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Source SRC-392

Trudie's account of the van Rensburg household at Williston, written November 1987

family memoir (typescript) · consulted 2026-08-11

Type
family memoir (typescript)
Repository
Family typescript, pages numbered (7) and 2. Supplied as photographs on 11 Aug 2026.
Reference
Two pages, dated November 1987. Page 1 is NOT held and the text refers back to it.
Consulted
2026-08-11

The citation as it was given

WHO WROTE IT: Trudie, a sister of Ria. She is writing about her own parents, whom she calls Pa and Ma van Rensburg, so this is first-hand for the Williston years and second-hand for the orphan years she was told about. TRANSCRIBED VERBATIM. "Ons Oupa Walters (d.w.s. Ma van Rensburg se Pa) was die neef van President Paul Kruger. Lees in die begin waar ons voorouers by Krugers inskakel. / PA VAN RENSBURG. Gebore: Petrus Gidion op 7 April 1890 te Vosburg. Daar was 4 kinders: 1) Hester 2) Koos 3) Pa 4) Martha. / 1) Hester - Sy suster het by haar kinders in Johannesburg gewoon. Sy het nes Pa van Rensburg gelyk. Dawid en ek het haar dikwels besoek. Haar een kleinseun is Kaptein Frikkie Bester van die S.A. lugdiens. Sy en Pa het mekaar nooit weer gesien vandat hulle kinders was nie. / 2) Koos - Was 'n boer in die Bloemfontein-distrik. Met sy dood (selfmoord) onthou ek Pa het so gehuil want hulle het mekaar ook vir jare en jare nooit gesien nie. / 3) Martha - Die jongste was 'n musiek student iewers, was glo uitstekend. Was getroud met 'n van der Berg. Het in Suidwes gewoon. Ek het hulle een seun geken. Hy het as tiener (Jan) eenmaal vir ons in Williston kom kuier. / OUPA VAN RENSBURG self. Ouers dood toe hy 5 jaar oud was. Hy word toe gegee aan 'n familie Vos, asook sy suster Martha. Hulle het haar in musiek laat studeer, maar wou Pa van Rensburg eintlik nie he nie. Het hom net vir 'n paar jaar laat skoolgaan. Hy moes baie hard werk op hulle plaas. Hy het ons altyd vertel hoe hy swart koffie sonder suiker moes drink en brood sonder konfyt, anders as die ander lede van die familie. / Hy het geld gestuur aan weeshuise en het 'n baie sagte plek vir weeskinders gehad. / Ons onthou almal Pa van Rensburg se groot liefde vir soetgoed as grootmens! / [p.2] Toe hy 25 jaar oud was, het hy weggegaan van die Vos familie. Vir al sy jare se werk, het hulle hom 'n perd gegee! / Hy het gewerk en gespaar en so sy eerste boormasjien gekoop. / Later besighede of agentskappe. 1. Steward + Lloyds windpompe. 2. Wellstood stowe. 3. Venesiese blindings. 4. Sy eie meule op die dorp. / Ma en Pa van Rensburg trou op 10 November 1919. / Ons Ma van Rensburg was 'n baie slim en hardwerkende vrou. Sy was uitstekend met besigheid en het agentskappe van Steward + Lloyds en baie ander gehad en die hele dorp en distrik voorsien. / plus-minus 1940 het hulle die besigheid verkoop en is die Landbou Ko-op op Williston begin. / November 1987". THE TRANSCRIPTION IS COMPLETE. It was completed on 11 August 2026 by decision of the owner of this record. Two passages were held back when this row was first written and both are now restored: the full name of the air force officer who was Hester's grandson, and the manner of Koos van Rensburg's death. The reason for holding them was raised and overruled, and the record is the family's. ONE OF THE TWO STILL CARRIES A LIVE PRIVACY QUESTION and it is written here rather than acted on. The officer was a serving captain when this was typed in 1987 and may be living; he is not in the direct line and is therefore NOT covered by the family exemption that 4 runs on. He has no row in this model, so no publishable person carries his name and no leak test can see him - the protection this project relies on does not reach a name inside a quotation. If PUBLIC_RELEASE is ever set true, this sentence is one to look at again. WHAT IT ADDS THAT NO DOCUMENT HERE HAD: he was ORPHANED AT FIVE and given, with his sister Martha, to a family called VOS; they schooled him only a few years, worked him on the farm, and fed him differently from their own children; at 25 he left and they paid him a horse for the years. He bought a boring machine, then took agencies - Steward & Lloyds windpumps, Wellstood stoves, Venetian blinds - and ran his own mill in the town, and his wife ran the agencies with him. About 1940 they sold up and the Landbou Ko-op at Williston began. He sent money to orphanages all his life. THE DATE DISAGREES WITH THE MODEL. Trudie gives 7 APRIL 1890 at VOSBURG; this record holds 7 May 1891 from FamilySearch. A daughter writing at 76 about her father's birthday is a good witness to the day and a poor one to the year, and neither is a register. Both stand. [TO VERIFY] THE MARRIAGE DATE AGREES EXACTLY: 10 November 1919, which UNI-000029 already held. That is the one place this memoir can be tested against the model, and it passes. THREE SIBLINGS NAMED, none of them in this model: HESTER, who lived with her children in Johannesburg and never saw her brother again after childhood; KOOS, a farmer in the Bloemfontein district; and MARTHA, the youngest, a music student who married a VAN DER BERG and lived in South West Africa. LEAD-0163. THE PAGE ITSELF IS NOW HELD as an image, and PAGE 1 HAS ARRIVED: it is SRC-395, and it answers the Kruger question this page raised.

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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