Casper van Zyl (1781-1863)

1781 – 1863

Connection to the Koup

Held ground in this district: Modderdrift No. 106 (1833~).

event Wijnand van Zijl baptised1809-12-06

Names

Given: Casper
Surname: van Zijl

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

Children: Wynand van Zyl, Jacobus Stephanus van Zyl

A life in the record

1781 born Born
6 December 1809 event Wijnand van Zijl baptised
Born 3 June 1808. Baptised with his younger brother Jacobus on the same day. Witnesses on his mother's side: Weijnand Bredenbach the elder and the younger, with their wives - the source of his name.
6 December 1809 event Jacobus van Zijl baptised
Born 20 September 1809, so eleven weeks old. Baptised the same day as his brother Wijnand, who was eighteen months old - which is how a family history came to record them as twins born 6/12/1809. He is the man who married Susanna Catharina Oosthuizen of Middelwater and laid out Brandfort in 1866.
about 1833 land Held it, Modderdrift No. 106
1863 died Died

Ground they are on record on

Modderdrift No. 106 held it · about 1833

Stories

mentioned The brother-in-law who founded a town

What we don't know

Neither parent is recorded, so this person is not attached to the tree above them.

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

Sources

Baptism register, 6 December 1809. Wijnand and Jacobus van Zijl, sons of Casper van Zijl and Susanna Abigaël Bredenbach FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994"; State Archives, Cape Provinceark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK6-CS1D-T, cc=1478678, image 1 of 1; register pages 148-149

Research notes

[SRC-180] Father of Wijnand (b. 3 Jun 1808) and Jacobus (b. 20 Sep 1809) van Zijl, both baptised 6 December 1809. Named in the register as living in CANGO on the elder son's entry and in HOUTNIEKWALAND on the younger's, in the same hand on the same day. He is the father of the two brothers who married two Oosthuizen sisters of Middelwater, and the grandfather the third brother Caspar Johannes Jacobus (b. 13 Feb 1814, per SRC-179) was named for. NOT otherwise researched - 9a, this is the head of the van Zyl trail and it does not get grown. [FS, 1 Aug 2026] LC3S-V28, 1781-1863. Married Susanna Abigael Breytenbach at SWELLENDAM on 3 March 1805. Nine children, of whom Wynand (1808) and Jacobus (1809) both married daughters of Ockert Almero OosthuizenL of Middelwater, and Cornelis Petrus Jacobus (1817) stood witness at one of their baptisms.

[SRC-294, Fred van Zyl, 6 Aug 2026] [FAMILY] Placed at DE CONGO: Fred states that Wynand van ZylH and his elder sister were born on that farm, so Casper was settled there, and that Casper died on UYTVLUCHT, west of De Cango. His father was the Jacobus van ZylM who found the Cango caves and held De Cango and Kombys. Fred is confident this Casper is the 'Casper van ZylHe Senior' of Modderdrift (LEAD-0056) because he can find no other Casper van ZylH of that time and place. NOTE HOW THAT ARGUMENT RUNS: it is an argument from absence, which 10 says this kind of record cannot carry - and Fred's own supporting detail cuts against it, because De Cango and Uytvlucht are over the Swartberg on the Oudtshoorn side while Modderdrift is in Prince Albert. Holding land in both is entirely possible and his son did marry onto Middelwater, but the identification is not established. [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

Is Modderdrift's "Casper van Zyle Senior" the Casper van Zyl of the Beaufort West baptisms? priority 1 · LEAD-0056
Is the Casper van ZylHe Senior for whom Modderdrift No. 106 was surveyed in 1833 the same man as Casper van ZylH (1781-1863), father of the two van Zyl brothers baptised at Beaufort West?

What would settle it A death notice or estate inventory listing Modderdrift among his property, or a title deed giving his full names. Either settles it in one line.
Three van Zyl landholdings in this district, and whether they connect priority 1 · LEAD-0057
Are Casper van ZylHe Senior of Modderdrift No. 106 (1833), Lucas Daniel Fromon van Zyl of Klipgat No. 114 (d. by 1911), and the Brandfort van Zyls of S018 one family?

What would settle it A death notice or estate account that puts two of these three men in one descent. Ten named heirs from the 1916 deeds would be the fastest route, because ten names are far easier to match against the tree than one.
Does Tokkie's son-in-law's van Zyl line come down from the Brandfort van Zyls? priority 3 · LEAD-0049
Tokkie's daughter married a van Zyl, born 1954. Does his line come down from Casper van ZylH of Swellendam (1781-1863, PER-001376) - the same van Zyl family that married two Oosthuizen sisters off Middelwater in the 1830s?

What would settle it A parent chain from his FamilySearch profile back to LC3S-V28 (Casper van ZylH, 1781-1863), or a clean break showing a different van Zyl line.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1833 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Modderdrift No. 106 was worked as far as 1833~, with Casper van ZylH (1781-1863) the last owner on record. 193 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.

Elders

FamilySearch profile LC3S-V28