Elsje Johanna van der Merwe (1887-1938)
28 March 1887 – 1938
Names
- Baptismal name
- Elsje Johanna
- Given
- Elsje Johanna
- Surname
- van der Merwe
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
- Mother
- Christina Elisabeth Nel
- Brothers and sisters
A life in the record
- 28 March 1887 born Born
- 22 May 1887 occasion Baptism at Calvinia
- 1938 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.
- stood for them
Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe baptism · 22 May 1887 · paternal grandfather
stood at 1 other occasion
- stood for them Maria Margaretha Visagie baptism · 22 May 1887
- stood for them Jacobus Johannes Gideon Nel baptism · 22 May 1887
- stood for them Anna Jacoba van Wyk baptism · 22 May 1887
Stories
- mentioned The van der Merwes of the Hantam
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
- No dated record ties this person to a specific piece of ground.
- 2 other people in this model carry the same name. Never match on a name alone.
A sourced gap beats an unsourced fill. These are the open questions on this person, stated rather than papered over.
Sources
- Baptism 22 May 1887, entry 407: Elsje Johanna, born 28 March 1887, child of Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe and Christina Elizabeth Nel[TO VERIFY] Dutch Reformed Church doop-register, pages 451-452, division of Calvinia.Pages 451 and 452, entry 407, 22 May 1887. Supplied as a photograph of the register opening in conversation on 11 Aug 2026. [TO VERIFY] the collection, film, DGS and image number: none is visible on the photograph and per 5a-ii the reading and the citation are two separate claims. The transcription below is read off the image and is not in doubt.
Research notes
[11 Aug 2026, SRC-380] BORN 28 MARCH 1887 and baptised on 22 May 1887, entry 407, daughter of Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der MerweL and Christina Elizabeth Nel. A child of this marriage that the model did not hold: the compiled tree gives only her brother Jacobus Johannes Gideon, born the following year. SHE IS NAMED FOR HER FATHER'S MOTHER, Elsje Johanna van der MerweL (PER-001630), who had died five years before she was born. Her witnesses were her paternal grandfather Schalk Willem Burger van der MerweM, Maria Margaretha Visagie, Jacobus Johannes Gideon NelM and Anna Jacoba van WykM. Nothing else is known of her: no death, no marriage, no later mention anywhere in this record. Her mother died in 1895, when she was eight.
[11 Aug 2026, SRC-412] DEATH YEAR AND FAMILYSEARCH ID: 1938, G7KF-3DP. She was eight when her mother died and lived to fifty-one.
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.
Elders
FamilySearch profile G7KF-3DP