← The land

Person PER-000001

Ockert Almero Oosthuizen

24 April 1786 – 26 February 1859 · Oosthuizen line

Married into the family

  1. Ockert Almero Oosthuizen
  2. Adriana Cecilia Venter

Connection to the Koup

Married into a household on this ground: Adriana Cecilia Venter (1807-10).

Names

Baptismal name
Ockert Almero
Given
Ockert Almero
Surname
Oosthuizen

The formal baptismal name and the name a person was actually called are both kept, and neither is derived from the other. Spelling drift between records is evidence, not noise.

Immediate family

Father
Ockert Oosthuizen (b.1755)
Mother
Susanna Catharina van Tonder
Brothers and sisters
Married
Adriana Cecilia Venter October 1807
Children

A life in the record

  1. 24 April 1786 born Born
  2. 11 May 1786 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen baptised, with Venetian noblemen as witnesses
    [SRC-076] Born 25 April 1786, baptised 11 May as "Ocert Almaro". Seven witnesses, three of them Venetian: "Louij Almaro Pisanie Baron de Felion van Venesia in Italia", "Alviese Almaro Pesanie", and a third Almaro of Venice. ALMORO is a Venetian patrician name of the Pisani house. This is the moment
  3. 11 May 1786 occasion Baptism
  4. October 1807 married Married Adriana Cecilia Venter
  5. October 1807 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen marries Adriana Cecilia Venter
    [SRC-073] At Swellendam. The root couple of this history. Fourteen children over 33 years: the first baptised at Graaff-Reinet in 1809, the seventh at Beaufort West in 1821, the eighth born at Prince Albert in 1823. The baptism registers alone map the family walking west into the Koup.
  6. 23 April 1809 event The estate at de Modder Fonteyn is inventoried
    MOOC8/28.63. Ockert Oosthuijzen died intestate on the Olifants River leaving eleven children, the youngest two years old. The inventory walks the house room by room and then out to the yard, where it finds an ox wagon, yellowwood planks, WAGONMAKER'S WOOD and a broken chaise - and in the winkel a be
  7. 16 June 1817 event Jan Adriaan Oosthuizen baptised at Graaff-Reinet
    Born 20 November 1816, baptised 16 June 1817, with four witnesses in two couples - his uncle Gerrit Adriaan Oosthuijzen with Petronella Schoonman, and Adriaan van Deventer with Maria Sophia Venter. THE LAST TIME THIS FAMILY APPEARS IN THE GRAAFF-REINET ENTRIES GATHERED HERE (the register itself has
  8. 16 June 1817 occasion Baptism of their child, Johannes Adriaan Oosthuizen at Graaff-Reinet
  9. 1821 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen appears in the Beaufort West opgaafrol
    [SRC-073] The 1821 tax roll shows him farming in the Beaufort West district - the earliest documentary attestation of the root ancestor on the ground, twenty years before the 1841 grants.
  10. 5 March 1837 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen baptised at Beaufort West
    Born on Middelwater 27 November 1836, baptised at Beaufort West on 5 March 1837 - a fourteen-week wait, which is what distance did to these families. Both paternal grandparents stood as witnesses, with a Venter and a Strydom for the other two sides. Nineteen years earlier his father had been baptise
  11. 5 March 1837 witness Witnessed a baptism · Ockert Almero Oosthuizen
  12. 16 February 1840 witness Witnessed a baptism · Ockert Jacobus Oosthuizen (1839-1842)
  13. 1842 event Zwartberg NG congregation founded on the farm Kweekvallei - and the town of Prince Albert with it
    The congregation stretched west as far as Rietbron. Ockert Almero Oosthuizen served as a deacon at its founding and bought five erven of Kweekvallei for the church ground.
  14. 12 July 1844 witness Witnessed a baptism
  15. February 1859 buried Buried, Prince Albert, burial ground not identified
  16. 26 February 1859 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen dies in his own house at Prince Albert
    [SRC-077] Death notice 5848, filed 8 March 1859. Aged 72 years 10 months 2 days; occupation landbouwer; a widower of eleven months. He died NOT on a farm but "in zijn eigen huis te Prins Albert". Thirteen children survived him or are named; the village he died in had existed for only fourteen years.
  17. 26 February 1859 died Died

Who stood with them

Who signed at a baptism, a will or a survey is not incidental. It is the clearest surviving record of which families stood close to which.

Stories

Others of the same name

Afrikaans naming repeats hard, and the Cape Dutch naming pattern reuses a name on purpose, a child who died young has the name given again to a later sibling. These are different people. Never match on a name alone.

What we don't know

A sourced gap beats an unsourced fill. These are the open questions on this person, stated rather than papered over.

Sources

  1. "Frederick Oosthuizen - die man wat die Zeekoegat Kerkie 100 jaar gelede gebou het", Lydia Barella Prince Albert Friend (blog)29 Sep 2007
  2. Family Group Record: Ockert Almero Oosthuizen (1787) x Adriana Cecilia Venter (1792) - posted to a genealogy list as "Oosthuizen X Venter"private (email, forwarded to Frans)Johan Jacob Pottas, Bloemfontein, 13 October 2005; compiled from South African Genealogies Vol 07: O-Ph, with KAB MOOC and VAB citations
  3. Baptism, 11 May 1786: Occert Almaro Oosthuijzen, child of Ocert Oosthuijsen and Susanna Catharina van Tonder FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994"index entry ark 1:1:624P-3Y54; register page 34; born 25 April 1786, baptised 11 May 1786; image 3Q9M-CSV8-W9W5-D
  4. Kennisgeving van Sterfgeval no. 5848 (43): Okker Almero Oosthuysen, filed 8 March 1859 FamilySearch, "South Africa, Cape, Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1822-1990"DGS/film 007844939, image 1888 of 2166; collection cc=2517051, waypoint WV44-SZX:1598082377; estate no. 5848 (43)
  5. Baptism, 16 June 1817: Jan Adriaan, child of Ockert Almero Oosthuijzen and Adriana Cicilia Venter FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994"index entry ark 1:1:6VBS-163C; register pages 198-199, entries of June 1817; congregation Graaff-Reinet [TO VERIFY]
  6. Baptism, 5 March 1837: Ockert Almero, child of Jan Adriaan Oosthuise and Susanna Catharina Oosthuise, Beaufort West FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Records (Stellenbosch Archive), 1690-2011"; citing GISA, StellenboschSouth Africa > Cape > Beaufort West > Baptisms 1819-1844 > image 198 of 302; ark 3:1:S3HY-68TW-G3P; cc=1392488, wc=M64H-PNL:13850901,13850902,14731201,14762701
  7. MOOC8/28.63 - Inventory of the estate of Ockert Oosthuijzen, taken at de Modder Fonteyn on the Olifants River, 23 April 1809 Cape Archives (KAB), Master of the Orphan Chamber; transcription published by TANAP / Globalise (Huygens KNAW)MOOC8/28.63, {18090423}
  8. Beaufort West NG Gemeente, Baptisms 1819-1844 (doopregister) FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Records (Stellenbosch Archive), 1690-2011"; citing Genealogiese Instituut van Suid-Afrika (GISA), StellenboschSouth Africa > Cape > Beaufort West > Baptisms 1819-1844 > 302 images. Waypoint wc=M64H-PNL:13850901,13850902,14731201,14762701; cc=1392488. Last image (302 of 302) is ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-68TW-GKL. Held here: 91 distinct page images, filed under their ark suffix in sources/registers/beaufort-west-baptisms-1819-1844/

Research notes

Root ancestor. [SRC-067] A DEACON at the founding of the Zwartberg NG congregation in 1842, and one of those who handled the purchase of the church ground - he bought five erven from the first owners of the farm Kweekvallei, on which Prince Albert was laid out.

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-073]: parents now known - Ockert Almero OosthuizenL the elder (PER-000118, 1755-1809, died at Citrusdal) and Susanna Catharina van TonderMen (PER-000119). Married Adriana Cecilia VenterH at Swellendam, Oct 1807; fourteen children (PER-000003, 000004, 000122-000134). In the 1821 Beaufort West opgaafrol. Pottas gives his birth year as 1787 against our 1786-04-24 [TO VERIFY].

29 Jul 2026, TWO ORIGINALS [SRC-076, SRC-077]. BAPTISM: born 25 April 1786, baptised 11 May 1786 as "Ocert Almaro", son of Ocert Oosthuijsen and Susanna Cathanina VAN TONDER. DEATH NOTICE 5848, filed 8 Mar 1859: died 26 February 1859, aged "72 jaar 10 maanden en 2 dagen" - which computes back to 24 April 1786, ONE DAY BEFORE the register's birth date. Occupation LANDBOUWER. Marital status WEDUWNAAR - his wife had died eleven months earlier. AND THE ANSWER TO A STANDING QUESTION: he died "IN ZIJN EIGEN HUIS TE PRINS ALBERT" - in his own house in the village, not on a farm. By 1859 the root ancestor had left the land and was living in town. Birthplace on the notice is left blank. The notice lists THIRTEEN children, all of age, two already dead (Susanna Catharina, and Catharina Petronella who left one minor son, Okker Almero de BeerM). || WHERE THE NAME ALMERO COMES FROM. The 1786 baptism has seven witnesses, and three of them are Venetian nobility: "Louij ALMARO PISANIE Baron de Felion van VENESIA IN ITALIA", "Alviese Almaro Pesanie" and a third Almaro "de Felion de Venesie". ALMORO (Almorò) is a distinctively Venetian patrician given name, and it belongs to the PISANI family - Alvise Pisani was Doge of Venice, and Almoro Pisani recurs through that house for centuries. The child was named for his godfather. So the ALMERO that runs down six generations of this Afrikaans farming family - to Almero Jacobus Hitge OosthuizenL (1878-1961), and to two more Almero Jacobus Hitges after him - is a Venetian nobleman's name, given at a Cape baptism in 1786. Transcription of an 18th-century hand, so [TO VERIFY] - but a Geneanet South African tree already carries a "Louis Almora (Alviso Louis) Pisani", which is very likely the same man. Worth its own story. || THE FAMILY STORY [SRC-080], told long before the register was read: the name Almero came from an ancestor's RICH FRIEND, who said that if a son were named for him the boy would inherit. The 1786 register does not mention an inheritance, but it does show a man who was no relation standing godfather and giving his name - and the tradition gets the crucial thing right, that he was a FRIEND. Whether anything was ever inherited is open; Pisani was exiled and stripped in 1795. || 29 Jul 2026 [SRC-085] A CONTRIBUTION BACK TO THE PUBLISHED RECORD. Combrink traces the given name ALMERO out of the (Du) Pisani family into ROUX (1822), GREY (1865) and BOTES (about 1921), and notes it among Pretorius, Smuts and De Villiers. HE DOES NOT LIST THE OOSTHUIZENS - and this baptism is 1786, thirty-six years before his earliest transmission. On the evidence we hold, the Oosthuizen line is the EARLIEST DOCUMENTED PASSAGE OF THE NAME OUT OF THE PISANI FAMILY, and it ran for a hundred and seventy-nine years. Worth telling the onomasts.

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-092] The 1809 estate inventory lists him as heir no. 2, "Ockert Almoro Oosthuyzen OUD 23 JAREN" - which puts his birth in 1786 and confirms the baptism. He also owed the estate 56 rixdollars, the balance on A WAGON HE HAD BOUGHT, and he signed the inventory himself as "Ocker Almero Oosthuysen" - so at 23 he was already using the name.

[31 Jul 2026 SRC-092] A DETAIL WORTH THE STORY: the 1809 inventory shows him, aged 23 and eighteen months married, owing his own father 56 rixdollars 'per rest op een gekogte wagen' - the balance on a wagon he had bought from him - marked 'vold:', paid in full. His father was a wagonmaker. He signs the inventory himself, 'Ocker Almero Oosthuysen'. A newly married man buying a wagon from his wagonmaker father, two years before the family begins moving east: that is the vehicle of the migration, named in a document.

[SRC-294, Fred van Zyl, 6 Aug 2026] Given as b7c3d3, dated 11-05-1787. THE DATE IDENTIFIES HIM RATHER THAN CONTRADICTING HIM: 11 May is the day and month of his BAPTISM in SRC-076, which records him born 25 April 1786 and baptised 11 May 1786. Fred is quoting a baptism date as a birth date with the year one out, which is the commonest slip in compiled genealogy - and it settles beyond doubt that his b7c3d3 and this project's root ancestor are one man. NOTE FOR THIS ROW'S OWN SAKE: birth_edtf here reads 1786-04-24 while SRC-076 says 25 April 1786. One day, and the source is the register. [TO VERIFY]

These are working notes, not finished prose: they carry the reasoning, the corrections and the things still marked to verify. They are kept here so the page itself can read as what is known.

Open questions

Elders

FamilySearch profile 972X-2LJ