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Source SRC-373

Correspondence with Janet Melville, van der Merwe researcher, November 2012 to August 2013

genealogy (correspondence) · consulted 2026-08-10

Type
genealogy (correspondence)
Repository
Private correspondence, supplied by Her tree is at vandermerwefamilytree.com.
Reference
Email thread, 22 Nov 2012 to 14 Aug 2013
Consulted
2026-08-10

The citation as it was given

HER METHOD, IN HER OWN WORDS, AND IT IS WHY THIS SOURCE RANKS WHERE IT DOES: "Ek kyk self in doopregisters en werk van sterfkennise af." And: "My navorsing is alles baseer op doopregisters en sterfkennise en ek raai oor niks nie; as ek se Francois en daar is 'n = beteken dit is soos hy in die doopregister staan." She works from baptism registers and death notices, guesses at nothing, and marks with an equals sign what stands in the register. 10 ranks a compiled genealogy below a register; this compiler says she is reading the registers, which puts her closer to the paper than most. It is still a report and not the register. THE CENTRAL STATEMENT: "Hy kom voor as FRANCOIS in die Calvinia se doopregister; hy is die seun van Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe en ANNA MARIA VISAGIE." That is PER-000762. AND THE CORRECTION SHE MADE WHEN FRANS PUT THE DATES TO HER. He wrote: "FJW is gebore in 1863 (grafsteen), en Anna Maria is oorlede in 1853. Dus moet iewers 'n fout wees? Schalk se 2e vrou was Elsie Johanna vd Merwe, so moontlik is dit sy ma, maar dan is doopsertifikaat verkeerd?" She replied the same day: "ANNA VISAGIE IS IN 1853 OORLEDE, HY IS VAN DIE 2DE VROU." So the register entry as she read it names a woman who had been dead ten years, and she resolves it in favour of the second wife. Both readings are kept here. LEAD-0152. SHE GAVE THE DESCENT CODE that SRC-263 is built on: Schalk Willem Burger van der Merwe is a1b3c10d2e8f1g1h1 in the de Villiers-Pama numbering. OTHER THINGS IN THE THREAD, recorded so they are not lost: a van der Merwe grave at LOUISVALE near Upington reading Jacobus Frans van der Merwe, b. 30.9.1877, d. 2.12.1917, which Frans photographed in August 2013 and which Janet did not hold - "Ek het hom nie as JF of FJ nie"; a survey beacon named JOHANNA VAN DER MERWE west of Louisvale across the Orange River; and the Calvinia cemetery, which Frans visited and photographed beside the grave of SWB van der Merwe (1833-1904), whom he calls his third great-grandfather. Janet in 2013: "Lyk my Calvinia is al afgeneem volgens die EGGSA website."

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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