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Source SRC-082

Baptism, 16 June 1817: Jan Adriaan, child of Ockert Almero Oosthuijzen and Adriana Cicilia Venter

church register · an original record · consulted 2026-07-29

Type
church register
Repository
FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994"
Reference
index entry ark 1:1:6VBS-163C; register pages 198-199, entries of June 1817; congregation GRAAFF-REINET, confirmed 20 Aug 2026 by the register's own index (see notes) | *** THE REGISTER IMAGE ITSELF, 20 Aug 2026: FamilySearch film #008147799, ITEM 2, 'Graaff-Reinet. Baptism Registers 1815-1822', IMAGE 130 of 275. The page number 199 is written in the top right corner of the leaf. ***
Consulted
2026-07-29

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The citation as it was given

FULL CITATION supplied by [FAMILY] South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994., FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:6VBS-163C : Wed Mar 18 11:07:45 UTC 2026), Entry for Jan Adriaan Oosthuysen and Adriana Cicilia Venter, 16 June 1817. The page reads: "Den 16 Juny 1817 gedoopt / t kind JAN ADRIAAN geb: d 20 November 1816 / ouders Ockert Almero Oosthuijzen en Adriana Cicilia Venter / getuigen Gerrit Adriaan Oosthuijzen en Petronella Schoonman, Adriaan van Deventer en Maria Sophia Venter." SAME COLLECTION AS SRC-076, the 1786 baptism - so both are Cape DRC registers held at the Cape Town Archives, and neither citation names the CONGREGATION. For this one the page settles it on internal evidence: the surname profile across pages 198-199 is a Graaff-Reinet one (Engelbregt, Bezuidenhout, Botma, Potgieter, Pretorius, Naude, Els, Labuschagne, de Klerk, de Wet, Erasmus, Du Toit, van Rooyen, van Vuuren, Marais), one entry gives a birth "op Graaffreinet", and Pottas independently places this baptism at Graaff-Reinet. A fourth spelling of the family name appears here: OOSTHUYSEN in the index, OOSTHUIJZEN on the page. | *** [20 Aug 2026] THE CONGREGATION IS CONFIRMED AND THE [TO VERIFY] IS DISCHARGED. *** BAPTISM RECORD INDEXES 1811-1822', FamilySearch film #008120994, item 3, image 82 of 146. It is an alphabetical list of the children's given names with a date and a page, and it carries 'JAN ADRIAAN · 20.11.1816 · 199'. | This row had settled the congregation on INTERNAL evidence only - the surname profile across pages 198-199, one entry giving a birth 'op Graaffreinet', and Pottas. That was sound but circumstantial. THE INDEX VOLUME IS TITLED GRAAFF-REINET ON ITS FACE, which is external and explicit, and it points at the same page this row already cites. | HOW THE INDEX WORKS, worth recording for the next lookup: THE DATE IN THE INDEX IS THE BIRTH DATE AND THE NUMBER IS THE PAGE WHERE THE BAPTISM IS ENTERED. Ours reads 20.11.1816 - the birth - against page 199, where the entry of 16 June 1817 sits. Neighbouring entries behave the same way: 'Jacobus Nicolaas 10.11.1816 · 161' and 'Hester Susanna 4.7.1816 · 161' share a page, being baptised together though born four months apart, while ours ten days later than the first sits thirty-eight pages on. SO THE INDEX CANNOT BE READ AS A BAPTISM DATE, and a page shared by two children is evidence they were brought to the font on one day. | *** [20 Aug 2026] THE PAGE HAS NOW BEEN SEEN, NOT ONLY INDEXED - AND THIS ROW'S TRANSCRIPTION IS CONFIRMED WORD FOR WORD. *** The entry reads exactly as transcribed above: 'Den 16 Juny 1817 Gedoopt | 't kend JAN ADRIAAN geb: d 20 November 1816 | ouders OCKERT ALMERO OOSTHUIJZEN & ADRIANA CICILIA VENTER | getuigen GERRIT ADRIAAN OOSTHUIJZEN & PETRONELLA SCHOONMAN, ADRIAAN VAN DEVENTER & MARIA SOPHIA VENTER'. | 5a NOTE 1 SATISFIED AT LAST: this row cited an INDEX ark (1:1:6VBS-163C) and nothing else. It now carries the image as well, which is what that note asks for whenever both exist. Three separate films are now in play on this one baptism - the index at 008120994 item 3, the register at 008147799 item 2, and the ark. | *** 'JAN ERASMUS' ON THE RIGHT-HAND END OF THE BIRTH LINE - FRANS'S READING IS THAT IT MAY BE THE PASTOR: 'i see his name with others too'. *** That recurrence is the right test and it is his direct observation of the film, not an inference. IF THE SAME NAME STANDS AGAINST ENTRIES OF DIFFERENT DATES IT IS A ROLE - an officiant, or a column the register keeps - AND IF IT ONLY EVER APPEARS AGAINST 16 JUNE 1817 IT IS SOMEBODY PRESENT THAT DAY. | ONE THING CUTS AGAINST IT AND BELONGS IN THE SAME NOTE: ERASMUS IS ONE OF THE SURNAMES THIS ROW ALREADY RECORDS as characteristic of pages 198-199, alongside Engelbregt, Bezuidenhout, Botma, Potgieter, Pretorius, Naude, Els, Labuschagne, de Klerk, de Wet, Du Toit, van Rooyen, van Vuuren and Marais. So 'Jan Erasmus' could as easily be a CHILD of an Erasmus family, in a second column of entries, as an officiating minister. | THE MINISTRY DOES NOT SETTLE IT EITHER WAY ON a quick check: Rev. Kicherer was at Graaff-Reinet in 1812, the parsonage housed THREE ministers before Rev. Andrew Murray Sr was inducted in 1822, and none of the three surfaced under the name Erasmus. That is a secondary-source check and not an archival one. [TO VERIFY] | WHAT WOULD SETTLE IT, and it is one glance at the film Frans already has open: read the TOP OF THE PAGE for a column heading, and check whether the name changes between entries of different dates. A heading or a change settles it in either direction. Nothing is built on it meanwhile and it stays out of the transcription. | *** AND THE WITNESS PETRONELLA SCHOONMAN IS PROBABLY GERRIT ADRIAAN'S OWN WIFE, HELD IN THIS MODEL AS A SECOND PERSON. *** PER-000277 'Petronella Schoonman' was created from this baptism; PER-001270 'Petronella Catharina Schoeman' is married to PER-000145 in UNI-000091. Same given name, and Schoonman and Schoeman are the same surname written two ways. The four witnesses stand in two couples, one pair from each side, which is the conventional pattern and which makes the wife the expected partner for the uncle. NOT MERGED - see the note on PER-000277.

Kept verbatim. This project contradicts published genealogies and corrects a family's own oral tradition, so every claim has to be checkable by someone who was not in the room.

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