Vaalbank
One farm, two deaths, thirty-five years apart, and the same family on it both times. Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen — born district Graaff-Reinet about 1818, fifth child on the 1876 Sterfkennis — died here on 25 May 1885. His daughter Magdalena Susanna Maria, born about 1860, died here on 1 May 1920. It is the clearest evidence this archive has that the family did not merely pass through the western Transvaal but settled in it, two generations before anyone reached Johannesburg. The coordinates are approximate: the district is certain, the farm is not yet placed.
The place
| Name | Vaalbank |
| Kind | Farm |
| Region | District Lichtenburg, Transvaal |
| Standing | Documented |
Why it is here
One farm, two deaths, thirty-five years apart, and the same family on it both times. Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen — born district Graaff-Reinet about 1818, fifth child on the 1876 Sterfkennis — died here on 25 May 1885. His daughter Magdalena Susanna Maria, born about 1860, died here on 1 May 1920. It is the clearest evidence this archive has that the family did not merely pass through the western Transvaal but settled in it, two generations before anyone reached Johannesburg. The coordinates are approximate: the district is certain, the farm is not yet placed.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 25 May 1885 | Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen dies here, aged 67 |
| 1 May 1920 | Magdalena Susanna Maria van den Berg, born Booyzen, dies here, aged 59 years 9 months |