape Town. So a van Veuren was not only holding ground in this district but holding office in it. Whether that P. is Petrus van Veuren Senior, who appears on the 1833 survey record, is not established.

What this story is about

• set on Wilgemond No. 179
• set on Haggas No. 145
• about Catharina Adriana Janse Van Vuuren
• about Gert Adriaan Oosthuizen
• about Cornelis Petrus Janse van Vuuren
• about Maria Magdalena Elisabeth van der Westhuizen
• about Johannes Marthinus Janse van Vuuren

Research notes

The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.