The timeline
Everything this archive can put a document behind, in order. Where a document was written long after the event it records, both dates are given — that gap is one of the things this archive is about.
Two hundred and thirty-four years
Larger marks are the documents this archive turns on.
Johanna Booyzen born “in this Colony”
Not this family — and her dates are the two this archive has for Magdelena Elisabeth de Beer, which is why she is on the site at all.
The spelling BOOYZEN is already in use at the Cape
KAB CJ 2633: 29 — the will of Christina Booyzen. One hundred and twenty years before the war.
James Montjoy born, in “Europe”
Given as “about 45 years” at his death in 1827. His birthplace is recorded as a continent, not a country.
Petrus Jacobus Booysen baptised at Graaff-Reinet
The oldest date on the male line that a register carries.
BOOIJZEN too
KAB MOOC 13/1/33: 5, the liquidation account of Susanna Booijzen.
George Augustus Kolbe born in London
Baptised at St Anne's, Soho, 2 February 1803, son of John Gottlob and Mary.
James Montjoy marries Anna Catharina Slier
Graaff-Reinet marriage register. She is entered as the widow of Harmanus Pieterzen. No origin is recorded for him — a ruled dash, on a page where three other couples are entered “beide van Uitenhage”.
James Montjoy marries Anna Catharina Slier at Graaff-Reinet
She is a widow. His origin is left blank on a page where the clerk filled everyone else's in — the blank starts here, twenty-three years before the death notice.
George Augustus Kolbe marries Margaret Downing on a sworn falsehood
St Leonard's, Shoreditch. Both swore they were twenty-one; he was sixteen and she fifteen. She signed with a mark.
Johanna Catharina Montjoy born at Graaff-Reinet
Computed from an age given to the day — “44 years & 19 days” — on her 1863 death notice.
The Nautilus lands at Algoa Bay
George Augustus Kolbe arrives as an 1820 Settler, in Owen's party.
George Mountjoy born at Cradock
He will be four when his father dies, and will take up his father's trade.
James Montjoy dies at Cradock
A saddler, leaving a house and erf worth £90 and four children under nine.
Hendrik Stephanus Booysen born in the Cape Colony
His mother is ELIZABETHA van der Merwe — a second wife this archive did not have, and the resolution of its oldest “Serious” contradiction.
Petrus Jacobus Booysen marries Johanna Catharina Mountjoy
At Cradock — the marriage that brings the Mountjoy descent into this family.
Booysen marries Mountjoy at Cradock
The junction. The two surnames that carry this archive are joined in one town, eight months after her sister married in the same one.
“Names of the Parents of the Deceased. Not Known.”
James Montjoy's death notice, written THIRTEEN YEARS after he died, by a relative who knew his trade, his house, its value and his wife's first husband. KAB MOOC 6/9/21: 4393.
Johanna Booyzen dies at 28 Roze Street, Cape Town
Death notice 6167, and the earliest failure of the parents line in this archive: “both dead”. Eighty-nine years old, with fifteen pounds of somebody else's debt.
George Augustus Kolbe dies at “Wurtemburg”, Colesberg
Estate 7698. His widow signs the death notice in January 1845.
Johanna Catharina Booysen born at Brak Rivier
Second on the 1863 death notice, and until this week nothing but a position in a list.
Johan Gottlieb Kolbe buried at the German Savoy Church
Entry 55, grave 7, aged 81 — not St John the Baptist, Leamington, as the family tree has it.
George Mountjoy, saddle maker, marries Maria Sophia Botha
Cradock, certificate 735.
Willem Hermanus Booyzen baptised at Achter Sneeuwberg
Entry 2809. The father is written BOOYZEN with a z — and so, three lines below in the same hand, are the godparents PIETERZEN. The z is the clerk's Dutch, not the family's claim.
A baptism at Rustenburg that spells the name this archive got wrong
Hendrik Nicolaas Stephanus Booijsen, born 31 January 1862, baptised on Christmas Day at Rustenburg. Father Hendrik Stephanus Booijsen; mother ANNA JOHANNA OLIVIER. The birth date agrees to the day with the age on his 1891 death notice, and the mother's surname — indexed by somebody who never saw this site — is the one the archive read as Alberts. Index only: no image.
Johanna Catharina dies at Zevenfontein
Her death notice names her parents — James Montjoy and Anna Catharina Sleer — gives her age to the day, and lists eight children. KAB MOOC 6/9/104: 499.
Hercules Johannes Mountjoy born
Baptised 29 July, father George Mountjoy, mother Maria Sophia Botha — the entry that settles the Mountjoy parentage from a register instead of a tree.
Margaret Downing dies at Burgersdorp
Aged 64 years, 9 months and 2 days. She died owning a house and a farm, having signed her marriage with a mark.
Two brothers admitted to membership at Rustenburg on one Sunday
Petrus Jacobus Booÿsen, born 20 April 1851, and “Ceker” — Ockert — Johannes Stephanus Booÿsen, born 15 September 1852. Seventeen and sixteen. They are the first two names on their mother's 1891 list and the two who turn up again on their father's 1908 notice. Index only: no image.
Gerrit Jacobus Booÿsen born
Seven years after the first wife died — the child who proves the second marriage.
Petrus Jacobus Booysen dies at Rustenburg, aged 88
Far north of where he was baptised.
Petrus Jacobus Booysen dies in district Rustenburg, aged 88
Generation six, on a farm called Brakfontein, with nothing to leave. His Sterfkennis names GERTHARDUS LÖDEWIKUS BOOIJSEN and MAGDALENA DE BEER — the top of the male line, documented for the first time.
Willem Hermanus Booyzen, boer of Lady Grey, marries Kathleen Barry
He is a farmer here and a mason at his death. Something takes the land away in between.
A nephew named for an uncle who had nine years to live
Hendrik Stephanus Nicolaas Booyen born, baptised at Rustenburg on 30 January; father Ockert Johannes Stephanus Booysen, mother Elisabetta Johanna Sophia Myburgh. His uncle of the same name was twenty and would die at Brakfontein in 1891. The nephew lived until 1959 and outlived him by sixty-eight years.
A farmer dies owning his clothes
Petrus Jacobus Booysen dies at Zevenfontein leaving “moveables only, such as wearing apparel”. Line 3 of his death notice: the father in full, then “mother's name, not known”.
Jan Gerthardus Lodewikus Booijsen dies at Vaalbank, Lichtenburg
Estate O/2899 — which this archive gave to his nephew for months, along with a death date invented from the file number.
Hercules Johannes Mountjoy marries at Dordrecht, aged 22
A year before the font at Barkly Oost.
Two grandparents at a font
Johanna Catharina Booyzen baptised at Barkly Oost with John Barry and Margaret Kolbe standing. Three weeks later, on the facing page, the Mountjoy baptism.
Five days later, her son
Sterfkennis 6361. Hendrick Stefanes Booijsen, 29 jaar 3 maanden en 14 dagen, landbouwer, ONGEHUWD, dies on the same farm. Line 3 names his parents: Hendrick Stefanus Booijsen and Anna Catrena gebooren Oliefier. Movables only, not above £25. Nobody on this site knew he existed.
Catharina Maria Sophia Booysen baptised
Entry 120, same register, fifty pages on — a daughter named for her mother, and new to this archive.
The first wife dies at Brakfontein, and the archive misreads her twice
Sterfkennis 6332. Anna Johanna Booijzen, gebooren OLIEFIER — Anna Catharina Johanna Olivier — born in the district of Cradock about September 1823, daughter of Ocken Johannes Oliefier and Anna Johanna Botha, dies GEHUWD at the farm BRAKFONTEIN in the district of Rustenburg, leaving seven children all of age. This site published her as “born Alberts”, at “Boekfontein”, NOT PROVED TO BE KIN. She is the first wife of Hendrik Stefanus Booijsen and she died on the family's own farm.
Two widows of Graaff-Reinet marry at Zeerust
Entry 13 of the Zeerust register. Hendrik Stefanus Booijzen, 63, weduwnaar, of Brakfontein in Rustenburg; Charlotta Elizabeth Roos born Dormehl, 51, weduwe, of Driefontein in Marico. Both born at Graaff-Reinet. The clerk writes him Booijzen and he signs himself Booysen. Because she was fifty-one, his four children are his FIRST wife's — which this archive had wrong.
Richard Pieter Kolbe Barry baptised at Barkly West
Son of Richard Pieter Barry. He carries the forename of the man on the Cape Rebel roll and the surname of the 1820 Settler family in one name.
The Anglo-Boer War begins
The family is living in the most rebellious corner of the Colony.
George Downing Mountjoy Booyzen born
In the middle of the war.
A wedding in a rebel's house
Five weeks after Schoeman was tried, the family marries in his house at Caerlaverock. He signs the register.
Two men of this district are tried as Cape Rebels
Daniel Willem Schoeman of Caerlaverock, and Fred J. Barry of Ivanhoe, Barkly East / Wodehouse.
Carolina Deybella Margrietta Alletta van Niekerk dies at Dordrecht
Hercules Johannes Mountjoy's mother-in-law — the only Cape probate hit that comes up under his name, because his name is written on her form.
John Barry dies at Manorowen — “Irishman born in Ireland”
Entry 74, Barkly East, made by his son Richard, present at the death. A carpenter, eighty-four, with eleven children. It answers the oldest question on the Barry side and corrects two things this archive had published.
The name changes on one sheet of paper
Willem Hermanus Booyzen dies at Indwe of an ulcer of the stomach after fourteen months' illness — not shot by the British. The clerk writes BOOYSEN; his son signs BOOYZEN four lines below.
Willem Hermanus Booijzen confirmed at Indwe, aged 21
An eighth child this archive did not have — in a class that also holds the two Roodt women who would bear his children.
Hendrik Stephanus Booysen dies at Koedoesfontein, Rustenburg
He signed his father's Sterfkennis in 1876. His own names his mother — and gives his place of last marriage as ZEERUST, in the district of Marico.
Margaret Elizabeth Barry née Kolbe dies at Manorowen
In her son's house, forty miles from her father's carved headstone.
Harriet Louisa Barry dies of typhoid at Cherryville, aged eighteen
Entered as DUTCH, born in the district of Barkly East — nine years after the same printed question called her grandfather an Irishman.
“Father: Kolbe, thinks James was christian name. Mother: Unknown.”
Written three years after her death by her son, with the 1820 Settler's monument still standing at Burgersdorp.
John Barry's estate reported, twelve years late
Estate 925 at Grahamstown, filed with his wife's on one afternoon by two of their sons. It names eight children where the 1903 registration counted eleven.
Magdalena Susanna Maria van den Berg, born Booyzen, dies at Vaalbank
On the same farm as her father, thirty-five years later. Two deaths on one farm is settlement, not passage.
Ockert Johannes Stephanus Booysen dies at Klerksdorp
Aged sixty-nine. The man who signed his father's death notice in 1908, and who carried his mother's father's name out of the district of Cradock and into the western Transvaal. A civil registration, which names no parents.
A tree nurseryman marries at Vereeniging
George Downing Mountjoy Booyzen and Anna Johanna Maria Pretorius, she aged eighteen with her father's written consent — and a first cousin once removed.
Catherine Mary Sophia Booyzen born
The third woman of that name in seventy years, and the starting point of this archive.
Isabella Fredrika Booyzen, born Coetzee, dies at Middelburg
Her husband did not report it until 1943. This archive had been using the filing year as her death date.
An ex-miner dies at Johannesburg Hospital, and nobody who knew him is there
WILLIAM HERMAN BOOYZEN, 47, born Cape Province, married, EX MINER (TOLD) UNDERGROUND, of 62 Langford Street, Booysens — a perforated duodenal ulcer, general peritonitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, about one day in hospital. The informant was an officer of the hospital. Buried at BRIXTON on 31 July. This is almost certainly Willem Hermanus Booyzen of Indwe, the mijnwerker of Dugmore Mijn: the occupation, the province, the age within a year and the cemetery all fit, and his widow was buried at Johannesburg in 1968 as Susanna Adriana Booyzen. No parents are named, so it is inferred and not documented.
James Jonathan Mountjoy dies at Barkly East
Estate KAB MOOC 6/9/5047: 58379; his wife's is the very next file.
Kathleen Barry dies in Mayfair, a “Military Pensioner”
No. 1, Fifteenth Avenue. Buried at Brixton.
Kathleen Barry buried at Brixton, grave 9760
The City of Johannesburg Register of Persons Buried at New Cemetery: BOOYZEN, CATHERINE M.S., 82, buried 6 September 1940, section D.R., grave 9760. This archive has carried her as “1859–1940” and nothing else. An Irishman's daughter out of Barkly East, a Kolbe's granddaughter, married to a Booyzen at Lady Grey in 1879 and widowed at Indwe in 1905 — in the Dutch Reformed section of a Johannesburg cemetery.
Hercules Johannes Mountjoy dies in Wodehouse, aged 74
No estate file exists for him in the Cape archives under any spelling.
Joseph Heinrich Daschner dies at Kenilworth, Johannesburg
His notice gives the marriage at INDWE and eleven children, six of them carrying Booyzen and Barry names.
Anna Pretorius dies at Forest Hill, aged 37
An ectopic pregnancy, at 85 Rheeders Street. She leaves six children; Catherine is fourteen.
Gertrude Elizabeth Booyzen born and dead within four days
And a second Gertrude, eleven months later, on the same date. Two children, two certificates, two cemeteries.
George dies at the same address, and Catherine is orphaned at eighteen
Coronary thrombosis. Clerk, South African Railways. Buried West Park three days later.
Catherine marries Nuno Fernando Lerena
St Joseph's, Mayfair — the hinge to the Lerena archive.
Catherine Mary Sophia Booyzen dies at Johannesburg
Where this archive begins, and works backwards from.