Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1)

1/177 on the cadastre · on record 1841–1922 · show on the map

The farm's own history, the grant, the original survey, sits on that page.

Farm number: No. 177
Portion: 1
Also recorded as: Wit PlaatsDIAGRAMVrolikheidSRC-436, 2023 valuation roll, which prints the parent farm name against this portion
On the cadastre: 1/177, portionregistered as VROLYKHEID
District: Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it: 2177 morgen 440 sq roods
Modern surveyed area: 1907.5 ha

The historic extent and the modern surveyed area are two separate measurements and are not presented here as confirming each other. The first is what a surveyor wrote on a diagram, usually in morgen. The second is what the modern cadastre draws.

Why this farm is here

Vincent Charles Marincowitz held it. 8 km from Klaarstroom.

Vincent Charles Marincowitz 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 is set on this ground Vrolykheid No. 177: a farm history
parcel Cut out of Vrolikheid
border Shares a boundary with Vrolikheid Vrolikheid
…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.
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.

What the record holds, in order

1841-04-15 to 1922 ownership N. Hitge
Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence high
11 June 1846 lived here Aletta Catharina Maria Helena Hitge (11 June 1846–25 July 1933)
birthplace stated in a death notice
1921 boundary change subdivision: from Vrolikheid
December 1921 document SG diagram 4275/1921
8479
9 December 1921 document surveyor report 4275/1921
30 September 1922 ownership Vincent Charles Marincowitz (23 April 1877–6 February 1950)
transfer · confidence high

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

NW Klaarstroom
E Roode Els Bosch
E Oorlogs Kloof
S Vrolykheid Remainder

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.

Documents

Scan of Surveyor-General diagram, 4275/1921, December 1921

Surveyor-General diagram, 4275/1921, December 1921
10753144.PDF

Scan of Surveyor's report, 4275/1921, 9 December 1921

Surveyor's report, 4275/1921, 9 December 1921
10753145.PDF

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Surveyor-General diagram index for the whole farm — where the original survey of this ground sits.

Research notes

Granted to N. HitgeH 15 Apr 1841; SG Dgm 4275/1921; transferred to Vincent Charles MarincowitzL 30 Sep 1922, deed 8479.

[13 Aug 2026] Renamed to the one form this model uses for every portion - the portion's own name, then the parent farm, its number and the portion in brackets - so that a name is legible in a list, a search result and a map popup without the reader having to know which farm number is which. It read "Wit Plaats (Vrolykheid Ptn 1)" before. Nothing about the ground changed.

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

Open questions

Nicolaus Hitge's will and estate account, 1848 - does it hold Wit Plaats? priority 1 · LEAD-0097
Is the 'N. HitgeH' 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.
N. Hitge's true footprint on Vrolykheid - and his relationship to Frans's own Hitge ancestors priority 2 · LEAD-0009
Did N. HitgeH'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. HitgeH (PER-000044) related to Aletta Catharina Maria Helena HitgeH (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. HitgeH's full given name and naming his children, matched against Aletta Catharina Maria Helena HitgeH (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

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1922 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1) was worked as far as 1922, with N. HitgeH the last owner on record. 104 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.
81 years, and the ground changes hands to nobody we can follow second order · B1 succession
On Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1), N. HitgeH is the last owner recorded from 1841-04-15, and the next entry is Vincent Charles MarincowitzL from 1922-09-30, 81 years later, with no person in common. DOC-0029 records the later arrival but not the 81 years before it.

What would settle it The Deeds Office transfer register for this farm between 1841 and 1922. A transfer names its predecessor in title, so one deed closes the whole gap.

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.