Roelof du Plessis (Remhoogte)

active 1901 · du Plessis line

Names

Given: Roelof
Surname: du Plessis

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.

Stories

subject The war reaches the Koup

What we don't know

No birth date is recorded.
No death date is recorded.
Neither parent is recorded, so this person is not attached to the tree above them.
No dated record ties this person to a specific piece of ground.
Nothing dated is recorded about them at all, they are here because another record names them.

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

Research notes

NAMED 7 Sep 2026, and he had been 'R. du Plessis of Remhoogte' until then. SRC-172, Helena MarincowitzM, *Prince Albert and the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902)*, Fransie Pienaar Museum, 1999, p.34, prints his daughter's own words: 'Scheepers' commando came from Zeekoegat and asked my father (Roelof du PlessisH) the way to Prince Albert.' That closes LEAD-0336 on the father; the daughter is PER-002051. HE IS THE MAN WHO CARRIED JOHANNES KLEU IN. His daughter, ten years old at the time and 85 when she told it (SRC-632): 'My father carried the sorely wounded Kleu through the back door into the house and laid him in the room where he died... Father took the body, wrapped in a blanket, and buried it quietly during the night. After the war he sent the waistcoat with its bullet hole to Kleu's parents at Aberdeen.' Everything this project knows about the Remhoogte grave descends from what this household did and remembered. HE IS NOT YET TIED TO A TITLE. He was living on Remhoogte in February 1901; no deed, transfer or valuation roll here names the holder of Reim Hoogte 167 in that year, so 'of Remhoogte' is a residence and not an ownership claim. [TO VERIFY] HOW HE RELATES TO THE du PLESSIS GRAVES AT CEM-025 IS OPEN. This project holds Johannes Gijsbertus du Plessis 1826-1913 (PER-001879) buried at the Remhoogte farm cemetery and his son Jacobus Johannes Petrus 1869-1941 (PER-000501). A Roelof fits that family as a son or a nephew and nothing here demonstrates it. 9: never match on a name alone. LEAD-0336. A SECOND du PLESSIS OF REMHOOGTE IS NAMED IN THE SAME BOOK AND IS A DIFFERENT PROBLEM. p.7, from the Oudtshoorn Courant of 28 February 1901: 'Jacobus Johannes du Plessis of the farm Remhoogte in the Prince Albert district was arrested for using seditious language to the Khakis. After giving evidence he was released on bail of GBP100.' Three weeks after Kleu died in his neighbour's or his brother's house. Whether that is PER-000501 is unsettled and must not be assumed from the name. [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

Who asked the Kleu family at Aberdeen in 1948, and who answered? priority P1 · LEAD-0335
Rose Willis: 'Years later, in 1948, Johannes KleuM's family in Aberdeen were asked if they wanted his remains to be moved to a more suitable graveyard. They refused, saying that he should be allowed to rest in peace.' WHO WAS ASKED, AND BY WHOM? A named correspondent in 1948 identifies the family this project cannot reach through genealogy.

What would settle it Any 1948 letter, form or minute naming the Kleu next of kin at Aberdeen. One name and one address closes both this lead and LEAD-0332.
Identify R du Plessis of Remhoogte and his daughter Miemie priority P2 · LEAD-0336
Which du Plessis owned Reim Hoogte 167 in February 1901, and who was the ten-year-old Miemie whose memory carries the whole story? Neither is identified and both are one degree from the only war grave in this district.

What would settle it A transfer or a valuation roll naming the holder of Reim Hoogte 167 in 1901.