Frans Stephanus Botma (1881-1921)

[FS L2BH-4F4] ATTRIBUTED AS THE MAN IN THE CIRCA-1918 FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH - and the attribution is a modern one, made from an UNMARKED print found in an Oudtshoorn second-hand shop, so it is tested here rather than taken - 'Frans Stephanus BotmaL with his 2nd wife Aletta Magdalena De Koker with his children from both marriages, of Wilgerfontein, Prince Albert'. He was thirty-seven in 1918, which is the age

HIS MOTHER DIED WHEN HE WAS THREE: Hester BotesL (PER-001926), dead in 1884 leaving three children under four, which is the loss standing behind his father's second marriage that September (SRC-588).

Married twice, exactly as the photograph's caption says. NEELTJE CATHARINA HOUGH (PER-001932) at Prince Albert on 28 October 1901, and nine children by her before she died in 1916; then ALETTA MAGDALENA DE KOKER (PER-001928) AT MERWEVILLE on 18 December 1916, within the same year, and four more children by 1919. Thirteen children, and he was dead himself at forty in 1921. His fourth child Andries Michiel Gert died in 1921 too.

Merweville is where his father would die in 1936 (SRC-591), fifteen years after him - the old man following his son's family north off the Prince Albert ground.

[FS L2BH-4F4, card supplied by ] HIS THIRTEEN CHILDREN, ids as the card gives them. By HOUGH, nine: Frans Stephanus 1902 G89T-7WK, Andries Michiel Gert 1903 GBVT-NR9, Andries Michiel Gert 1904-1921 L2BH-427 - THE NAME REUSED, so the 1903 child died young - Hendrik Willem 1906 G89T-749, Johannes Hendrik 1908 GZZB-5X9, Catharina Hester Johanna 1910 GZZB-2LW, Lodewyk 1911 GZZB-V93, Hester Maria 1914 GGNW-N7M and Neeltje Catharina 1915 GGNW-8JL, born the year before her mother died and named for her. By DE KOKER, four: Sybrandt Lourens 1917-1994 GDQP-L5S, Andries Stephanus 1918 GDQP-2PS, Andreas Stefanus 1919 GGN7-7NC and Elsie Jacoba 1919 GDQP-L5X. The card spells the surname Botma and Bothma interchangeably down one column of children.

THE ATTRIBUTION DOES NOT FULLY SURVIVE THE ARITHMETIC: a young woman of about seventeen stands in that photograph and no recorded daughter was older than eight in 1918, while the two youngest daughters are absent. See that photograph's own catalogue record, which is held privately. The man's identity as the son rather than the father is separately secure, resting on the FamilySearch card and on the 1936 death notice's arithmetic, not on the picture.

THE ARITHMETIC, RUN AGAIN 26 Aug 2026: the single infant in that photograph and the absence of toddlers date it to 1917 or 1918, and at 1918 no recorded daughter of his was older than eight. A daughter born 1901 or 1902 and omitted from the FamilySearch card - which omits children, as this project has seen before - would be the eldest and would be sixteen or seventeen. His own 1921 DEATH NOTICE would name every child living and is the document that settles it.

[SRC-594] HIS DEATH NOTICE, and it settles the farm. He died of KOORTS SIEKTE after fourteen days on 9 December 1921 AT WILGERFONTEIN, district Prince Albert, where he usually lived and where he was to be buried - a veeboer of forty years and seven months, which puts his birth about May 1881. His wife Aletta Magdalena reported it and SIGNED WITH A MARK. The photograph's caption said 'of Wilgerfontein, Prince Albert' and it was right; this project had just finished doubting it.

[SRC-594, 27 Aug 2026] NINE CHILDREN LIVING at his death, pencilled at the foot of the notice, and the number closes the family exactly: thirteen born, four dead - the 1903 son whose name was reused, the 1904 son who died in the same year as his father, and the two little girls of 1914 and 1915 who are also the two missing from the 1918 photograph.