Vrolikheid

177 on the cadastre · on record 1833–1934 · show on the map

Farm number

No. 177

On the cadastre

177, whole farmregistered as VROLYKHEID

District

Prince Albert

Modern surveyed area

5664.6 ha

Why this farm is here

Jacobus Johannes Oosthuisen (Almero's son) held it. 8 km from Klaarstroom.

Jacobus Johannes Oosthuisen (Almero's son) is on record on this ground directly. No trace needed.

• story A written history is set on this ground The fifteenth of April, 1841
• story A written history names this ground Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
• story A written history is set on this ground Vrolykheid No. 177: a farm history
• story A written history names this ground De Claar Stroom: the farm the town stands on
• …and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

• about this farm The fifteenth of April, 1841
  One surveyor works the Koup for two seasons. Eight years later, on a single day, the Crown turns a dozen loan farms into freehold - and the map of the district is set for a century.
• mentions this farm Middelwater No. 169: a farm history
  From a loan farm on the Zwartberg to eight cadastral parcels: the full documented history of Middelwater No. 169 - Stretch's 1833 survey for Okert Oosthuizen, the twelve-farm grant day of 1841, the 1883 resurvey and the 1884 quitrent to J.D.J. Oosthuysen 'and another', the portions cut off for a spring called Vaste Water and a place called Avondrust, and the 1990 power-line survey whose coordinates finally put the farm on a map.
• about this farm Vrolykheid No. 177: a farm history
  The farm where the paper and the people disagree: Stretch's 1833 survey already carrying the names of portions not cut for another century, two titles granted on one day in 1841 - one to an Oosthuisen and one to an 'N. Hitge' whose deed four later portions cite instead - a Trieste immigrant who married a Hitge in 1844 and died holding the farm in 1890, and the death notice that finally put the Hitges on the ground.
• mentions this farm De Claar Stroom: the farm the town stands on
  The loan farm De Claar Stroom (Klaarstroom No. 178), granted 1777, is the ground Klaarstroom village stands on, not to be confused with Klaarstroom No. 184, which is Christian Hatting's grant 19 km west. Meiringspoort opened in 1858; twenty-seven erven were laid out on Petrus Oosthuizen's land and the village was called Petersburg for him. The erven were sold WITHOUT water rights. Who Petrus was is still unknown, and the one testable fact about him is a brother named Ockert.
• about this farm Two farms called Vrolykheid
  Two farms of one name, 400 km apart. The 1816 Tulbagh diagram names four neighbours; two of the surnames turn up in the Koup and only ONE survives being looked at. Jan de Bruin, whose 1823 estate held a farm the inventories call Rondabel, was baptised at Tulbagh in 1769, but the Theron who took Rondabel in 1868 was a Roggeveld man, and that thread is a coincidence of surname reported as one.
• mentions this farm The brother-in-law who founded a town
  Two daughters of Middelwater marry two van Zyl brothers in the 1830s. One stays. The other goes north on the trek and is dead by about 1840, and her husband lives another sixty-six years and lays out the Free State town of Brandfort on his farm Keerom - described in print as a Voortrekker from Prince Albert.
• mentions this farm 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.
• mentions this farm Cut, and then stitched
  This project holds 124 boundary acts: 96 subdivisions and 20 consolidations. Sorted by date they tell one story with a turning point. The district cut ground for a hundred and fifty years; from 1970 it has only stitched.
• mentions this farm Twenty-four months
  Between February 1858 and February 1860 the Koup acquired a road to the sea, buried the couple the whole district descends from, laid out a village, had Crown land surveyed on its eastern edge, and met the industry that paid for the next forty years.

What the record holds, in order

1. August 1833 document SG diagram B355/1833
   Bf.W.Q.5-1B
2. August 1833 document SG diagram verso B355/1833 (verso)
3. 15 April 1841 ownership Jacobus Johannes Oosthuisen (Almero's son)
   Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence high
4. 1843 lived here Charles Frederick Hitge (about 1818-07–29 July 1846)
   stated in a marriage register
5. 3 September 1846 document death notice
   no. 8586
6. before 1846-07-29 lived here Charles Frederick Hitge (about 1818-07–29 July 1846)
   farming
7. 1921 boundary change subdivision: becomes Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1)
8. 1934 boundary change subdivision: becomes Uitkyk Nek (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 2)
9. 1934 boundary change subdivision: becomes Lot B (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 5)
10. 1934 boundary change subdivision: becomes Faans Kraal (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 4)
11. 1934 boundary change subdivision: becomes Marinco (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 3)
12. 1934 boundary change subdivision: becomes Lot A (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 6)
13. undated ownership Ger(H)olm Marincowitz (11 February 1805–13 May 1890)
    owner · confidence medium

Ground cut out of this farm

• Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1) 1/177 · 1907.5 ha
• Uitkyk Nek (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 2) 2/177 · 268.8 ha
• Lot B (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 5) 5/177 · 90.2 ha
• Faans Kraal (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 4) 4/177 · 1775.5 ha
• Marinco (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 3) 3/177 · 1622.4 ha
• Lot A (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 6) 6/177 · 0.2 ha

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

• S Zwarte Berg
• E Oorlogs Kloof
• W Wilga Mount

Also bordered by, as the modern cadastre draws it

Ground that touches this farm on the Surveyor-General's current polygons and that none of the diagrams held here names. Derived from the geometry, not read off a document.

• N Die Kruine No. 170
• E Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1)
• SE Marinco (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 3)
• SW Faans Kraal (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 4)
• SW Witberg No. 180
• W Uitkyk Nek (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 2)
• W Wilgemond No. 179
• W De Claar Stroom (Klaarstroom No. 178)

Documents

Surveyor-General diagram, B355/1833, August 1833
SCAN484.TIF

Diagram verso, B355/1833 (verso), August 1833
SCAN485.TIF

catalogued, no scan held

Death notice, deed no. 8586, 3 September 1846
death-notice-8586-1846-charles-frederik-hitge.jpg

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Research notes

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

Open questions

• Who was Petrus Oosthuizen of Klaarstroom, and how is he related? priority 1 · LEAD-0029

  The village at the centre of this project's anchor was laid out on his land in 1858-60 and originally named Petersburg for him. He is not in the model's family. Where does he sit, and is he a descendant of the root couple?

  What would settle it The death notice - it names parents, spouses and surviving children.

• Which congregation baptised Jan de Bruijn in 1769? priority 1 · LEAD-0030

  The register page (SRC-168) gives the entry in full but not the church. If it is Roodezand/Tulbagh, the de Bruin family is a Tulbagh family and the Vrolykheid name-transfer of LEAD-0010 has a documented carrier. If it is Drakenstein or Swellendam, it does not.

  What would settle it The waypoint. This is a thirty-second lookup, not a research task.

• Nicolaus Hitge's will and estate account, 1848 - does it hold Wit Plaats? priority 1 · LEAD-0097

  Is the 'N. HitgeM' granted Wit Plaats on 15 April 1841 the Uitenhage shopkeeper Nicolaus HitgeM (1785-1848)?

  What would settle it The estate account lists the immoveable property. If Wit Plaats or Vrolykheid appears in it, PER-000044 is PER-000328 and the row can be merged. If the estate holds only Uitenhage property, the 1841 grantee is a different Hitge and the search moves to the 1841 deed itself. Now with a specific thing to look for: DOES THE ESTATE LIST SANDFONTEIN, WIT PLAATS, OR BOTH? If Sandfontein only, close this lead in the negative and the search moves to the 1841 deed and to the OTHER Hitge men - his sons Conrad Anthony and George Joseph Roy were adults by then.

• Was a van Zyl household living on Middelwater in 1839, and was Jacobus Johannes on Vrolikheid in 1809? priority 1 · LEAD-0110

  Fred van Zyl states that his great-grandfather Jan Adriaan van Zyl was born on Middelwater on 9 November 1839, and that Ockert Jacobus OosthuizenL was born on Vrolikheid in 1809. Both would put named households on this project's core ground a generation earlier than its documents do.

  What would settle it The two baptism entries. Each names the farm and the parents in the same line.

• N. Hitge's true footprint on Vrolykheid - and his relationship to Frans's own Hitge ancestors priority 2 · LEAD-0009

  Did N. HitgeM's 1841 title (B.W.Q.5.18) actually cover more of Vrolykheid than the ~2,177-morgen Wit Plaats portion recorded for him - and how is N. HitgeM (PER-000044) related to Aletta Catharina Maria Helena HitgeM (PER-000139, Frans's own direct 2x-great-grandmother) and to Hester Carolina Adriana HitgeM (PER-000178, who married into the Marincowitz line)?

  What would settle it A record giving N. HitgeM's full given name and naming his children, matched against Aletta Catharina Maria Helena HitgeM (b.1846) and Hester Carolina Adriana HitgeM (b.1826) - if both are his daughters, or one his daughter and the other a niece or cousin, that settles the family relationship and gives a documented reason one 1841 title could legitimately be cited across multiple later Vrolykheid portions, subdivided within the Hitge family before ever reaching Marincowitz hands

• Is the Koup's Vrolykheid named for the Tulbagh farm of the same name? priority 2 · LEAD-0010

  Jacobus OosthuizenL (PER-000230) and Dina Carolina BritzM raised their family at Tulbagh from 1749 into the 1770s-80s, including Ockert (PER-000118, b.1755), the root ancestor's own father. A different, independently surveyed farm called Vrolykheid (No. 61, in the Kom van Tulbagh, erfpacht loan-place of T.G. HugoM, surveyed 1816) sits in exactly that district. Is the Koup's Vrolykheid (PAR-000014, granted 1841 to an unidentified Jacobus Johannes OosthuisenH, 'Andries son') named after this Tulbagh farm, carried as a remembered place-name rather than any documented land connection?

  What would settle it A document placing the Oosthuizen family (or specifically PER-000043's own branch) at or near the Tulbagh Vrolykheid, or naming the Koup farm's origin explicitly; short of that this stays a plausible but unproven toponymic-transfer hypothesis, the same kind this project has already tested once for the surname Oosthuizen itself (SRC-103)

• Where exactly is Vischat / 'fisgat', and what is its real name? priority 2 · LEAD-0018

  Vischat is where Frans's grandfather Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe OosthuizenM farmed until 1979 and where his father CJJ grew up, yet the model has no ground for it: no extent, no geometry, no ownership row, no document. Which parcel does it actually sit on, and is the name Vischgat/Visgat?

  What would settle it The purchase deed - it will name the parcel Vischat forms part of. Failing that, a topo sheet showing the werf, or CJJ simply saying which farm it was on.

• Two households widowed 24 hours apart, July 1846 - one event or two? priority 2 · LEAD-0102

  Charles Frederick HitgeL died 29 July 1846 and Anna Magdalena StrijdomM died the very next day. Both survivors remarried within the year, a married couple also died that year, and 1846 ties as the heaviest pre-1890 death year in this record. Was there a mortality event in the district that July?

  What would settle it A cause of death on either notice, or a visible excess of burials in the register for those months.

• Fourteen children of Ockert Jacobus Oosthuizen (b.1809) are missing from this model priority 2 · LEAD-0109

  Fred van Zyl states that PER-000211, born on Vrolikheid in 1809 and the man who named the Marico Klaarstroom, had fourteen children - one of them Susara Cornelia Oosthuizen, who married Fred's great-grandfather Jan Adriaan van Zyl. This model records none of them. Who were they?

  What would settle it A register or the descendant compilation Fred already holds. Susara Cornelia is the one to start with, because her marriage to Jan Adriaan van Zyl dates and places the family.

• A 1907 petition names James Caithness Marincowitz of Vrolykheid, suing his wife for restitution of conjugal rights priority 2 · LEAD-0185

  NAAIRS (supplied by Frans in chat indexes a Cape Supreme Court motion: PETITION OF JAMES CAITHNESS MARINCOWITZ OF VROLYKHEID, DIVISION OF PRINCE ALBERT, FOR LEAVE TO SUE HIS WIFE JOHANNA DOROTHEA CORNELIA ELIZABETH COETZEE BY EDICTAL CITATION FOR RESTITUTION OF CONJUGAL RIGHTS. Is the petitioner PER-000195 (b. 18 Jun 1866, d. 1934), and what does the file say about the household on Vrolikheid in 1907?

  What would settle it The CSC file itself. It will name the marriage date and place, the desertion account, and where she was thought to be - household detail for Vrolikheid in 1907 that no farm paper carries.

• De Claar Stroom: one parcel or two? priority 3 · LEAD-0039

  PAR-000004 is the 1777 loan farm De Claar Stroom and PAR-000097 is cadastral farm 178, the ground Klaarstroom village stands on. Should they be one parcel row or two?

  What would settle it The extent on the 178 title, compared with the loan farm's described run. If they are the same ground, one row; if 178 is a part, two.

What the record is missing

• The record stops in 1890 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends

  Vrolikheid was worked as far as 1890-05-13, with Ger(H)olm Marincowitz the last owner on record. 136 years follow with nothing. Who held it after that, and is it still one farm?

  What would settle it The current title deed traced backwards, each transfer names the one before it, or the Surveyor-General's subdivision diagrams, which are what usually explain a farm going quiet.

Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand, each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data. The whole set is on the questions page.