Petrus Jacobus Booysen
Married at about seventeen; died a widower in the Transvaal, eighty-eight years old, on a farm called Brakfontein. His Sterfkennis — No. 678, written 14 September 1876 — is the oldest document about this family that this archive has read, it names his parents, and it lists eight children. Estate: NOTHING. “Niets nagelaten. Niets bekend.”
Petrus Jacobus Booysen · c. 21 Sep 1788, Graaff-Reinet – 1 Sep 1876, district Rustenburg
The 1876 notice lists eight children and names no mother for any of them. They are drawn under this marriage because it is the only one recorded — not because the document says so.
Every record naming Petrus Jacobus Booysen →
The marriage records
Married Anna Maria van der Merwe · 1805 · Graaff-Reinet a family tree, not a document He was about seventeen. She died before March 1825, and at least one child came after that — so there was a second marriage nobody had recorded until 2026. The line →
Married Elizabetha van der Merwe · bef. 1828 · — a record read here A second van der Merwe, named only on her son's 1908 death notice. No place and no date: the marriage is known because a child of it was born about June 1828. The 1908 notice →
Petrus Jacobus Booysen · 10 May 1812, Graaff-Reinet – 1884 (probate)
The 1876 notice lists eight children and names no mother for any of them. They are drawn under this marriage because it is the only one recorded — not because the document says so.
Every record naming Petrus Jacobus Booysen →
The marriage records
Married Johanna Catharina Mountjoy · 4 November 1838 · Cradock a record read here THE JUNCTION. Booysen meets Mountjoy, and the two surnames that carry this archive are joined. He signed her death notice twenty-five years later. The 1863 notice →
Married Johanna Margaritha Pretorius · bef. 1863 · — a record read here The second marriage his own death notice refuses to name. A christening named her in the end — the oldest open question on this site, answered by a baptism rather than a death. The second wife, named →
Petrus Jacobus Booysen · 10 Sep 1839 – —
The record
| Name | Petrus Jacobus Booysen |
| Also written | Petrus Jacobus Booijsen (1876) |
| Born | c. 21 Sep 1788, Graaff-Reinet |
| Died | 1 Sep 1876, district Rustenburg |
| Line | Booyzen |
| Generation | 6 — on the direct line |
| Confidence | Documented |
What the archive holds
Married at about seventeen; died a widower in the Transvaal, eighty-eight years old, on a farm called Brakfontein. His Sterfkennis — No. 678, written 14 September 1876 — is the oldest document about this family that this archive has read, it names his parents, and it lists eight children. Estate: NOTHING. “Niets nagelaten. Niets bekend.”
Where the archive puts Petrus
Each carries the document that puts them there. The atlas →
- Petrus Jacobus Booysen — c. 21 Sep 1788, Graaff-Reinet to 1 Sep 1876, district Rustenburg. Married at about seventeen; died a widower in the Transvaal, eighty-eight years old, on a farm called Brakfontein. His Sterfkennis — No. 678, written 14 September 1876 — is the oldest document about this family that this archive has read, it names his parents, and it lists eight children. Estate: NOTHING. “Niets nagelaten. Niets bekend.”
- Petrus Jacobus Booysen — 10 May 1812, Graaff-Reinet to 1884 (probate). Farmer at Zevenfontein, Brak River. Signed his wife's 1863 death notice. Died fifteen years before the war.
- Petrus Jacobus Booysen — 10 Sep 1839 to —. Third child. Baptised Graaff-Reinet.
- 13 Sep 2026 — The ancestor chart, every wife one generation too high
The chart put each man's wife in his mother's box. Kathleen Barry stood as Willem Hermanus Booyzen's mother when she was his wife; Johanna Catharina Mountjoy stood as Petrus Jacobus Booysen's mother when she was his; and the woman at the root had no mother drawn at all. Four slots, all shifted by one. Rebuilt, and the genuinely empty slot — the mother of the 1812 man — is now a wall. Where it stands → - 16 Sep 2026 — R_177176049779 is this archive's reference for Petrus Jacobus Booysen's 1812 birth
It was recorded once, from a FindMyPast search run without a subscription, and never opened. Opened twice on a live full subscription, FindMyPast's own transcript page returns a 500 error. THE REFERENCE DOES NOT RESOLVE. It stays on the page as a struck citation rather than being quietly deleted. Where it stands → - 17 Sep 2026 — Seventeen people had a page saying they are “not yet discussed on any page”
Among them GEORGE AUGUSTUS KOLBE, the 1820 Settler, named 155 times in the built site; JOHN BARRY, 158; GEORGE MOUNTJOY, 140; PETRUS JACOBUS BOOYSEN, 110; JOHANNA CATHARINA MOUNTJOY, 89. THE DATA WAS FINE AND THE BUILD THREW IT AWAY. dossiers.py dropped any name that was a strict prefix of a longer person’s name — a rule written to stop “John Barry” swallowing “John Barry Booyzen”, which instead silenced the shorter man entirely. The fix keeps the shorter name and fences it with a negative lookahead, so it matches everywhere except where the longer name begins. 2,428 mentions came back. NOTHING REFUSED THE BUILD WHILE THIS WAS TRUE, so a gate now does: checkregisters.py fails when a person the dossier calls undiscussed is named in the built pages. Found because the estate asked this archive to look for a fault the Mazza archive had just had. Where it stands →
The Booyzen Archive
…The two Petrus Jacobus Booysens in the middle are father and son, and they are two men. 7 Gerthardus Lodewikus Booysen × Magdelena Elisabeth De Beer The joint here will not bear weight. The tree asserts it and no record names the father. 1 child recorded Petrus Jacobus Booysen carries the line show ↓ hide ↑ Petrus Jacobus Booysen c. 21 Sep 1788 – 1 Sep 1876 Carries the line The evidence show ↓ hide ↑ no dates, no parents — but both names now DOCUMENTED, on his son's 1876 death notice 6 1788 → 1876 Petrus Jacobus Booysen b. c. 21 Sep 1788, Graaff-Reinet d.…
The Spine
…One primary document signed by a son, against a printed genealogy agreeing with itself. How it was narrowed → no dates, no parents — but both names now DOCUMENTED, on his son's 1876 death notice Generation6 Petrus Jacobus Booysen and Anna Maria van der Merwe (1785 – bef. Mar 1825) born c.…
Disputed
…A CONCLUSION THAT SURVIVES BOTH READINGS OF THE EVIDENCE IS THE ONLY KIND WORTH KEEPING. What the disagreement does cost is her: she has two sets of parents and no way to choose, and the baptism register of 5 October 1788 at Cape Town would end it. → Gerthardus Lodewikus Booysen — did he exist? The 1876 Rustenburg Sterfkennis of Petrus Jacobus Booijsen, Notice 678, names his parents on line 3 as GERTHARDUS LÖDEWIKUS BOOIJSEN and MAGDALENA DE BEER. De Villiers (1893) and de Villiers & Pama (1981) both place that Petrus Jacobus under JAN Booijsen, b3c4. The mother agrees; the father does not. Serious FOUR THINGS NOW POINT ONE WAY AND THE CHART HAS NOT BEEN MOVED.…
…But “Serious”, not resolved — two men of one name in one town is precisely the mistake this archive keeps catching itself in, and the 1940 notice still names nobody. The inferred row stands, flagged, until a document settles it. → Anna Maria van der Merwe — married 1805 or 1825? The tree marries her to Petrus Jacobus Booysen in 1805 at Graaff-Reinet and has her dead “before March 1825”. FamilySearch carries a Dutch Reformed marriage of PETRUS JACOBUS BOOŸZEN and ANNA MARIA VAN DER MERWE dated 9 MARCH 1825, at Cape Town, indexed three separate times. Resolved RESOLVED, 13 September 2026.…
The documents
…It is the document this archive has been looking for since the first page was written. Notice 678 . Countersigned by the veldkornet and by H. S. Booijsen — Hendrik Stefanus, one of the sons listed four lines above his own signature. The form, as completed 1. Naam Petrus Jacobus Booijsen 2. Geboorteplaats Graaffreinet 3. Ouders Gerthardus Lödewikus Booijsen Magdalena de Beer 4. Ouderdom 88 jaar 5. Beroep Landbouwer 6. Staat Gehuwd — weduwenaar 7. Overleden 1 September 1876 8. Waar Destrikt Rustenburg 9. Testament Neen 10. Goederen Niets nagelaten 11. Boven £25 Niets bekend 12.…
…KAB MOOC 13/1/221, 6 1866 Filed 25 July 1863 , reference 499 . The form, as completed 1. Name of the Deceased Johanna Catharina Montjoy 2. Birth-place Graaff Reinet 3. Names of the Parents James Montjoy and Anna Catharina Sleer 4. Age 44 years & 19 days 5. Condition in life farmer's wife 6. Married or unmarried Married to Petrus Jacobus Booysen 7. Day of decease 19th May 1863 8. At what House Zevenfontein, Brak River 10. Property Moveable property Line 3 — the generation the archive did not have from any document: James Montjoy and Anna Catharina Sleer . An age given to the day The form asks for years. The informant wrote "44 years & 19 days" . Counted back from 19 May 1863, that puts her birth at 30 April 1819 , at Graaff-Reinet.…
Households
…bef. 23 Oct 1863 — intestate John Kolbe inferred George Kolbe inferred Catharine Sophia Maria Kolbe inferred Marian Kolbe Julia Kolbe Frederik Fortunatus Kolbe 1839 – 23 Nov 1929 Johan Casimir Kolbe 1844 or 1845 — three sources give three years – 11 Mar 1906 Peter Benjamin Kolbe b. 1840 the family tree Petrus Jacobus Booysen and Johanna Catharina Mountjoy 9 head born 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) a record read here Married at Cradock 4 November 1838. He signed her death notice in 1863; it names her parents and their eight surviving children. The 1863 death notice Jacobus Nicholas Booysen bef. 1842 – 1923 Johanna Catharina Booysen b. 15 May 1844 Petrus Jacobus Booysen b.…
The Marriages
…1921 one marriage London 1819 one marriage Colesberg 23 Feb 1846 one marriage Orange Free State 13 Jul 1871 one marriage Bloemfontein 4 Jun 1872 one marriage Lady Grey 22 December 1879 Cape Colony Union of South Africa 1820The 1820 Settlers 1834Emancipation at the Cape 1899The South African War begins 1902Peace of Vereeniging Petrus Jacobus Booysen & Anna Maria van der Merwe · Graaff-Reinet James Montjoy & Anna Catharina Sleer · Graaff-Reinet George Augustus Kolbe & Margaret Downing · London Petrus Jacobus Booysen & Elizabetha van der Merwe · bef.…
The Name
…Leave of. Middelburg." 1907 KAB DOC 4/1/1075: 5377 Mortgage bond, Pieter Ignatius du Plessis and Petrus Jacobus Booyzen 1904 KAB DOC 4/1/1185: 1256 Mortgage bond, the same two men 1906 Not connected to this family — yet Petrus Jacobus is this family's core male name, carried by three generations of it. Middelburg is the district where Petrus Jacobus Booysen died at Zevenfontein in 1884 . And a man of that name, spelled with the z , is a police constable there in 1904, 1905 and 1907 , holding mortgage bonds in 1904 and 1906. The archive cannot yet show he is a relative, and says so.…
The forenames
…The spine name — five men over a hundred and fifty years Petrus Jacobus 1788, 1812, 1839, 1904, 1934. Two of them are on the direct line and three are not, and an index cannot tell them apart. Who When What they are to the name Petrus Jacobus Booysen 1788–1876 Generation six. Died at Brakfontein, district Rustenburg, with nothing to leave. Petrus Jacobus Booysen 1812–1884 Generation five. The farmer at Zevenfontein who signed his wife's death notice. Petrus Jacobus Booysen b. 10 Sep 1839 Third child on the 1863 death notice. Petrus Jacobus Booyzen b.…
The People
…The index enters her baptism at Graaff-Reinet on one record and Colesberg on another, from the same date. FROM THE INDEX. The Barrys What Was Searched Petrus Jacobus Booijsen of 1889 Documented 21 Jun 1889 — Baptised at Rustenburg in 1889, son of Petrus Jacobus Booijsen and Anna Catharina Sofia Benadi. The fifth Petrus Jacobus, and the name has now run five generations without a break.…
…Confirmed at Rustenburg on 3 April 1869, the same day as his brother Petrus Jacobus. He died at Klerksdorp on 16 January 1921, aged 69 — a civil registration, which names no parents. The 1891 notices The Rustenburg register The Documents Petrus Jacobus Booysen · generation 6 also written Petrus Jacobus Booijsen (1876) Documented c. 21 Sep 1788, Graaff-Reinet 1 Sep 1876, district Rustenburg Married at about seventeen; died a widower in the Transvaal, eighty-eight years old, on a farm called Brakfontein. His Sterfkennis — No.…
Aletta Catharina Olivier
…Feb 1826 the direct line, argued on the line from a record this archive has read inferred, not stated from the family tree, unverified All 6 relationships shown are written in a record this archive has read. The Olivier line → MARRIED AT GRAAFF-REINET ON 8 DECEMBER 1816 — the same small Karoo town where Petrus Jacobus Booysen was baptised in 1788 and his son born in 1812. Four children documented, all baptised at Cradock between 1820 and 1826. Named together on two of those baptisms, in 1823 and 1824, and again on their daughter's 1891 Sterfkennis where a bad hand turns the surname into something this archive read as Alberts.…
Anna Catharina Booysen
…Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) record Johanna Catharina Mountjoy 30 Apr 1819 – 19 May 1863 record Anna Catharina Booysen 21 Sep 1842 – bef. 1863 Booyzen 8 siblings Jacobus Nicholas Booysen bef. 1842 – 1923 Johanna Catharina Booysen b. 15 May 1844 Petrus Jacobus Booysen b.…
Anna Catharina Botha
…Feb 1826 record the direct line, argued on the line from a record this archive has read inferred, not stated from the family tree, unverified All 5 relationships shown are written in a record this archive has read. MARRIED AT GRAAFF-REINET ON 8 DECEMBER 1816 — the same small Karoo town where Petrus Jacobus Booysen was baptised in 1788 and his son born in 1812. Four children documented, all baptised at Cradock between 1820 and 1826. Named together on two of those baptisms, in 1823 and 1824, and again on their daughter's 1891 Sterfkennis where a bad hand turns the surname into something this archive read as Alberts.…
Anna Catharina Johanna Olivier
…the direct line, argued on the line from a record this archive has read inferred, not stated from the family tree, unverified All 14 relationships shown are written in a record this archive has read. The Olivier line → MARRIED AT GRAAFF-REINET ON 8 DECEMBER 1816 — the same small Karoo town where Petrus Jacobus Booysen was baptised in 1788 and his son born in 1812. Four children documented, all baptised at Cradock between 1820 and 1826. Named together on two of those baptisms, in 1823 and 1824, and again on their daughter's 1891 Sterfkennis where a bad hand turns the surname into something this archive read as Alberts.…
Anna Eliezabet Booijsen
…Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen c. 21 Sep 1788 – 1 Sep 1876 record Anna Maria van der Merwe 1785 – bef. Mar 1825 record Anna Eliezabet Booijsen Booyzen 7 siblings David Schalk Booijsen b. 12 Dec 1806 Magdalena Johanna Booijsen Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen 1818 – 25 May 1885 Eliezabet Cornelia Booijsen Hendrik Stefanus Booijsen c.…
Anna Maria Booijsen
…Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen c. 21 Sep 1788 – 1 Sep 1876 record Anna Maria van der Merwe 1785 – bef. Mar 1825 record Anna Maria Booijsen Booyzen 7 siblings David Schalk Booijsen b. 12 Dec 1806 Magdalena Johanna Booijsen Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) Anna Eliezabet Booijsen Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen 1818 – 25 May 1885 Eliezabet Cornelia Booijsen Hendrik Stefanus Booijsen c.…
Anna Maria van der Merwe
…WHAT IS STILL NOT PROVED is that she is the mother of the 1812 man in the direct line. Anna Maria van der Merwe 1785 – bef. Mar 1825 Booyzen married Petrus Jacobus Booysen c. 21 Sep 1788 – 1 Sep 1876 record 8 children with Petrus David Schalk Booijsen b. 12 Dec 1806 record Magdalena Johanna Booijsen record Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) direct line Anna Eliezabet Booijsen record Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen 1818 – 25 May 1885 record Eliezabet Cornelia Booijsen record Hendrik Stefanus Booijsen c.…
David Schalk Booijsen
…His nephew, born 1848, carries the same name — the two are told apart only by a generation. Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen c. 21 Sep 1788 – 1 Sep 1876 record Anna Maria van der Merwe 1785 – bef. Mar 1825 record David Schalk Booijsen b. 12 Dec 1806 Booyzen married Adriana Christina Viljoen record 1 child with Adriana Anna Maria Booijsen of 1835 b.…
David Schalk Booysen
…The Remarks column cites his remarriage certificate from the Master, NO. 4795 — which is the number of his first wife’s death notice, so the two documents point at each other and the identification needs no inference. His own death is still not found. Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) record Johanna Catharina Mountjoy 30 Apr 1819 – 19 May 1863 record David Schalk Booysen 9 Jun 1848 – after Nov 1905 Booyzen married Elizabetha Margaretha Marais c. Apr 1850 – 1 Jun 1900 record married Johanna Elena Stols b. c. 1854 record 7 children with Elizabetha Petrus Jacobus Booijzen of Pretoria b.…
David Schalk van der Merwe
…Married at Cradock, 24 March 1838 — eight months before her sister married Petrus Jacobus Booysen in the same town. The women → Every record naming David Schalk van der Merwe → The marriage record Married Jacoba Catharina Mountjoy · 24 March 1838 · Cradock a record read here Eight months before her sister married in the same town.…
Eliezabet Cornelia Booijsen
…Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen c. 21 Sep 1788 – 1 Sep 1876 record Anna Maria van der Merwe 1785 – bef. Mar 1825 record Eliezabet Cornelia Booijsen Booyzen 7 siblings David Schalk Booijsen b. 12 Dec 1806 Magdalena Johanna Booijsen Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) Anna Eliezabet Booijsen Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen 1818 – 25 May 1885 Hendrik Stefanus Booijsen c.…
Elizabetha van der Merwe
…1788), and a name this archive did not have until her son’s 1908 death notice was read. The first wife, Anna Maria van der Merwe, died before March 1825; this son was born about June 1828. Two van der Merwe wives, one after the other — which is why the eight children on the 1876 Sterfkennis cannot all be drawn under one marriage.…
Gerrit Jacobus Booÿsen
…IMAGE LOCATED, NOT YET READ. The only child entered on his father's 1884 death notice, and born seven years after the first wife died — so a child of the second marriage. He married Isabella Frederika Coetsee at Middelburg on 23 March 1896, and his own son was baptised BOOYZEN, with a z, in 1904. Parents Petrus Jacobus Booysen 10 May 1812 – 1884 (probate) record Johanna Margaritha Pretorius record Gerrit Jacobus Booÿsen 19 Jan 1870 – Aug 1951 Booyzen married Isabella Frederika Coetsee 15 Apr 1874 – 31 Mar 1930 record 3 children with Isabella Isabella Fredrika du Plessis record Petrus Jacobus Booyzen 29 Dec 1904 – 7 Jun 1937 record Gerhardus Jacobus Booyzen b. 15 May 1910 record Sibling Stephanus Francois Booyzen c.…
Gert Cornelis Olivier
…Feb 1826 the direct line, argued on the line from a record this archive has read inferred, not stated from the family tree, unverified All 6 relationships shown are written in a record this archive has read. The Olivier line → MARRIED AT GRAAFF-REINET ON 8 DECEMBER 1816 — the same small Karoo town where Petrus Jacobus Booysen was baptised in 1788 and his son born in 1812. Four children documented, all baptised at Cradock between 1820 and 1826. Named together on two of those baptisms, in 1823 and 1824, and again on their daughter's 1891 Sterfkennis where a bad hand turns the surname into something this archive read as Alberts.…
Others on the Booyzen side
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