Kleine Doornrivier No. 1 (Riversdale)

1 on the cadastre · on record 1799–1802 · show on the map

Farm number: No. 1
Also recorded as: de Kleine Doornrivier gel: agter de Platte Kloof; KLEINE DOORN RIVIER
On the cadastre: 1, whole farmregistered as KLEINE DOORN RIVIER
Modern surveyed area: 1181.8 ha

Why this farm is here

Pieter Cornelis Oosthuizen lived on this ground. 157 km from Klaarstroom.

Pieter Cornelis Oosthuizen is on record on this ground directly. No trace needed.

document A document in the collection describes this ground DOC-0366
lead An open question in this record is about this ground Which Platte Kloof did the clerks mean - is Pieter Cornelis's Kleine Doornrivier the Riversdale farm or the Oudtshoorn one?

Who stood on this ground, and how they were related

Everyone the record places here - by deed, by residence, or by burial - and the kinship between each pair of them. Two numbers are given and they are deliberately kept apart. Steps is how far apart two people are in the family graph, counting a marriage as one step. The common ancestor is the nearest one they share by blood, with the year they were born. A pair four steps apart through a couple born in the 1750s is a relationship; a pair ten steps apart through a progenitor born in the 1630s is background, because almost everybody descends from him. Read both.

1800 Pieter Cornelis Oosthuizen lived on ../1800-01-22
— Jacobus Oosthuizen (b.1722) lived on
— Dina Carolina Britz lived on

Steps	Between	Nearest common ancestor by blood
1	Pieter Cornelis Oosthuizen · Dina Carolina Britz	Ockert Brits born 1705 (2+1 generations up)
1	Pieter Cornelis Oosthuizen · Jacobus Oosthuizen (b.1722)	Johanna Martens born 1679 (2+1 generations up)
1	Jacobus Oosthuizen (b.1722) · Dina Carolina Britz	none within twelve generations

Drawn from the parentage and marriages this project holds, never from a shared surname. A pair with no common ancestor here may still be related through a link nobody has recorded yet.

What the record holds, in order

20 January 1799 document estate inventory
MOOC8/23.4 and 23.3
20 January 1799 estate Marthinus Oosthuizen (1764–1799)
MOOC8/23.4 and 23.3 · aen den Zwarteberg, at the place of Jacob van der Bank (1799); de Kleine Doornrivier agter de Platte Kloof, the place of Pieter Cornelis Oosthuijsen (1800)
before 1800-01-22 lived here Pieter Cornelis Oosthuizen (1767–25 December 1836)
estate inventory
about 1802 lived here Jacobus Oosthuizen (b.1722) (1722–1802)
estate inventory · to 1802~
1802-04-27/ lived here Dina Carolina Britz (1732–1802)
estate inventory · to 1802-04-27/

Documents

transcription held, not an image

Estate inventory, deed MOOC8/23.4 and 23.3, 20 January 1799

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Research notes

[2026-09-23, SRC-670] THE PLACE OF PIETER CORNELIS OOSTHUIJSEN, NAMED AT LAST. MOOC8/23.3 (22 January 1800) was taken 'ter plaatze van den burger Pieter Cornelis Oosthuijsen, gen:d de Kleine Doornrivier gel: agter de Platte Kloof', which is the farm that MOOC8/24.27 (April 1802) called only 'ter plaatse van Pieter Cornelis Oosthuysen': the estates of his brother Marthinus and of his parents Jacobus d'oude and Dina Carolina Brits were both given in here, and the parents died here (RES-000051 to 053). THE PIN, MEDIUM: two cadastre farms carry the name. Riversdale No. 1 (1182 ha, 20.96E 33.86S) lies on the Klein Karoo side of the Langeberg, 18 km beyond Riversdale's Platte Kloof No. 90 and 27 km from Okkerskraal, in the Ladismith country where this household's other places sit (Mistkraal on the Touwsberg, MOOC8/56.13a; Buffelskloof 'over de Plattekloof' and Okkerskraal, MOOC8/57.36a). Oudtshoorn No. 216 is 20 km beyond George's Platte Kloof No. 131 but a hundred kilometres from that cluster. The cluster decides, and it is a judgement: [TO VERIFY] on a diagram or a roll that names the Doornrivier with a neighbour. PREQUEL GROUND under 9a; NEVER core.

[2026-09-23, SRC-689] THE SECOND CANDIDATE, WEIGHED AND LEFT OPEN. The siblings' other places all resolve by name to Ladismith farms: Mistkraal is Ladismith No. 121 on the Touwsberg, Buffelskloof Ladismith No. 97, Okkerskraal Ladismith No. 200, and all three lie within thirty kilometres of this farm, which sits behind the Langeberg's Platte Kloof No. 90 exactly as the 1800 clerk wrote it; MOOC8/60.16b (1814) puts the same family's Eilands Valei 'agter de Platte Kloof onder het district van Zwellendam', which after 1811 excludes the Kannaland. That is why the pin stays here. AGAINST IT: Appel's Tabel 1.5 (SRC-689) has a Doringrivier at the Cango from 1760 and a Groot Doringrivier under O. Heyns from 1766, and the cadastre's Oudtshoorn No. 216, KLEIN DOORN RIVIER (1350 ha, key W045C054000000000216000000), lies 5 km from George No. 83 GROOT DOORNS RIVIER and 7 km from the loan place Pieter Cornelis's father held in 1765 (PAR-000337); on that reading the Platte Kloof is George's No. 131, twenty kilometres to its south-east. The rolls decide it: LEAD-0364.

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

Open questions

Which Platte Kloof did the clerks mean - is Pieter Cornelis's Kleine Doornrivier the Riversdale farm or the Oudtshoorn one? priority 2 · LEAD-0364
MOOC8/23.3 (1800) puts Pieter Cornelis Oosthuijsen's farm at 'de Kleine Doornrivier gel: agter de Platte Kloof'; MOOC8/57.36b (1808) puts his brother Gerrit Johannes's Buffelskloof 'over de Platekloof'; MOOC8/60.16b (1814) puts J.H.C. Oosthuijzen's Eilands Valei 'agter de Platte Kloof onder het district van Zwellendam'. The cadastre has a Platte Kloof in the Langeberg above Riversdale (No. 90) and one in George (No. 131), and a Kleine Doorn Rivier behind each: Riversdale No. 1 and Oudtshoorn No. 216. Which Platte Kloof is the landmark, and so which farm was his?

What would settle it A roll or register that names the Kleine Doornrivier with a district, a field cornetcy or a neighbour; or Pieter Cornelis on a George roll, which would move it. THE ROLL'S OWN DISTANCE COLUMN IS THE SHARPEST TEST: the 1808 opening at SRC-521 gives every farm in hours from the Swellendam drostdy, and the three Ladismith farms already placed (Voorbaat 14, Ockerts Kraal 15, Wolvefontein 17 uuren) calibrate it at about five kilometres to the hour. Riversdale No. 1 would read about 10 uuren; Oudtshoorn No. 216 about 33. One figure against entry 439 decides it.

What the record is missing

Nobody is on record as ever having held this third order · B8 never-held
Kleine Doornrivier No. 1 (Riversdale) is in the model and drawn on the map, and carries no ownership record of any kind, not a grant, not a transfer, not an occupation.

What would settle it The Surveyor-General's diagram for the farm number names the grantee and the date; the deed reference on it opens the transfer chain.

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.