Arbre généalogique Van der Walt / Du Toit » Jacobus Hendrik (Ou Koot) LOUW (1811-1878)

Données personnelles Jacobus Hendrik (Ou Koot) LOUW 

• Il est né le 29 août 1811 dans Groenfontein, Rooiwal / Roggeveld, De Hoop, Overberg, South Africa.
• Il a été baptisé le 6 octobre 1811 dans DRC's baptismal register for Swartland (1810-1821) G5, 3/4, p.34.
• Profession: entre le 1845 et le 1878 Stock farmer dans Roggeveld.
• (Reference Number) : 44.
• (Anomaly) : His biological mother might have been Engela Helena SMIT *ca. May 1787.
• Il est décédé le 29 juin 1878 dans De Hoop, Southern, Limpopo, South Africa, il avait 66 ans.
• Testament en l'an 1840 naar This was drawn jointly with his wife, Anna Gloudina VAN WYK.
• Un enfant de Adriaan Louw et Helena Smit

Famille de Jacobus Hendrik (Ou Koot) LOUW

(1) Il est marié avec Anna Gloudina van WYK.

Ils se sont mariés le 10 novembre 1833 à See Anna's death notice-CA MOOC 6/9/95 f.8764 of May 1861, il avait 22 ans.

Spouse: Hester Maria Josina Louw

Enfant(s):

1. Gerrida Margaretha Louw  1838-1875
2. Jacoba Hendrika Louw  1849-1885
3. Loudina Hendrika Jacoba (Louwtjie) LOUW  1850-1930 
4. Hendrika Anna Louw  ????-1861

(2) Il est marié avec Maria Johanna Elizabeth.

Ils se sont mariés.

(3) Il est marié avec Hester Maria Josina Louw.

Ils se sont mariés.

Enfant(s):

1. Jacobus Adriaan Louw  1834-1878
2. Margaretha Wilhelmina Louw  1835-????
3. Anna Gloudina LOUW  1838-1910
4. Maria Magdalena LOUW  1839-1903
5. Jacobus Louw  1841-????
6. Elgonda Erizima LOUW  1844-1873
7. Abraham Gerrit Willem Louw  1853-1911
8. Hendrik Jacobus Louw  1857-1898

Notes par Jacobus Hendrik (Ou Koot) LOUW

He was known as 'Koot' and referred to as such in Prof. Louw's book, later to be referred to as 'Ou Koot' to avoid confusion with his son Hendrik (*31/1/1857) who people started calling 'Klein Koot'.

I found errors in several of my sources. To thread through some of them requires that I start somewhere! To begin with, the names of his parents as shown on the baptismal register - DRC's baptismal register for Swartland (1810-1821) G5, 3/4, p.34 - are listed as 'Adriaan Louw' and 'Helena Smit'. Jacobus Hendrik SMIT 'de oude' and Margaretha Wilhelmina LOUW, his maternal grandparents, were witnesses at the ceremony, as was one other person, Alewyn Johannis SMIT 'Fz'.

The first correction I would suggest concerns what is found on page 3 in Chapter 6 of Eben Nel's privately published 'Van Blomfontein na Papkuilsfontein tot Sewefontein - Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel - *8/8/1888 †11/12/1967', the word 'eerste' should be inserted before the word 'huwelik' where it appears within the excerpt, 'Die volgende kinders is uit die huwelik gebore :- F.1. Jacobus Adriaan Louw *10-8-1834 ....' et seq. The children in question were, I believe, from Ou Koot's first marriage, that to Anna Glaudina VAN WYK, and not, as implied in the printed version, from his marriage to Hester Josina PIENAAR.

I eventually concluded that Ou Koot and his sister Margaretha Wilhelmina were born out of wedlock to Jacobus Ariaan LOUW (their unofficially adoptive father) and Engela Helena SMIT, an older sister to their adoptive mother Margaretha Wilhelmina. This was the probable cause of several apocryphal accounts of how 'Ou Koot' Louw arrived on the scene, conflicting accounts that were to intrigue, puzzle and confuse their descendants.

One of these is found in the memoirs of the late Mrs. Kotie van der Spuy (of kitchen recipe fame). Part 1 includes some details on the 'Baron von Dikstaff' theory on Ou Koot's origins, one based on a highly apocryphal 'adelike afkoms' hypothesis. Kotie was a grand-daughter of Abraham Gert Willem Louw (*9/10/1853) of the farm Rooifontein, district Calvinia; the tenth child born to Ou Koot and Anna van Wyk, and the next of their children to be born after Loudina. Her set of memoirs is a private document, produced when she was about 81 years old and, read together with Part 2, presents the reader with interesting anecdotes on the life and times of Ou Koot. Another source document, that of A. N. E. Louw (*1916), also presents some supplementary information on the Louw family. I managed to obtain a copy of each of these two parts.

Other versions can be found summarized in Eben Nel's book 'Van Blomfontein na Papkuilsfontein tot Sewefontein', pp.7-11. I found support for the fifth of those he lists in the DRC's baptismal register for Swartland (see under 'Anomaly').

The names of his parents are shown there as 'Adriaan Louw' and 'Helena Smit'. Jacobus Hendrik SMIT 'de oude' and Margaretha Wilhelmina LOUW, his maternal grandparents, were witnesses at the ceremony, as was one other person, Alewyn Johannis SMIT 'Fz'. One of the endnotes in my booklet titled 'Abraham, Loutjie and Ou Koot' (2003) contains the following caveat:

'Attempting to separate fact from fiction can be hazardous - see for example Capensis 2/2001, p.27, The Soetkoek Syndrome, in which Mansell Upham examples the dangers of "wishful linking" and problems caused by inaccuracies that can become so indelible as to later be accepted as fact. Here seems to be a case for examining the balances of probability: Jacobus Adriaan LOUW was referred to in several archive sources as Adriaan. Witnesses at the baptism include what appear to be his sister Anna and either his wife Margaretha or her mother; also four siblings of his sister-in-law Engela Helena Smit and her brother-in-law (Hester's husband, Willem). Then; Ou Koot was named after his maternal grandfather - a breach of DRC tradition for firstborn males. Lastly, there's the date of marriage of Jacobus Adriaan and Margaretha Wilhelmina, three or at most four months before the date of birth "July 1809" of Margaretha, the older of the two infants. All of these support the "fifth" and more probable version of events, viz. that a liaison between Jacobus Adriaan and his sister-in-law Engela Helena produced these two children. There are three other possibilities, viz. (a) collusion with the clergy; (b) errors in transcribing the records; (c) the existence of an entirely different set of parents by those names.'

I was unable to trace in sources available to the public any Adriaan LOUW and Helena SMIT of the period who were married to each other. On the other hand, SAG's volume on names beginning with 'S' has not as yet appeared in print - when it does it might produce further clues about this anomaly.

Then, on the date of his birth: Some sources suggest it was 2nd May 1811. See the notes by Andries Louw *1916, who claims to have the testimony of the son of Ou Koot's daughter-in-law Elizabeth Cornelia LOUW, *3/1/1843, Klein Koot Louw's wife, to this effect. Age at death on his death notice (MOOC 6/9/164 f.5561) reads "67 y 1 m 29 d" which translates to his having been born on 30th April 1811. In small print entered below the age was the date '2 Mei 1811'. However insignificant this minor detail may be in the greater scheme of things I've accepted that he was born on 29th August 1811, the date given on the DRC's Swartland baptismal register.

Lastly, on place names: Prof Louw's book, 'Jacobus Louw : (1779-1817) - Sy voor- en nasate : (1628.03.01 - 1998.02.28)', lists Ou Koot as having been born on Rooiwal (De Hoop). In Eben Nel's book the place of birth is listed as 'Groenfontein (Rooiwal)'. This illustrates something that is often misunderstood; the farms De Hoop, Matjeskloof and Groenfontein had common boundaries - what was in those days referred to as Rooiwal in due course became consolidated with 'Hoop', today forming the combined 3 550-odd ha property known as De Hoop.

The notes written by Elgonda Eritzema BRAND contained an interesting anecdote; the auction sale of his estate was said to have lasted for three days. No wonder my Van Wyk elders were overheard to mutter among themselves, "Aai, sou so 'n bietjie van Ou Koot se klomp geld nie maar ook na ons toe gekom het nie!"

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