Maria Elisabeth Louw

? – 2 August 1823

Names

Given: Maria Elisabeth
Surname: Louw

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.

A life in the record

17 February 1820 land Held it, Lokenburg No. 815
2 August 1823 died Died

Ground they are on record on

Lokenburg No. 815 held it · 17 February 1820

Stories

mentioned The van der Merwes of the Hantam

What we don't know

No birth date is recorded.
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.

Research notes

[10 Aug 2026, SRC-365/SRC-366] HELD LOKENBURG IN ERFPACHT IN 1820, and an interest in the neighbouring leeningsplaats DE MENSIESKRAAL jointly with Pieter van Zijl. The diagrams name her only as the widow of Jacobus Adriaan Louw - 'de Wede. Jacobus Adn. Louw' on the typed copy, 'Mevrouw Jacs. A. Louw' on the manuscript - and give her no name of her own. Recorded as the record has it, 5a. Added under the 6 amendment for people related to the land. SHE IS THE SECOND WIDOW TO HOLD A VAN DER MERWE FARM: the widow of William Petrus Burger held Tygerhoek in 1823 (PER-001768). Two farms, two widows, and both surnames run in this line - Schalk Willem van der MerweL married ANNA JACOBA LOUW and died on Lokenburg in 1866, and his grandson was christened Schalk Willem BURGER van der Merwe. Neither connection is established. [TO VERIFY] LEAD-0149.

[10 Aug 2026, SRC-368] SHE HAS HER OWN NAME NOW: MARIA ELISABETH LOUW. Her estate inventory, MOOC8/75.66, names her in full and records that she died at LOKENBURG on 2 August 1823, three years after the farm was measured for her. The row was created this morning as 'Wed. Jacobus Adriaan Louw' because that is all the diagram gave; the inventory supplies what the diagram withheld.

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.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1820 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Lokenburg No. 815 was worked as far as 1820-02-17, with Maria Elisabeth LouwH the last owner on record. 206 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.
“Wid. Johs Louw J.G. Son (government ground requested for)” held ground next door and we have no tenure for them third order · B4 unheld-owner
A boundary description for Matjesfontein No. 601 names Wid. Johs Louw J.G. Son (government ground requested for), a surveyor stating on the record that this person held the adjoining ground. We do hold Louw tenure elsewhere, but none on this boundary and none at this date.

What would settle it The diagram's own date fixes the window. The quitrent or erfpacht register for that year names the holder of the adjoining place, and an estate inventory will name the farm outright.

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.