Tygerhoek No. 689

· on record 1782–1823 · show on the map

Farm number: No. 689
Also recorded as: Tierhoek; De Tijgerhoek; Tyger Hoek; Clw. Q1.41
District: Calvinia (division)
Extent, as the diagram states it: 4446 morgen 399 sq roods
Modern surveyed area: 4033.2 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

Wed. William Petrus Burger held it, and no kinship to the Oosthuizen, Marincowitz or Van der Merwe lines is recorded, this ground entered through the land, not the family. 339 km from Klaarstroom.

story A written history is set on this ground The van der Merwes of the Hantam
border Shares a boundary with Tyger Hoek Extension No. 688 Tyger Hoek Extension No. 688
document A document in the collection describes this ground DOC-0269
lead An open question in this record is about this ground Who were the Tygerhoek van der Merwes, and how do Francois Johannes and the widow Burger connect to the line?
…and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

set here The van der Merwes of the Hantam
The maternal line, from Paarl in 1735 to Vredendal in about 1950, with every kinship spelled out. The crossing from the Piketberg district into the Hantam is dated to a fourteen-year window by two death notices; three farms were surveyed for the Commissie van Inspectie by one man in 1820 and 1823; a man called Kwaai Koos is named after his farm; and twice in three generations the family is standing on ground that came in through a woman.

What the record holds, in order

24 September 1782 estate estate inventory: Schalk Willem Burger, landbouwer, and his widow Hester Smith
MOOC8/49.25a · de Tijgerhoek, aan de Hantam (one of five opstallen)
15 May 1823 document SG diagram 128/1823
15 May 1823 ownership Wed. William Petrus Burger
erfpacht · survey · confidence high

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

N Hantamsberg
N Tygerhoeksberg
S Gouvernements grond voor Johs van Zyl Sr. in erfpacht
S Oorlogskloofs Rivier
E Gouvernements grond voor J.A. van Wyk Sr. in erfpacht
W Uitgestrektheid Gouvernements grond

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, 128/1823, 15 May 1823

Surveyor-General diagram, 128/1823, 15 May 1823
10018592 689 0.jpg

Research notes

[10 Aug 2026, SRC-359/DOC-0269] THE VAN DER MERWE GROUND, and the reason this project now has a second district. A LEENINGSPLAATS measured 15 May 1823 by J.M. Wentzel on the order of the Commissie van Inspectie: 2614 morgen 19 roods of its own ground plus 1832 morgen 380 roods of adjoining government land, 4446 morgen 399 roods in all, held in erfpacht by the widow of William Petrus Burger. Izaak Johannes van der MerweM (PER-001658) was born here about 1808 and Jacobus Adriaan (PER-001631) on 30 October 1813, so Carel Aaron van der MerweL's household was on this ground fifteen years before it was surveyed. Whether they held it, rented it or worked it is not established. [TO VERIFY] NO POLYGON: this project holds no cadastral geometry for the Calvinia division, so the farm has no map pin. That is a missing dataset and not a missing place.

[10 Aug 2026] PINNED. The Calvinia division is not in the Western Cape warehouse, so it was pulled from the NATIONAL Chief Surveyor-General portal instead - fetch_cadastre.py --csg=CALVINIA. The cadastre names it exactly as the diagram does, and the extents agree: Tyger Hoek Extension is 430.9 ha against the 1879 survey's 510 morgen 532 roods, which is 437.6 ha, a difference of 1.5%. Tygerhoek is 4,033.2 ha against the 1823 figure of 4,446 morgen 399 roods, 3,808.7 ha, a difference of 5.9% across two centuries and a resurvey. The identification does not rest on the name.

[27 Sep 2026, SRC-692] THE GROUND HAS 74 YEARS OF RECORDED HISTORY BEFORE THE 1823 SURVEY, and none of it is van der Merwe. Grazing on De Tygerhoek was licensed to Nicolaas Rudolph Ryk on 27 September 1749 'on the other side of the Eliphants and Doorn River' (RLR 12/2 p.247), renewed 1755 and given up in 1760; then Hendrik Korff (RLR 16 p.8) to his death in 1765; Gerrit Munnik from 8 January 1766 (RLR 19/1 p.168); Schalk Willem Burger in 1776 (RLR 24 p.97); Albert Hendrik van Zyl in 1777 (RLR 25 p.92). Pretorius judges that Ryk, Korff and Munnik never lived here and only grazed. AND IT ANSWERS THIS ROW'S OWN OPEN QUESTION, as far as a secondary source can: Carel Aaron van der MerweL took up residence towards the end of the 1700s, but Willem Petrus Burger senior ACQUIRED the farm about 1820 - so the household was here without holding it, which is what the births of 1808 and 1813 already suggested. Willem Petrus Burger junior took the perpetual quitrent on 30 November 1837, 4446 morgen. The farm returned to the family in two halves, 31 October 1882 and 10 October 1887, both to Francois Johannes van der MerweM, 'Fransie Brandwag' (1841-1915), WHO IS BURIED ON IT. On 19 January 1847 the Colony's 33rd Dutch Reformed parish was constituted in the voorhuis here and named Hantam; the village laid out that year on Hoogekraal became Calvinia in 1851. The article is secondary and its RLR and deed references have not themselves been seen here. [TO VERIFY]

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

Open questions

Who were the Tygerhoek van der Merwes, and how do Francois Johannes and the widow Burger connect to the line? priority 1 · LEAD-0149
Carel Aaron van der MerweL's household was on Tygerhoek by 1808. The 1823 survey names the holder as the widow of William Petrus Burger, and the 1885 quitrent for the adjoining Tyger Hoek Extension goes to Francois Johannes van der MerweM. How do those two connect to the direct line?

What would settle it A marriage or baptism linking the widow Burger to the van der Merwes, and a parentage for Francois Johannes.
Fransie Brandwag's grave on Tierhoek priority 2 · LEAD-0368
Where exactly on Tygerhoek No. 689 is Francois Johannes van der MerweM (1841-1915) buried, and is the grave recorded or photographed?

What would settle it A photograph or transcription of the headstone, with a coordinate.
The Hantam ground has no basemap under it priority 3 · LEAD-0167
The Calvinia farms are on the map as polygons but sit over blank canvas, and the four Northern Cape cemeteries have no pins at all. What is missing, and is it worth fetching?

What would settle it A re-cut basemap covering the Hantam, and a sourced coordinate for each town cemetery.
Lichtenstein's November 1803 call on a van der Merwe at Tyger-point priority 3 · LEAD-0369
Is the colonist Lichtenstein met in November 1803 at 'Tyger-point' Carel Aaron van der MerweL, and is the house he describes on Tygerhoek No. 689?

What would settle it A passage naming the colonist, or a dated record putting Carel Aaron on the farm in 1803.

What the record is missing

“Gouvernements grond voor J.A. van Wyk Sr. in erfpacht” held ground next door and we have no tenure for them first order · B4 unheld-owner
A boundary description for Tygerhoek No. 689 names Gouvernements grond voor J.A. van Wyk Sr. in erfpacht, a surveyor stating on the record that this person held the adjoining ground. No one of that surname holds a single ownership span anywhere in this model.

What would settle it The diagram's own date fixes the window. The quitrent or erfpacht register for that year names the holder of the adjoining place, and an estate inventory will name the farm outright.
The record stops in 1823 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Tygerhoek No. 689 was worked as far as 1823-05-15, with Wed. William Petrus BurgerH the last owner on record. 203 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.