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Source SRC-514

Swellendam baptism register: the baptism of Daniel Jacobus Johannes, son of Ockert Oosthuijse and [?] van Tonder, 'woonende aan Oliphants Rivier'

baptism register · an original record · consulted 2026-08-20

Type
baptism_register
Repository
FamilySearch, "South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1994". Filmed by the DRC Centre, Cape, operator Tinus Berry 6179, 13 October 2000; project S-AF 00532, roll 119, film emulsion 5033005, camera Model-E 34492.
Reference
Film #008148300, ITEM 4 = SWELLENDAM G7/4/2, BAPTISM, 1807-1817. Image 31 of 246. The film's own item table (image 2) lists: item 1 Graaff-Reinet G6/8/1 death 1808-1848 (109 pp); item 2 Graaff-Reinet G6/8/2 death 1846-1860 (40 pp); item 3 SWELLENDAM G7/4/1 BAPTISM 1798-1807 (270 pp); item 4 Swellendam G7/4/2 baptism 1807-1817.
Consulted
2026-08-20

The citation as it was given

*** THIS IS THE DOCUMENT THAT SETTLES WHICH OLIFANTS RIVER. *** Supplied by Frans, an hour after he asked 'where were the kids of the modderfonteyn ockert (1755) baptised? that could give a hint at where the modderfonteyn is.' It did. | THE ENTRY, transcribed as it stands: '20 Maart | Gedoopt een Zoon geboren 1 August 1807 | Vader Ockert Oosthui[se] | Moeder [?Sanna Elisabetha] van Tonder | woonende aan OLIPHANTS RIVIER | Getuige Jacobus Johannes Oosthui[se] en Vrouw, Anna Magdalena Strydom | Naam van het Kind ... Daniel Jacobus Johannes'. | *** THE HOUSEHOLD LIVED 'AAN OLIPHANTS RIVIER' AND BROUGHT THE CHILD TO SWELLENDAM. *** Swellendam is the congregation that opened in 1798; the Boland Olifants at Citrusdal was Roodezand's ground and then Clanwilliam's from 1826, some 400 km away past Cape Town. A family on that river does not baptise here. The Olifants of this entry is the SOUTHERN one, in the Little Karoo - which in 1808 was Swellendam district, became George district when George was cut off in 1811, and is exactly where the family turns up on the 1816 George roll (SRC-459) without having moved. | IT IS OUR FAMILY, ON FOUR INDEPENDENT POINTS: the father is Ockert Oosthui[se]; the mother is a van Tonder (PER-000119); the child Daniel Jacobus Johannes born 1 August 1807 is PER-000150, already in the model at b.1807; and the witness Jacobus Johannes Oosthui[se] with his wife Anna Magdalena Strydom is the eldest son PER-000208 with PER-000209, who married on 6 March 1808 (UNI-000031). | THE WITNESSES DATE IT. If the couple stood as godparents as a married pair, '20 Maart' is 20 MARCH 1808 - fourteen days after their own wedding, and a seven-month-old baby brother, which is an ordinary delay for a household that had to travel to church. THE YEAR IS NOT VISIBLE IN THE IMAGE SUPPLIED and is inferred from that, not read. [TO VERIFY] against the page head. | TWO READINGS ARE MARKED AND NEITHER MAY BE CITED AS SETTLED. The mother is written here as something like 'Sanna Elisabetha'; the model has SUSANNA CATHARINA van Tonder (PER-000119, FS LC7N-L43), and the register hand at this resolution will not decide between 'Elisabetha' and 'Cathrina'. The surname 'Oosthui[se]' likewise. 5a: an unreadable word gets a mark, never a plausible word. | WHAT IT DOES NOT SETTLE: where de Modder Fonteyn actually was. It names a RIVER and a CONGREGATION, not a farm. LEAD-0220. | THE NEXT SHEET IS ALREADY IDENTIFIED: ITEM 3 OF THIS SAME FILM is Swellendam baptism 1798-1807, 270 pages, which should hold the children born 1801, 1802 and 1803 - and any of them repeating 'woonende aan Oliphants Rivier' turns one entry into a pattern. LEAD-0257. | *** [20 Aug 2026] THE MOTHER'S NAME IS SETTLED ELSEWHERE. *** SRC-515, the Graaff-Reinet register of September 1799, writes her twice in a clear hand as SUSANNA CATHARINA VAN TONDER. The '[?Sanna Elisabetha]' above is what THIS page appears to show and is left standing as a transcription of it, but the person is Susanna Catharina and nothing should be built on the variant. | [20 Aug 2026] AND THE RESIDENCE CLAUSE IS NOW CORROBORATED FROM OUTSIDE THE CHURCH. SRC-497 counts this household in the 1805 SWELLENDAM opgaafrol, three years before this entry. 'Woonende aan Oliphants Rivier' in a Swellendam register, from a household on the Swellendam tax roll, is the southern Olifants.

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.

What has been transcribed from this source

2 occasions.

What rests on this source

People