Faans Kraal (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 4)

4/177 on the cadastre · on record 1934–1936 · show on the map

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

Farm number: No. 177
Portion: 4
On the cadastre: 4/177, portionregistered as VROLYKHEID
District: Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it: 2113.5677 morgen
Modern surveyed area: 1775.5 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. 7 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 Vrolykheid No. 177: a farm history
parcel Cut out of Vrolikheid
border Shares a boundary with Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1) Wit Plaats (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 1)
border Shares a boundary with Uitkyk Nek (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 2) Uitkyk Nek (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 2)
…and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

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

1934 boundary change subdivision: from Vrolikheid
July 1934 document SG diagram 4933/1934
8110
24 August 1936 ownership Vincent Charles Marincowitz (23 April 1877–6 February 1950)
transfer · confidence high

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

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, 4933/1934, July 1934

Surveyor-General diagram, 4933/1934, July 1934
10X2V901.TIF

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

SG Dgm 4933/1934; deed 24.8.1936-8110. Vischat (PAR-000008) lies in Faans Kraal. [Confirmed 29 Jul 2026 via DOC-0072, the portion's own diagram] Deed number and date match exactly. [CORRECTED 29 Jul 2026, verification pass] Extent is 213.5677 morgen: DOC-0072's face and DOC-0028's verso (re-read) agree exactly; the row's earlier 213.9677 was a misread of the verso. Also cites the 1841 N. HitgeM antecedent title (B.W.Q.5.18), the same as Wit Plaats/Uitkyk Nek/Marinco - see PAR-000014/PAR-000035 notes and LEAD-0009. NOTE the modern cadastre's Ptn 4 (1,776.0 ha) cannot be this 213.5677mg (= 182.9 ha) parcel - left unmatched, LEAD-0008. The diagrams spell it "Faans Kraal" (DOC-0072 face, DOC-0028 verso, DOC-0068 map); probably "FRANS KRAAL" - current_name keeps Faans Kraal, the document spelling is recorded here, neither normalised away.

[1 Aug 2026, re-read of DOC-0068 and DOC-0072] TWO CORRECTIONS OFF THE DIAGRAM ITSELF. (1) NAME: it is FAANS KRAAL, not Faans Kraal. The diagram sets it in capitals twice - 'Portion 4 (Faans Kraal)' and 'called FAANS KRAAL' - and the 1936 transfer event already read it that way. Previous value: Frans Kraal (Vrolykheid Ptn 4). (2) EXTENT: the diagram reads 'represents 2113.5677 Morgen'. This row carried 213.5677 morgen - SHORT BY 1,900 MORGEN, a dropped leading digit. That is about 1,630 hectares missing from a farm of 1,810, so it was not a rounding slip; it made the portion look one-tenth of its real size. Corrected to 2113.5677 morgen. (3) FIELD CORNETCY: KREDOUW, not Traka - see below.

[1 Aug 2026, re-read of DOC-0068 and DOC-0072] FIELD CORNETCY = KREDOUW. On BOTH 1934 Melville diagrams the printed line reads 'situate in the Field Cornetcy of' with TRAKA STRUCK OUT AND KREDOUW WRITTEN IN, in the surveyor's hand. Two independent sheets, the same deliberate correction. So this ground sat in the KREDOUW ward of the Prince Albert division, not the Traka ward - and that is the answer to where 'aan Kriedouw' in the 1821 Beaufort West baptisms points. See LEAD-0052.

[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 "Faans Kraal (Vrolykheid Ptn 4)" 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

match_cadastre.py no longer reproduces the geometry on disk priority 1 · LEAD-0017
Re-running match_cadastre.py against the current CSVs changes 11 parcels and does not reproduce what is in parcels.csv. Which is right?

What would settle it Deciding per parcel whether the script's match or the hand entry is correct, then either fixing the script's name-matching or recording the hand values as deliberate.
Our portion numbers do not match the SG on Vrolykheid and Spreeufontein priority 2 · LEAD-0008
Do our portion numbers for Vrolykheid and Spreeufontein correspond to the Surveyor-General portion numbers, or are they our own sequence?

What would settle it The portion number printed on each diagram, against the SG portion number in the cadastre.
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
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.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1936 and never resumes third order · B2 trail-ends
Faans Kraal (Vrolikheid No. 177 Ptn 4) was worked as far as 1936-08-24, with Vincent Charles MarincowitzL the last owner on record. 90 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.