Jacobus Johannes Gideon van der Merwe

DIRECT ANCESTOR - Frans's great-grandfather on his mother's side, and missing from the model until now. Married Catharina Isabella BruijnH at CALVINIA, 1 Oct 1917. ELEVEN children. [SRC-074]

[4 Aug 2026, SRC-263] TWO DATES DISAGREE WITH THIS MODEL AND ARE RECORDED RATHER THAN RESOLVED. Janet Melville's report has him at a1b3c10d2e8f1g1h1i7j2, born 23 NOVEMBER 1888 and baptised Calvinia 2 Dec 1888, died 1950 and buried at WILLISTON. This model holds born 23 OCTOBER 1888 and died 10 OCTOBER 1961. The day of the month agrees; the month and the year of death do not, and 1950 against 1961 is eleven years. NEITHER IS PREFERRED HERE. 10 ranks a compiled genealogy below a register, so a baptism entry or a death notice settles it and nothing else should. The baptism is the cheaper of the two to find - Melville names the date and the congregation. One further detail from the same source, useful when that register is read: he was BAPTISED GILLIAM, NOT GIDEON. That is the kind of drift 5a says to keep rather than tidy away, and it may be why a search on Gideon has not found him. His wife, CATHARINA ISABELLA BRUYN (b. 1895, d. 1947, buried Williston), married him at Calvinia on 1 October 1917 and is NOT YET IN THIS MODEL. [TO VERIFY]

[9 Aug 2026] HE MARRIED FOUR TIMES, and this model already held all four before the fan chart confirmed them: CATHARINA ISABELLA BRUIJN at Calvinia 1 Oct 1917 (PER-000220, eleven children, and the mother of Frans's grandfather), then MARIA MARGARETHA MAGDALENA LOUW (PER-001304, 1905-1957), ANNA ELSABE BESTER (PER-001302, b.1897) and CATHARINA HELENA VAN DEN HEEVER (PER-001303, b.1914), the last two in December 1959 and December 1960 when he was seventy-one and seventy-two. He died in October 1961. The chart adds nothing here; this row's dates are the fuller ones.

[9 Aug 2026, SRC-348] THE FAMILYSEARCH DETAIL PAGE SIDES WITH THIS MODEL AND THAT SETTLES NOTHING. It gives born 23 OCTOBER 1888 at Calvinia and died 10 OCTOBER 1961 at Williston, against Melville's 23 November 1888 and 1950. But the family-tree this model was seeded from is itself a FamilySearch copy, so the two are one source agreeing with itself and Melville is still the only independent voice. What is new and useful: the birth carries TEN attached sources and the death THREE, so the register entry that would end it is reachable. The page also gives a CHRISTENING of JUNE 1898, ten years after the birth, where Melville has 2 December 1888. Both are recorded and neither is preferred.

[10 Aug 2026, SRC-374] A SECOND MELVILLE REPORT, this one built on him. It repeats the two disagreements SRC-263 opened - born 23 November 1888 against the 23 October held here, died 1950 against 1961 - and adds that he married 'as 29 jarige boer van KAREEKOP' and that his bride was the '23 jarige dogter van KLIPFONTEIN'. Two farm names for a couple this model had no ground for at all. It also repeats that he was baptised GILLIAM and not Gideon, at Calvinia on 2 December 1888. Ten children, every one born at Williston between 1922 and 1939.