Every place in the record

A DISTRICT, NOT A TOWN. [FAMILY] Brandvlei is the district. This record first entered it as a town under Calvinia, which is the compiled tree's framing and not the ground's. No relationship to Calvinia is asserted here in either direction, because none has been established from a source. Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe (PER-000762) died here on 15 May 1956; his burial is recorded at a Brandvlei cemetery [SRC-348], which is what the source says and is left as it stands. His grandson of the same name (PER-000030) was born here in 1924. | [11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. BRANDVLEI IN THE NORTHERN CAPE, not the Brandvlei near Worcester. The documents put it beyond doubt: PER-000762 married there in 1885 and died there in 1956, PER-000030 was born there in 1924, and the burial is in the Brandvlei cemetery whose own coordinate this project holds from eGGSA. The row is typed 'district' because that is what

THE SECOND GROUND OF THIS PROJECT, added: 'lets add the van der merwe farms to this project as an extension'. It is not the Koup and is not folded into it. 9a already says the five written-up farms are two grounds rather than one; this is a third, about 400 km north-west, and it is where the maternal van der Merwe line sat from before 1808 until the 1940s. In 1823 the district was administered as the ADJUNCT DISTRICT OF CLANWILLIAM and the ground lay in VOOR HANTAM [SRC-359]; Calvinia's own congregation was founded in 1847. No cadastral geometry is held for this division, so its parcels are NO-POLYGON.

Where the Swanepoel and Conradie families begin at the Cape - see PAR-000063 Nieuwmunster

NG congregation split from Prince Albert 1864; Traka ward straddles the boundary

Registration division C0830000, EASTERN CAPE. Added 31 Jul 2026 because Haggas No. 145 was filed under Prince Albert and is not in it - which let match_cadastre.py match its farm number against a different farm 145 and pin it 104 km west of where it belongs. The district matters mechanically, not just descriptively: FARM NUMBERS REPEAT ACROSS REGISTRATION DIVISIONS, so a number is only an identifier once the division is fixed. NOTE for anyone extending the cadastre pull: this is Eastern Cape, and data/fetch_cadastre.py talks to the WESTERN Cape Surveyor-General. Adding WILLOWMORE to that fetch returns zero features - the right answer from the wrong service.

Field cornetcies of the Koup, Gamka and Traka. Kouka/Kauka = Buffalo River; Traka = "river of women" (Khoi).

Named on SG diagram 350/1833 as the ward Klaare Stroom sat in - 'the Field Cornetcy of C. Halling Zwarte Berg'. A THIRD ward for this basin beside Traka and M de Beer's, and the only sheet in this project to name it. It bears on LEAD-0066, which asks what a veldkornetskap was and which of these families held one.

Field cornetcies were named for the serving field cornet, so the name changes when the man does - which is why this one has no map. Read from the left-margin column of the BEAUFORT WEST baptism register in 1836/1837 [TO VERIFY], placing the Oosthuizens in C. Hatting's ward. A ward of the Beaufort district, therefore in the country this project is about; before this row existed the entry read as OUTSIDE the district and made the family look like newcomers in 1836, fifteen years after the opgaafrol already had them there.

Field cornetcy of the Beaufort district; Varsche Fontein sat in it by the 1922 diagram, having been in "Gouph No. 3" in 1897.

One of the ten field cornetcies of the Beaufort district. THE RESIDENTIAL UNIT - the opgaafrolle are organised by field cornetcy, so this, not the town, is what tells you where a family lived. Field cornet M. de Beer, 1833-34.

In the Graaff-Reinet district. Where the Swanepoels were until about 1825, before moving to the Koup.

On the Traka river ("river of women", Khoi). Rietkuil and Kouka lay in it. Straddles the Prince Albert / Willowmore boundary.

The field cornetcy both Tygerhoek diagrams name. In 1823 it sat under the veld cornetschap of J.J. van Zyl [SRC-359]; by 1879 the sheet calls it simply the Field Cornetcy of Voor Hantam [SRC-360].

District proclaimed 1818; NG congregation founded 16 MAY 1820. Its area was described as "so groot soos Nederland" - as large as the Netherlands - and was divided into TEN FIELD CORNETCIES, covering what later became Prince Albert, Fraserburg, Willowmore, Aberdeen, Murraysburg and Victoria West. A Beaufort West register entry locates a family to that whole area, nothing tighter. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1818. District proclaimed 1818, NG congregation 16 May 1820 - this row's own note. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

NG congregation 1691, the second-oldest in the colony after Stellenbosch, and the Huguenot congregation of the Berg River valley. Where Johannes Oosthuijsz and Johanna Martens married about 1702 and where their son Jacobus was baptised 22 November 1722 - the westernmost and earliest point on the Oosthuizen trail. The line then runs Drakenstein (1722) -> Tulbagh (1749) -> Swellendam (1783) -> the Olifants River (1809) -> Graaff-Reinet (1809-16) -> Beaufort West (1819) -> the Koup (1821). | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1691. NG congregation 1691, already in this row's own note - the second-oldest in the colony. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

District 1786, NG congregation 1792. Until 1820 the nearest church for the whole Koup - a baptism here says "somewhere in the eastern interior", not "lived in the town". | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1786. District 1786, NG congregation 1792 - this row's own note. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

The loan farm Queeckvalleij, taken by Zacharias and Dina de Beer in 1762. NG gemeente Swartberg founded 24 Nov 1842; first minister ds P.K. Albertyn appointed 1 Aug 1844; village proclaimed 1845 and named for Queen Victoria's consort in 1846. BEFORE 1842 THERE WAS NO TOWN HERE - a record placing anyone at "Prince Albert" before then is a later normalisation, not an address. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1842. THE TOWN IS YOUNGER THAN THE GRANTS. This row records the loan farm Queeckvalleij taken in 1762 and the Zwartberg NG gemeente founded 24 Nov 1842; EVT-000076 dates the congregation and the town to 1842. So on the grant day of 15 April 1841 there was no Prince Albert - there was a farm. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

District 1745. Where the Oosthuizens married in 1783 and 1807, before moving east. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1745. District 1745, already in this row's own note. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

Where the Oosthuizen line married in 1749, and where the Swanepoel and Conradie families begin. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1743~. Land van Waveren; the Oosthuizen line married here in 1749, so the seat existed. [TO VERIFY] the exact founding. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

District 1804. Marriages of the Oosthuizen and Marincowitz lines, 1808 and 1844. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1804. District 1804 - this row's own note. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

NG congregation split from Prince Albert in 1864. The Traka ward straddles the boundary, so the same families appear in both registers. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1864. The NG congregation split from Prince Albert in 1864 - this row's own note. [TO VERIFY] whether the village predates the congregation. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

[11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. WHERE TWO OF THE FOUR GRANDPARENTS MARRIED, in 1946. It is one of the two weddings story S036 turns on; the other is at Williston in 1949, four hundred and fifty kilometres away. Town coordinate; this project does not pin a farm it has not matched, but a named town in a named district is not a guess.

Hantam Karoo. Where the van der Merwe great-grandparents married in 1917 - the maternal side of this history sits in a different Karoo from the Oosthuizens.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

First farm in the valley granted 1732. NO CONGREGATION HERE UNTIL CLANWILLIAM IN 1826 - the valley "formed part of the town Tulbagh" and a Tulbagh predikant rode out once a year to baptise. Anyone living here before 1826 appears in the TULBAGH register, or occasionally Zwartland at Malmesbury. Ockert Almero Oosthuizen the elder (PER-000118) died here about April 1809, and the family property is said still to stand.

The congregation this family baptised at between Tulbagh and Calvinia. Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe (PER-001629) was christened here on 7 April 1833 [SRC-348]. Calvinia's own congregation was founded in 1847, which is why the earlier baptisms are elsewhere. No coordinate yet. | [11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. CLANWILLIAM, where four generations of this line were baptised - 1794, 1814, 1833 and 1835 - and the district Calvinia was a parish inside until later in the century. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1826. The congregation was established here in 1826, which is what took the Olifants River valley off Tulbagh - this row's own note and PLC-000024's. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

The southern mouth of Meiringspoort; Klaarstroom is the northern one. [14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

[11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. THE JOUBERT LINE'S OWN TOWN. Christiaan Wilhelm Johannes Joubert married here in 1910 and his father Dirk Daniel married here in 1866. Two generations, one town. Town coordinate; this project does not pin a farm it has not matched, but a named town in a named district is not a guess.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

laid out 1860 on Oosthuizen land | [31 Jul 2026 SRC-010] THE VILLAGE IS ON THIS FAMILY'S GROUND AND WAS NAMED FOR ONE OF THEM. Rose Willis's Klaarstroom cameo: the loan farm DE CLAAR STROOM 'stretched from the modern farm called Middelwater, at the present-day tarred turn-off to Prince Albert, to VROLIKHEID, 10 km down the gravel road to Willowmore' - that is, from one core farm to the other. After Meiringspoort opened in 1858 a town was surveyed on it, 27 erven were laid out, and the ground was owned by PETRUS OOSTHUIZEN (PER-000505). First erven sold 4 Aug 1860. It was called PETERSBURG, 'named mainly as a tribute to Petrus Oosthuizen'. He was assisted by two friends - GEROME MARINCOWITZ, who 'in time built up the farm on the Klaarstroom side of the Swartberg', which is Gerolm Marincowitz (PER-000020) of Vrolykheid, and a Worcester man named Benecke. TERTIARY SOURCE, [TO VERIFY], but it means the anchor adopted on 31 Jul 2026 is not just geographically central - the village at its centre was laid out by this family on ground running between two of its farms. | *** CORRECTED 31 Jul 2026: the sentence about two friends, Gerome Marincowitz and a Worcester man named Benecke, belongs to PETRUS JOHANNES MEIRING and the finding of the road through the poort - not to Petrus Oosthuizen and the founding of the village. What stands unchanged: De Claar Stroom ran from Middelwater to Vrolikheid; the town was surveyed after Meiringspoort opened in 1858; 27 erven; the ground was Petrus Oosthuizen's; first erven sold 4 Aug 1860; it was called PETERSBURG for him. NEW: he had a BROTHER OCKERT, and the two of them enforced the town's stipulations. The erven were 'dry erven' - sold without riparian rights. *** | [SRC-010, Rose Willis Klaarstroom cameo. TERTIARY, TO VERIFY] More from the cameo: the first farm in the area was granted in 1777, earlier than anything else in this model; the first house in the village was built in 1840, twenty years before the town was planned; the police station dates from 1897 and its cells from 1903; George Wallis built THE FIRST WOOL-WASHING PLANT IN SOUTH AFRICA here in 1874, for Percy Alport of Beaufort West, brother-in-law of John Charles Molteno; Adolph Gustav Bernhardt took it over in 1880 and started the village school in 1890. | [14 Aug 2026] founded_edtf=1860. Laid out 1860 on Oosthuizen land - this row's own note and EVT-000009. EVT-000206 records the 1858/1860 laying-out as Petersburg first. A town is drawn on the grant-day map only from the year this record can date it; where the date is blank the town is not drawn at all, because a guess would put a settlement on the veld before it was there.

[11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. Dirk Daniel Joubert was born here in 1843. Town coordinate; this project does not pin a farm it has not matched, but a named town in a named district is not a guess.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

On the road and the railway through the Koup. [14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits. | [14 Aug 2026, CORRECTED - THE FIRST PIN WAS 35 km WRONG.] It was written from general knowledge on 14 Aug as -32.7667, 21.6000, and The longitude was out by about 0.38 degrees, which put the village on open veld west of where it stands. FIXED AGAINST THIS PROJECT'S OWN DATA rather than from memory a second time: the 2023 valuation roll names farm 55 portion 24 'Telkom Leeu Gamka' and the Surveyor-General puts that 0.1 ha parcel at -32.77502, 21.97864 - a telephone exchange stands in the village it serves. Two neighbouring parcels on the same farm, 55/14 and 55/26 (Bitterwater), sit within 100 m of it. The farm the roll separately calls Leeu Gamka, 7/16, is 20 km north and is NOT the village. | [14 Aug 2026] CONFIRMED BY A SOURCE THAT WAS NOT LOOKING FOR IT. A WinDeed Deeds Office property report on Varsche Fontein No. 27 Portion 0, pulled the same evening for an unrelated reason, describes that farm as '19KM NORTH OF LEEU GAMKA'. Against the corrected position here that measures 19.7 km; against the position this row held that morning it would be 50.8 km. The direction word is loose - the farm is south east of the village, not north - but the distance is the test and it lands within 700 m.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

The Koup's own western town, in the basin this site is about. [14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits. | [14 Aug 2026, CHECKED AND CORRECT.] It stands: the pin is 2.0 km from VAN DER BYLS KRAAL, farm 265 of the Beaufort West division, which is the farm the village was laid out on. That is corroboration from the cadastre rather than from memory.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

[11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. Sibella Aletta Sophia Mostert's birthplace, from her own 1942 sterfkennis. She was baptised at Calvinia later the same year. Town coordinate; this project does not pin a farm it has not matched, but a named town in a named district is not a guess.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

Birthplace of Petrus Gideon van Rensburg (1891). With Bokvlakte and Williston, this fixes the maternal line in the northern Karoo before it moved south.

[11 Aug 2026] COORDINATE ADDED so the place draws on the map. Frans, looking at the Calvinia view: "i dont see brandvlei on the map ... considering the 4 ancestry stories, are key ZA places shown?" They were not. Of the places story S036 turns on, Brandvlei and Clanwilliam were rows with no coordinate and six more were not rows at all, so eight of the places the four lines are told through could not be drawn. Hubertus Bruijn and Sibella Aletta Sophia Mostert married here, per her 1942 sterfkennis, which gives "plek van laaste huwelik: VAN RHYNSDORP". It is the only event this project holds in that district. Town coordinate; this project does not pin a farm it has not matched, but a named town in a named district is not a guess.

[14 Aug 2026] Added so the map has the towns that ring this ground: "can we add brandvlei, merweville, loxton and other towns to that layer?" COORDINATES ARE APPROXIMATE SETTLEMENT CENTRES FOR DISPLAY ONLY and are not evidence about anybody - the same standing rule the other town rows carry. Nothing in this project is placed BY one of these; they are there so a reader can see where the Koup sits.

Frans's maternal grandparents married here in 1949; his grandmother was born here in 1928.

The northern neighbour of Trakas Kuilen Portion 1, named on SG 1283/1955 as both a Remainder and an 'Amos Poortje A'. No parcel row here: this project holds no sheet for it.

[FAMILY] [FAMILY] The farm Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe (PER-000030) came from - "frans came from farm bieses in cavinia".. Spelled here as BIESIES, the ordinary Afrikaans form; recorded as given otherwise. REFINES rather than contradicts the existing note, which had only 'Born Brandvlei': Brandvlei lies in the Calvinia district, so the town was the registration point and Biesies is the ground. NO COORDINATES - there are several farms of this name in the Hantam and a wrong pin is worse than none. [TO VERIFY] against the Surveyor-General's Calvinia farm index. Origin context for the maternal line and BOUNDED at that under 9a: this is the head of the trail, not a second project. | [10 Aug 2026, SRC-374] IT IS IN THE WILLISTON DISTRICT, NOT CALVINIA, and that is why no cadastre search has ever found it. Janet Melville's report describes a brother of PER-000030 as 'boer op Biesies, 'n plaas in WILLISTON DISTRIK OP DIE GRENS VAN BOESMANLAND'. Williston is a magisterial district and NOT a registration division: the national cadastre holds twenty-two Northern Cape divisions and Williston is not among them, because Williston town sits inside the CALVINIA division. AND THE NAME IS IN NO CADASTRE ANYWHERE. A nationwide search returns only Biesiesbult in Brandfort and Biesies Pol in Montagu, neither of them this. So Biesies is a farm the family names and the register does not, which is 5's second rule exactly - the same standing as Drooge Kloof and Vischat. It is located by asking the family, and Frans is the source. [FAMILY] | [10 Aug 2026, SRC-375] INDEPENDENTLY ATTESTED AT LAST. The IEC's Northern Cape voting station list for 20 April 2011 carries a permanent station called BIESIES FARM at WILLISTON, in NC066 Karoo Hoogland, voting district 66020059. The place has been held here on family knowledge alone since 31 July and no cadastre carries the name. This is a government record using it, which is the standing a werf name can get when the register will not name it. Still no coordinate, and none is guessed. | [10 Aug 2026, SRC-376] A THIRD ATTESTATION, from a source with no interest in this family at all. John Irish's 1996 survey of Karoo Lepismatidae lists collecting locality 384 as BIESIES. Its neighbours in the list are Williston country - 382 Daskop, which the paper puts in the WILLISTON DISTRICT at 30 deg 42' S 21 deg 05' E, and 391 and 392 which are Williston itself. Still no coordinate for Biesies and still none guessed. Irish's own locality gazetteer, printed elsewhere in that volume, would give one: LEAD-0156. | [10 Aug 2026] NARROWED TO TWO CANDIDATES, BOTH IN KAROO HOOGLAND. The CSG Property Viewer's place search recognises 'Biesies, Namakwa District Municipality', and the gazetteer behind it returns FOUR: a settlement and a farm in NAMA KHOI, far north-west near Springbok, and TWO FARMS IN KAROO HOOGLAND, which is the municipality that holds Williston. The Karoo Hoogland pair are 21.10474 E / 30.86073 S and 21.10000 E / 31.61667 S, about 85 km apart. THE NORTHERN ONE IS CORROBORATED AND THE SOUTHERN ONE IS NOT. John Irish's 1996 survey [SRC-376] puts his locality 382, DASKOP, in the Williston district at 30 deg 42' S 21 deg 05' E - 18 KM FROM THE NORTHERN CANDIDATE - and his Biesies is locality 384, two entries later in the same run. It also sits north-east of Williston, which is the direction of BOESMANLAND, and Janet Melville's report describes Biesies as 'n plaas in Williston distrik OP DIE GRENS VAN BOESMANLAND [SRC-374]. The southern candidate lies south-east of Williston, away from Bushmanland. NO PIN IS WRITTEN. Two candidates 85 km apart is not a resolved place, and 5 says a wrong pin is worse than a missing one. One sentence from Frans, or Irish's own numbered gazetteer (LEAD-0156), settles it. NOTE ALSO that no farm is REGISTERED as Biesies anywhere in South Africa: the CSG's own property index, searched on BIES across every division, returns Biesiewater, Biesiebult, Biesjeskuil and eighty more, and no Biesies. The gazetteer knows the place; the deeds office does not. That is the whole of 5's second rule in one line. | [13 Aug 2026] COORDINATE WRITTEN on the family decision: [FAMILY]; Irish gazetteer entry 384 is the outside corroboration still to fetch. LEAD-0156. | *** [14 Aug 2026, FRANS - THE PIN COMES OFF.] *** "ok, so that just means we dont know where the biesies farm was or is... lets not add landmarks we dont know." He is reversing his own 13 Aug decision, and reversing it the right way: that decision picked the northern of two candidates 85 km apart on the reasoning that the farm lies north-east of Williston towards Boesmanland, which is an argument about DIRECTION and not a location. 5 fails closed for exactly this - an unresolved place gets no map pin, because a wrong pin is worse than a missing one and a map makes a claim look authoritative. THE FARM STAYS, the coordinate goes. What is known is unchanged and is a good deal: three independent records name it, in the Williston district, on the edge of Boesmanland. Where it stands is not among them. LEAD-0156.

The Boland end of this line. Schalk Willem van der Merwe (PER-001635) was born here on 1 February 1794, and his 1866 death notice writes it 'Elsenbosch 24 Rivieren (Dist. Piketberg)' [SRC-346]. Not in the Karoo and not in scope to be grown: it is the head of the trail, 9a. No coordinate yet.

Where Izaak Johannes van der Merwe (PER-001658) died on 11 May 1839. The notice writes it 'Inkelde wilgeboom in deze wijk, Hantam' [SRC-347]; the reading Enkelde is likely and is not certain. No coordinate yet. | [10 Aug 2026, SRC-359] THE READING IS CONFIRMED. This place was entered yesterday off a death notice that writes 'Inkelde wilgeboom', with Enkelde marked as probable and not certain. The 1823 Tygerhoek diagram writes it out: a strong fountain at the south-east corner 'gem. drinking der plaatsen Tygerhoek en ENKELDE WILGEBOOM'. The two places adjoin and SHARE THEIR WATER, which is why Izaak Johannes van der Merwe (PER-001658) could be born on the one about 1808 and die on the other in 1839. | [10 Aug 2026] Now has a cadastral parcel: PAR-000190, Enkelde Wilgenboom No. 768.

Where Schalk Willem van der Merwe (PER-001635) died on 29 May 1866, 'ter plaats Lokenburg' [SRC-346]. No coordinate yet. | [10 Aug 2026] Now has a cadastral parcel: PAR-000189, Lokenburg No. 815.

Where Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe (PER-000762) was born on 24 March 1863 [SRC-348]. NOT THE MATJIESFONTEIN ON THE MAIN LINE. That one is in the Laingsburg district, 300 km away, and is the exact shape of namesake error 5 warns about. FamilySearch writes this one 'Matjiesfontein, Calvinia'. No coordinate yet. | [10 Aug 2026, SRC-370] IT IS FARM No. 712 AND THE CADASTRE SPELLS IT WITHOUT THE I: MATJESFONTEIN. An earlier search of this project looked for Matjiesfontein and reported that the Northern Cape held no such farm. It held it under the other spelling all along. Now pinned as PAR-000195, 4,450.6 ha at 20.4378 / -31.5247. The 1885 diagram calls it 'MATJES FONTEIN AND ZWARTLANDS LEEGTE'. | [10 Aug 2026] THE PIN IS WITHDRAWN. [FAMILY] There is another matjiesfontein in fraserburg district - closer to where kola, frans. dad, was burried and maybe where biesies is.' He is right and the cadastre is worse than he says: the NORTHERN CAPE HOLDS AT LEAST TWELVE FARMS OF THIS NAME - Fraserburg 408, 409, 410, 411 and 412; Calvinia 712, 791, 679, 601, 420, 415 and 1022; Victoria West 220. Earlier today this place was tied to Calvinia No. 712 on the strength of the name and the district alone, which is precisely what 9 forbids. The coordinate is removed and no parcel is claimed. What survives is the record's own words: Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe (PER-000762) was born on a place called Matjiesfontein in the Calvinia district on 24 March 1863. WHICH ONE IS OPEN - LEAD-0151. | [11 Aug 2026, SRC-379] SPELLING: the 1885 Brandvlei marriage register writes MATJESFONTEIN, one J, as the bridegroom's woonplaats. The 1956 death notice writes MATJIESFONTEIN. Both are this place; the model's form is the longer one. Spelling drift is evidence, not noise, so it is recorded here rather than in the person_places rows.

ONE PLACE UNDER THREE SPELLINGS, and FamilySearch uses Oumuur on one page and 'Farm Oude Muur' on another, which is how this record briefly carried it as two. The spellings are kept here and the place is one, the same split 5a already uses for people and for raw_name on parcels. The seat of this line for at least seventy-one years: Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe (PER-001629) was born here 23 February 1833 and died here 17 January 1904, and his son Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus (PER-000762) is recorded resident on it in 1897. No coordinate yet. | [10 Aug 2026] THERE ARE TWO OUDE MUURS AND THEY ARE 400 KM APART. This one is the van der Merwe seat in the CALVINIA division. The other is PAR-000029 'Oude Muure', FARM 121 IN THE PRINCE ALBERT DIVISION, a MARINCOWITZ farm - Tokkie's, eastern neighbour of Kopjes Kraal - and it has been in this model since 29 July. The district is back in the name because of it. It was stripped this morning when the Oumuur and Oude Muur spellings were merged into one place, which was right about the spellings and left the name colliding with a real farm in our own district. That is the TWO MIDDELWATERS trap of 9, and it would have sent a cadastre match 400 km wrong: a search on 'Oude Muur' returns farm 121 in Prince Albert, which is a real polygon and the wrong ground. Parent moved from PLC-000010 (Calvinia the town) to PLC-000060 (the division). | [10 Aug 2026] IT IS CALVINIA FARM No. 619, and the cadastre confirms Frans's own word for it. 'OUDEMUUR No. 619', 1,595.1 ha, at 19.289 / -31.334, about 40 km west of Tygerhoek No. 689. There is also OUDE MUUR EXTENSION No. 610 beside it, 187.1 ha. Pulled from the national CSG portal, which is the only source that holds the Northern Cape. THERE ARE NOW THREE OUDE MUURS AND ONLY ONE IS THIS ONE: Calvinia 619 here, PRINCE ALBERT 121 (PAR-000029, the Marincowitz farm, Tokkie's), and SUTHERLAND 160. Three districts, one name. Coordinate recorded so the place can be found; no parcel row is created, because Frans is choosing which family farms to add. | [10 Aug 2026] Now has a cadastral parcel: PAR-000188, Oude Muur No. 619. | [10 Aug 2026, SRC-367] ALSO CALLED SLAAI ACKER. The 1874 diagram of the adjoining extension bounds itself 'West and North West by Slaai Acker or Oude Muur'. Two names for one farm in one sentence, on a Surveyor-General sheet.

[7 Aug 2026, from the Leeukraal No. 24 consolidation diagrams] Its REMAINDER became part of the consolidated Leeukraal No. 24 in 1948, on diagram 1044/1873. Not otherwise in this project.

ONE PLACE, UNDER TWO ADMINISTRATIVE LABELS, and The 1839 death notice puts it 'in deze wijk, Hantam' [SRC-347]; FamilySearch files the 1813 birth on it under Calvinia [SRC-348]. The ward is the older name and the district the later one, and the ground did not move. Carel Aaron van der Merwe's household was here by 1808: his son Izaak Johannes was born on it about May 1808, and his grandson Jacobus Adriaan (PER-001631) on 30 October 1813. No coordinate: not matched to a cadastral polygon, and a wrong pin is worse than none, 5. | [10 Aug 2026] TYGERHOEK NOW HAS ITS OWN DIAGRAMS AND ITS OWN PARCEL ROWS, PAR-000186 and PAR-000187. It is farm No. 689 in the Calvinia division, and the adjoining Tyger Hoek Extension is No. 688.

SG diagram 522/1839 is headed 'The Farm Waterfall' with 'Now known as the farm Bokfontein' added later in another hand. A waterfall is drawn on the figure. The farm was named for the thing on it and then renamed for a spring.

[7 Aug 2026, from the Leeukraal No. 24 consolidation diagrams] The Remainder of Wit Poortje neighbours Leeukraal No. 24 (L.G. 8870/47). Not otherwise in this project.

[7 Aug 2026, from SG diagrams for Doorn Kraal No. 116] Drawn inside Doorn Kraal Portion 3 on SG diagram 2103/1903, with two houses, a dam and the main road beside it. A WERF NAME, not a cadastral one - 5's second rule: the cadastre records title, not what people call the ground they live on. NO COORDINATE: it is placed on a diagram and that diagram is not georeferenced here.

[14 Aug 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by Frans, EXPLICITLY AS A CORRECTION: "Bloemendal House - correction to before - this was tokkie's place at bloemendal." THIS IS THE WERF, NOT THE FARM. 33°16'28.61"S 22°23'19.71"E. Point-in-polygon puts it inside PAR-000093, BLOEMENDAAL No. 165. | WHAT IT CORRECTS, AND WHY IT MATTERS MORE THAN A PIN MOVING 1.22 km. The point Frans gave on 13 August, -33.273998 / 22.375727, fell inside a DIFFERENT FARM - Bloemendal A No. 166 - and that point is what settled LEAD-0187, moved OWN-000105 and had this project write "the farm Tokkie held" onto farm 166's page. The corrected point moves the holding to farm 165. Three farms carry this name inside 2 km and the werwe are close enough that a kilometre decides which farm a house stands on. | The old point sits 220 m from the eGGSA Bloemendal 166 burial ground (CEM-018), which is probably why it was reached for; this one is 1.44 km from it.

[31 Jul 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by Frans. This is the WERF, not the farm. 33°15'16.06"S 22°32'56.38"E. Inside PAR-000001 Middelwater and, more particularly, inside PAR-000079 - Middelwater PORTION 3, the 4,251 ha piece that no document we hold mentions at all. A homestead named Droge Kloof stands on the silent portion. That does not prove the portion was called Droge Kloof, but it is the obvious name to ask the deeds office for. See LEAD-0023.

[14 Aug 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by [FAMILY] This is the Kopjes Kraal house. THIS IS THE WERF, NOT THE FARM. 33°12'53.23"N 22°42'40.45"E. Point-in-polygon against the cadastre puts it inside PAR-000026 Kopjes Kraal No. 123 and, more particularly, inside PAR-000028 - the REMAINING EXTENT, 1.1 km from that parcel's centroid. It is NOT on Kromrivier, the farm's Portion 1, which is 3.3 km north. So the opstal stayed with the remainder when Kromrivier was cut off, which is the same pattern the Varschefontein werf shows (PLC-000031). The sixth werf recorded here and the first outside the farms this project had already written up. | THE GRAVEYARD IS 21 METRES FROM THE HOUSE. CEM-004, the eGGSA-recorded Kopjes Kraal farm cemetery, is at -33.214633 / 22.711100 - twenty-one metres from this point, which is two independent sources landing on the same werf: family memory and a photographer's GPS. Its only named stone is GEROLM SAMUEL MARINCOWITZ, 1870-1941 (PER-000056, GRV-0039), with several unmarked graves beside him. | AND HE IS THE GRANTEE'S GRANDSON. Kopjes Kraal was granted on 17 May 1871 'ten gunste van GEROLUM MARINCOWITZ' - PER-000020, 1805-1890 - whose son Nicolaas James (1845-1896) was the father of the man in the ground here. Nicolaas's other son Gert Jan Oosthuizen Marincowitz took Kromrivier, this farm's Portion 1, in 1934. Three generations, one farm, and a first son named for his father's father exactly as the vernoemingspatroon predicts.

[31 Jul 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by Frans. This is the WERF, not the farm. 33°11'42.74"S 22°39'52.31"E. Inside PAR-000009 Rondabel. This is the huis of the childhood holidays with Tokkie Marincowitz, and the two unidentified graves of GRV-0021/0022 are remembered as being near it - so this point is the anchor for LEAD-0011. Note the spelling Frans uses for the werf, RondaWEL, against the cadastre's RondaBEL for the farm; recorded, not normalised.

[31 Jul 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by Frans. This is the WERF, not the farm. 32°56'44.16"S 22°06'39.50"E. Falls inside PAR-000002 Varsche Fontein and PAR-000019, its Remainder - so the opstal stayed on the remainder through the 1925 break-up rather than going with one of the portions.

[31 Jul 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by Frans. This is the WERF, not the farm. 33°13'15.19"S 22°37'05.06"E. RESOLVES LEAD-0018: inside PAR-000009 Rondabel, 5.2 km WSW of the Rondawel werf - so Rondabel No. 124 carries two homesteads, and the '124/142' in the old farm_no cell was pointing at 124. Not Frans Kraal. Where Frans's grandfather Hendrik Lodewyk Malherbe Oosthuizen farmed until 1979 and where his father CJJ grew up. The NAME is still open - Vischgat/Visgat, 'fish pool', remains the likelier spelling and no document has yet been seen using any of them. [TO VERIFY]

[31 Jul 2026] Homestead coordinate supplied by Frans. This is the WERF, not the farm. 32°57'18.59"S 22°16'51.96"E. Falls inside PAR-000005 Spreeuw Fontein & Toornits Kraal and PAR-000020, its Portion 1. Vredendal is where Frans's mother grew up (content/farms/F08), and this is the first time the model can point at it.

[7 Aug 2026, from SG diagrams for Doorn Kraal No. 116] The north-eastern boundary of Doorn Kraal Portion 3 runs down the middle of it (SG diagram 2103/1903), and the diagram notes that the permanent water in the river at beacon J is common to all adjoining owners - a water right written onto a survey sheet.

Drawn and named through De Riet Kuyl on SG diagram 361/1833. The Kouka is the river Rietkuil No. 119 sits on - the farm's own row already calls it 'Rietkuil No. 119 (Kouka)' - and this is the 1833 sheet that names it.

[7 Aug 2026, from the Leeukraal No. 24 consolidation diagrams] The consolidated Leeukraal's figure runs down the middle of it (L.G. 8870/47, 1947). The same Traka that names the field cornetcy on the Doorn Kraal diagrams.

[7 Aug 2026, from SG diagrams for Doorn Kraal No. 116] A watercourse crossing Doorn Kraal Portion 1 on diagram 1154/1863, written there as 'Viermuisgats'.

[7 Aug 2026, from the Leeukraal No. 24 consolidation diagrams] Upper Diep Kloof and Lower Diepkloof are both marked on the north-west of Leeukraal No. 24 (L.G. 8870/47).

A 4 ft concrete trigonometrical beacon at point L on SG 1283/1955, on the eastern boundary of Portion 1 of Trakas Kuilen. Named on the diagram, which is where this project takes its place names from.

[7 Aug 2026, from the Leeukraal No. 24 consolidation diagrams] The eastern neighbour of Leeukraal No. 24 on L.G. 8870/47 and 8871/47.

[7 Aug 2026, from SG diagrams for Doorn Kraal No. 116] The western neighbour of Doorn Kraal Portion 3, named on diagram 2103/1903 as 'the place Zout Water'. Not in this project's parcels.

The Land van Schouwen reached Batavia 24 December 1685 [SRC-096]. Whether he went on with her or was set down at the Cape in October is not recorded [TO VERIFY].

The Netherlands roadstead where the outward fleets made up. He sailed from here on 13 May 1685 [SRC-096].

THE COMPETING ORIGIN, and on the evidence the better-supported one. WERDEN is on the Ruhr, today a district of Essen; WERL is in the Kreis Soest, North Rhine-Westphalia, about 70km east. Reported readings: the VOC SOLDIJBOEK (the pay ledger behind the index) gives Werden; Hoge and Zoellner both list the stamvader as a German from Werden [SRC-099]; and HIS OWN WILL OF 1722 is reported to say WEERL [SRC-100]. Woerden / Werden / Weerl / Weert / Wierden are five spellings of two or three real places, and a Dutch clerk hearing a German say his home town is exactly how that happens. NOT RESOLVED [TO VERIFY] - reading CJ 2601 and the soldijboek folio settles it.

What the VOC OPVARENDEN INDEX gives as the progenitor's herkomst [SRC-095]. A small city between Utrecht and Leiden. Contested - see PLC-000028.