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Person PER-000016

Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen

18 January 1878 – 29 October 1961 · Oosthuizen line

Connection to the Koup

Held ground in this district: Hartebeest Voedpad (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 5) (1919-06-10).

Names

Baptismal name
Almero Jacobus Hitge
Called
Almero
Given
Almero Jacobus Hitge
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.

Photographs

Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen, about 1896
Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen, about 1896 — Family collection
The back of the 1896 portrait, inscribed
The back of the 1896 portrait, inscribed — Family collection
A. J. H. Oosthuizen and G. S. Marincowitz
A. J. H. Oosthuizen and G. S. Marincowitz — Family collection
The back of the double portrait, inscribed
The back of the double portrait, inscribed — Family collection
Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen (1878-1961) in old age: a close portrait in strong sunlight, white moustache and...
Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen (1878-1961) in old age: a close portrait in strong sunlight, white moustache and small pointed beard, in a pinstriped jacket, a bow tie and an open-necked shirt. — Family collection
A studio portrait of JOHANNA FREDRICKA MALHERBE (1875-1959) and ALMERO JACOBUS HITGE OOSTHUIZEN (1878-1961) with...
A studio portrait of JOHANNA FREDRICKA MALHERBE (1875-1959) and ALMERO JACOBUS HITGE OOSTHUIZEN (1878-1961) with their first child. She sits at the left in a white lace blouse with a high collar and a dark skirt, a small book in her hands; he stands behind in a three-piece suit with a watch chain and a heavy moustache, one hand on her chair; the child stands on an upholstered stool at the right in a long white dress. A painted backdrop and a fringed cloth behind them. — Family collection
The same studio portrait, colourised.
The same studio portrait, colourised. — Family collection

Three generations around this person

Johannes Adriaan Oosthuizen 1816 Susanna Catharina Oosthuizen (b.1819) 1819
Ockert Almero Oosthuizen 1836
Charles Frederick Hitge 1818~ Sophia Johanna Mocke 1820
Aletta Catharina Maria Helena Hitge 1846
Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen 1878 Johanna Fredricka Malherbe m. 19 May 1903
Ockert Almero Oosthuizen (b.1904) 1904 Isabella Zulch Oosthuizen 1906 Aletta Catharina Oosthuizen 1908 Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe Oosthuizen 1909 Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen (b.1912) 1912

Work out how this person is related to somebody else →

Click any name and the same three generations are drawn around that person instead. There is no first couple here and no top to the tree: it is only ever the family standing closest to whoever you are reading about, and a blank is a gap in the record rather than a statement about anybody.

Immediate family

Father
Ockert Almero Oosthuizen
Mother
Aletta Catharina Maria Helena Hitge
Brothers and sisters
Jan Adriaan Oosthuizen, Charles Frederick Wright Oosthuizen
Married
Johanna Fredricka Malherbe 19 May 1903
Children

A life in the record

  1. 1878 land Lived on it, Drooge Kloof
  2. 1878 land Lived on it, Klein Valie No. 182
  3. 18 January 1878 born Born
  4. 10 February 1878 event Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen baptised at Prince Albert
    Born on 18 January 1878 and baptised three weeks later - by now the family is in the Prince Albert congregation, founded within living memory, and the church is close enough that a baptism no longer waits fourteen weeks as his father's did in 1837. Third son, so by the naming pattern he carries his
  5. 10 February 1878 occasion Baptism at Prince Albert
  6. 1885 event The first flood closes Meiringspoort
    [SRC-010, Rose Willis Klaarstroom cameo. TERTIARY, TO VERIFY] So severe the pass had to be closed, stranding 50 transport wagons at Klaarstroom - loads spread across the veld for miles, oxen and horses roaming for grazing, people camped, and the edible cargo quietly disappearing. Thomas Bain was cal
  7. 1892 event A fourteen-year-old drives three teachers over the Swartberg Pass
    Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen, aged 14, took three lady teachers from the Prince Albert school over the new Swartberg Pass to Oudtshoorn in a mule cart, down the 'Die Top' zig-zags at dusk to make Droewaterval before dark, and came home by moonlight complaining about the shrieking. During term he
  8. 1892 event The great perdevrekte of 1892
    Horse-sickness swept the district: of 95 horses and mules on Kouwveldt (PAR-000088), 14 were left. 'Na hierdie vrekte het die donkie sy tuiste in ons wereld gekry' - the donkey arrived in the Koup's world because the horses died out of it. The diary ranks it with the fall of the ostrich-feather mark
  9. 1897 event Kouwveldt sold; the family moves to Droogekloof
    Ockert Almero Oosthuizen sells Kouwveldt - properly Klein Vallei, PAR-000088 - to Jan Muller and moves his household to his other farm, Droogekloof (PAR-000007). The same year the brandsiekwet came from Rhodes; 'die enigste goeie ding wat hy in Suid-Afrika gedoen het', the diary says, with the distr
  10. 19 May 1903 married Married Johanna Fredricka Malherbe
  11. 19 May 1903 event Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen marries Johanna Fredricka Malherbe
    [SRC-074] Five children, of whom Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe (1909-1979) is Frans's grandfather. Almero Hitge is the boy who drove the schoolteachers over the Swartberg Pass in 1892 (STO-0001) and who bought 4,311 morgen on Rondabel in 1919 and 1921.
  12. 12 September 1909 event Hendrik Lodewijk Malherbe Oosthuizen baptised at Prince Albert
    Born 17 August 1909, baptised four weeks later by ds David Wilcocks. Six witnesses, four of them MALHERBES - the mother's people had come. Among them stood HENDRIK LODEWIJK MALHERBE himself, the man the child was named for. The fifth generation of this family read from an original register, and the
  13. 12 September 1909 occasion Baptism of their child, Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe Oosthuizen at Prince Albert
  14. 1914–1916 event The 1914-15 drought breaks in ten inches of rain
    Heavy drought through 1914 and 1915, ended only in 1916 when ten inches fell; stock died and the farmers came out with small flocks. The diary keeps the woman who complained that the sheep no longer died - she could no longer sell dead sheep's skins for food money.
  15. 10 June 1919 land Held it, Hartebeest Voedpad (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 5)
  16. 10 June 1919 event Almero Jacobus Hitge Oosthuizen buys Hartebeest Voedpad on Rondabel
    1,606 morgen 79 sq roods. Frans's great-grandfather, aged 41, taking ground on the farm next to Middelwater.
  17. 8 July 1921 land Held it, Elandsfontein (Rondabel No. 124 Ptn 6)
  18. 8 July 1921 event Elandsfontein on Rondabel transferred to A. Oosthuizen
    2,705 morgen 257 sq roods, two years after Hartebeest Voedpad and adjoining it. [TO VERIFY] the same Almero.
  19. 2 January 1922 land Lived on it, Drooge Kloof
  20. 2 January 1922 event Ockert Almero Oosthuizen dies in Church Street, Prince Albert
    A retired farmer of 85, dead of gastro enteritis after a month, attended by Dr P.C. Luttig, and buried in the DR church cemetery at Prince Albert. His son signed the form from DROOGEKLOOF - the piece of annexed Government ground that sat inside the Middelwater loan farm when Stretch surveyed it in 1
  21. 3 January 1922 witness Witnessed a death registration · Ockert Almero Oosthuizen
  22. 1939 event Drought and depression together; the district's farms are camped
    1939 brought drought and depression at once: wool at threepence a pound, the government adding threepence subsidy for sixpence in hand. In those years the district's farms were fenced into camps - 'wat die grootste redding vir die veeboer was'.
  23. 1961 buried Buried, Prince Albert, burial ground not identified
  24. 29 October 1961 died Died

Ground they are on record on

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. Rose Willis and Doreen Atkinson, with Judy Maguire and Bruce Rubidge, "Klaarstroom: Ancient place of clear waters" (Karoo Cameos, 2021) Karoo Development Foundation, Karoo CameosKaroo Cameos, 2021
  2. Rondabel Portion 5 "Hartebeest Voedpad" diagramSurveyor-GeneralSG Dgm 270/1919
  3. Rondabel Portion 6 "Elandsfontein" diagramSurveyor-GeneralSG Dgm 891/1921
  4. FamilySearch Family Tree - Oosthuizen direct line FamilySearchperson pages 972X-2LJ, LZ1Q-GDF, LDQC-R1B, LDQC-R17, LDQC-RTX and their family views
  5. Form of Information of a Death, 2 January 1922: Ockert Almero Oosthuizen, Prince Albert FamilySearch, "South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Records, 1840-1972"ark 1:1:W46D-53W2; registered 3 Jan 1922, district Prince Albert, entry no. 5; form B.&D.2 under Act 7 of 1894 (Cape)
  6. Baptism, 10 February 1878: Almero Jacobus Hitge, child of Ockert Almero Oosthuizen and Aletta Catharina Maria Helena Hitge, Prince Albert FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994"; State Archives, Cape Provinceark 3:1:3Q9M-CSK6-T996-Z; cc=1478678; Doop Register, Prins Albert, page 458, entry 59
  7. Baptism, 12 September 1909: Hendrik Lodewijk Malherbe Oosthuizen, Prince Albert FamilySearch; NG Kerk Prins Albert doop register (catalogued by FamilySearch under a wrong waypoint - see notes)ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSKX-97ZS-3; image 166 of 406; Image Group Number 008150240; register page 481, entry 128
  8. 'Brokkies uit oupa Almero Oosthuizen se dagboek', Klaarstroom - Zeekoegat 1885/1933 - Die Oudtshoorn CourantSame page and issue as SRC-585; date [TO VERIFY], after October 1961Scans DOC-0348 (left), DOC-0349 (page), DOC-0350 (right); published verbatim as story STO-0048

Research notes

Drooge Kloof; Frans great-grandfather

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-084] LIKELY THE INFORMANT on his father's 1922 death registration: "A.J. Oosthuizen, son, present at death, of DROOGEKLOOF, Prince Albert". A.J. fits ALMERO JACOBUS better than his brother Jan Adriaan (J.A.), but the signature is not clean [TO VERIFY]. If it is him, it places him ON DROOGE KLOOF (PAR-000007) in January 1922 - the annexed Government ground inside the Middelwater loan farm on the 1833 diagram. He was buying Rondabel ground in 1919 and 1921 and living on Middelwater ground in 1922.

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-088] BAPTISM REGISTER READ, PRINCE ALBERT: born 18 January 1878, baptised 10 February 1878, entry 59. Three witnesses: NICOLAAS CORNELIS VAN DEN HOVEN, FREDRIKA JOHANNA OOSTHUIZEN (his father's side) and GEORGE JOSEPH ROY HITGE (his mother's). By the vernoemingspatroon he is the third son and should carry his FATHER'S name - and he does, ALMERO, with his mother's surname Hitge added as a given name, which is how the Hitge got in permanently. NOTE "ROY" in the Hitge witness's name - the same Roy that turns up much later in Roy Don OosthuizenM (PER-000019), the Zwartskraal fossil finder. Worth tracing [TO VERIFY].

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-089] Named as the father on his son's 1909 baptism, Prince Albert entry 128.

29 Jul 2026 [SRC-084/DOC-0061]: documented AT DROOGEKLOOF, Prince Albert, on 2 Jan 1922 - informant ("Son, present at death") on his father's death record, residence given as Droogekloof. Corroborates the legacy note on PAR-000007 ("Almero Hitge & Hendrik").

[11 Aug 2026, MED-000019] THERE IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIM, and it is the earliest likeness in this project of anyone in the Oosthuizen direct line. A studio portrait of a young man of about eighteen, inscribed on the back "Almero Jacobus [Hitge] Oosthuizen +/- 1896". He was born on 18 January 1878, so 1896 makes him eighteen and the sitter looks it. The inscription is in a later hand than the print. A check made at the same time is worth recording because it came out clean: NO FAMILYSEARCH ID IN THIS MODEL IS HELD BY MORE THAN ONE LIVE ROW. The other three rows of this name are a different man (1912-2001), his tombstoned duplicate, and a boy who died in 1965.

[11 Aug 2026, MED-000022] A SECOND PHOTOGRAPH OF HIM, and this one is not alone: a studio double portrait with a G. S. Marincowitz, both in wide-brimmed hats beside a plinth, from the later 1890s. The back is inscribed "A. J. H. OosthuizenM (Pa)", so one of his children kept it and captioned it.

[25 Aug 2026] HIS DIARY SURFACED - extracts published in Die Oudtshoorn Courant after his death (SRC-586), written at his daughter-in-law Anna's request, published verbatim as STO-0048. It gives his childhood on Kouwveldt/Klein Vallei (PAR-000088) from 1878 (RES-000040) - so the Drooge Kloof residence from 1878 (RES-000004) is loose: the family only moved there in 1897, per his own account.

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

What the record is missing

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.

Elders

FamilySearch profile LDQC-R17