| 8. | Nicolaas Jansz JANSE(N) VAN RENSBURG was born in 1661 in Rensburg, Denmark; died in Dec 1728 in Drakenstein, Cape, South Africa(Paarl). Notes:
Alt Birth: Abt 1680 Rynsburg, Leiden, Nederland
Die Rietvleiers - Die familiegeskiedenis van 'n tak van die familie Van Rensburg - J H van Rensburg a1 (stamvader). Arriveer c. 1708, waarskynlik van Rensburg in Schleswig-Holstein (destyds deel van Denemarke ) of, soos sommige meen, van Rynsburg in Nederland, boer agtereenvolgens te Hottentotsfontei n by Riebeek-Kasteel, Rensburg in die Land van Waveren en Zeekoeigat (naby Wellington).
CLAAS JANSZ: VAN RENSBURG
1661-December 1728
Mystery of Claas's Arrival at the Cape
Claas Jansz was the 'stamvader' of the Van Rensburg's in South Africa. Mystery surrounds his first 47 years, our first contact with him is his wedding entry, in 1708. The arrival of Claas at the Cape is not known. Leaving Europe and making his way to the southern part of Africa was a major relocation, on arrival he would have seen this view of Cape, with Table mountain, painting is from early 1700's. Research into early documents does not reveal his pres ence earlier at the Cape. (1)
Earliest Record at the Cape 1708
The earliest record of his presence at the Cape is his marriage, in the year 1708. The Cape was filled with great political changes. The previous few years there were major confrontation between the burghers (some of the key burghers Husing, Tas (2) ) and Governor W.A. van der Stel. He was feathering his own nest and denying them opportunities with contracts to supply the Company with wine and meat. It is presumed that Claas must have arrived in 1708, the year preceding Governor van der Stel was removed due to corruption. The Marriage entry at Stellenbosch church, 14 th August 1708 has recorded Claas marrying Aletta van der Merwe (3 ) , the minister H. Beck officiated. We have a very good idea what the village and church wou ld have looked like since there is a drawing made less than two years later. Here is the draw ing by van Stade from 1710 of the village Stellenbosch with the church (4) . One must admire a 47 year old man being able to persuade a 24 year old widow to marry him, and/or did she need some security, being just widowed and having two little children. It is likely that Claas had been previously married since the title "jonge man" or abbreviation j.m. (meaning bachelor), is not attributed to him with his wedding entry. Claas Jansz (which means Claas the son of Jan) was born in 1661. Since Nicolaas is the family name, it is most likely his full name. His year of birth is determined from Claas's will (5) which states that he was 66 at the time of making the will on the 21st March 1727.
The Naming says it All:
The custom, prior to surnames usage was that a person was known as: "Given name and then Father's name plus son". Applying this to Claas Jansz: His given name is - Claas. His father's name was 'Jan' and 'sz' represents 'se zoon' which means son (or son belonging to him). Thus each next generation, the last named changes to who their father was. The full name of Jan was most likely Johannes since the eldest son was named such. Claas's mother's name was most probably Cecilia, since it was customary (6) to name the second daughter after the father's mother. The child Hendrik could have been named after Claas's eldest brother if they followed the naming pattern in this footnote, refer also to table under Naming Custom and Claas's children further below. Thus we can presume that Claas's eldest brother was called Hendrik. If we apply the naming custom now to these two brothers we get the following possibilities:
If Claas was the eldest son and Hendrik the second eldest. This would mean that Claas was named after his father's father and Hendrik was named after his mother's father. The ancestral chart would look like. If Hendrik was the eldest son and Claas was the second eldest son then Hendrik was named after his father's father and Claas was named after his mother's father. Claas could not have been a third eldest son since he did not receive his father's name, refer to footnote 5.
If Claas was the fourth eldest son. Then Hendrik was the eldest son and named after his father's father. We would not know the name of the second eldest son who was named after the mother's father. The third eldest son would have been named Jan after the father and Claas the fourth son would have been named after the father's eldest brother. Furthermore with Claas we have a major change in usage of names and surnames. Dr C. Pama wrote in a letter to me 18 August 1988 "In the Low Countries and north of it one usually find s that fixed surnames start in the south and the further one goes to the North, the later the adoption of surnames. In Flanders they are quite common already in the 13th and 14th century but in Amsterdam they appear not earlier than the 16th Century. In Frisia(Friesland) it appeared that when in 1811 Napoleon compelled everyone in Holland to adopt a fixed surname, most of the Frisians did not have one yet." Claas was then still using the old naming customs, and yet during his life time we have the introduction of surname usage in our ancestors. With his descendants many wanted to maintain both the old custom that was in use up and until Claas, therefore using 'Janse' and yet also using the introduced surname 'van Rensburg'.
Rijnsburg versus Rendsburg
Where Claas originated from is not a settled issue. Some feel that he came from Rijnsburg , 5 km Northwest of Leiden in the Netherlands. Research into baptismal records conducted at Rijnsburg was fruitless according to Heese (7) . Baptism records for the church which are held at the Algemeen Rijksargief of Den Haag go back to 1675 and Claas was born prior to that. Research that was done into the 'regterlike' and 'notariele' archives at Den Haag found no mention made of a Rijnsburger who moved or traveled to the Cape. Others feel that he came from Rendsburg in Schleiswig-Holstein, Germany. Research done into the baptismal records there have not substantiated this theory either.
The evidence for Rijnsburg,
Dutch origin-Some official documents spelt Claas's place of origin as Rijnsburg 1. Claas's son Johannes (b1) spelt his surname as Rinsburg (8) 2. Claas married Aletta whose family was of Dutch origin 3. This theory is supported by E. Rosenthal, Dr W.H.J. Punt and Dr C. Pama (9) 4. The evidence for Rendsburg (10) , German origin-Some official documents spell Claas's place of origin Rensburg and Rensborg (the latter supports Rendsburg since this town was a disputed town with Denmark and they sometimes spelled the town with the "borg" ending)
1. The Cape was Dutch, thus it is more plausible to have a German/Danish name being Dutchified at the Cape, than have a Dutch name being altered to a German/Danish way of spelling at the Cape
2. In the document of request (11) for Land ownership, the measurement is given as "Rijnsland roeden". Yet place of origin for Claas in the same document is given as Rensburg. A clear distinction between 'Rens' and 'Rijns' thus not from the same root origin
3. The Dutch version has the prefix "Rijn" which was very commonly known, the river Rhine is spelt 'Rijn'
4. Claas does not appear as a Member of the Drakenstein Church (12) compiled by minister Petrus van Aken, even though Aletta is on it. A possible reason could be that he was Lutheran thus from German origin and not Calvinistic which would mean he was from Dutch origin
5. His son Hendrik (b6) spells the surname as Rensenbur , could this variation indicate the missing "d"
6. The Boer president W.C.J. van Renseburg of the ZAR 1863, spelt his surname (13)as such , yet conversely claims that he was from Dutch descent
7. If Claas served as a soldier, it should be noted that Germans tended to serve in the army and Dutch in the navy
8. This theory is supported by Dr J Hoge and H.T. Colenbrander (14)
9. What was the real surname: van Rensburg, Van Rensburg, Jansen van Rensburg?
Are they all from the same ancestor? and which is the authentic one? There was only one stamvader and the facts are that he signed his name as Claas Jansz. Which means Claas the son of Jan. In order to distinguish between all the people who were Jansz (in other words their fathers had the same name, there were scores of Jansz at the Cape. The real difficulty was that there were a number of persons with the same name as our stamvader: Claas Jansz: van Hofland; C laas Jansz: van Alkmaar; Claas Jansz: van Amsterdam; Claas Jansz: van Reeuwijk) the authorities added where they were from in order to distinguish them from one another. Thus some people eventually received a double barrel surname. Based on Patronym and Toponym, who they were descendant from and where they originated from. My grandfather (Nicolaas Jacobus Van Rensburg) in our case decided to do away with one part of this double barrel surname. To contend that one surname is the authentic one is absurd, since our stamvader only signed himself as Claas Jansz, and never included van Rensburg. We have four documented signature's (15) of him. Some family members insist on using 'Janse' and others vehemently insist on 'Jansen'. Two of Claas's sons' signatures already adopts both these positions. Janse used by b1 Johannes (2k) and Jansen used by b6 Hendrik. When it comes to spelling one finds all kinds of variations, it should be kept in mind that it was Ecclesiastical figures and Company officials who recorded the names and they spelled it which ever way it sounded. Thus even in the original documents you will have differences. Other surnames were "Dutchified". All this further complicates the search for his place of origin. R.T .J. Lombard (16) sheds a different view on people such as Claas, whose place of origin his descendants took as their surname.
According to him, the place of origin does not necessarily indicate the place of birth, it could just indicate the place of last dwelling. If this is the case with Claas Jansz then it makes it so much more difficult to get a connection to a European country or place of birth. There have been numerous variation in usage and spelling of our surname.
Seven children born to Claas and Aletta
b1 Johannes baptized 7 July 1709 (17) , and married 27 August 1730 Anna Margaretha Botha
b2 Elsie baptized 31 July 1712 (at Stellenbosch), died 15 October 1776 and married 12 August 1731 Pieter van der Merwe, died 2 May 1763
b3 Cecilia baptized (18) 21 April 1715, died 25 July 1774 and married 19 April 1732 Izaak van der
Merwe, died (19) 26 April 1774
b4 Willem baptized (20) 21 November 1717, died 21 July 1746 and married 2 July 1740 Anna Sophia Burger
b5 Nicolaas baptized (21) 31 March 1720, and married 31 March 1743 Maria Marais
b6 Hendrik baptized (22) 12 September 1723, and married 1747 Anna Maria van der Merwe
b7 Soph ia baptized (23) 23 December 1725, and married 30 November 1745 David van der Merwe Claas and Aletta's offspring multiplied rapidly with 16 grandsons as offspring (4), ensuring the multiplication of van Rensburg descendants.
Naming Custom: Claas & Aletta followed the custom
CHILD NAMED AFTER CLAAS'S CHILDREN
First Son Father's father Johannes
First Daughter Mother's mother Elsie
Second Son Mother's father Willem
Second Daughter Father's mother Cecilia
Third Son Father Nicolaas
Third daughter Mother ???
Fourth Son Father's eldest brother Hendrik
Fourth Daughter Mother's eldest sister Sophia
b1 Johannes named after Claas's father,
b2 Elsie named after Aletta's mother
b3 Cecilia named most likely after Claas's mother
b4 Willem named after Aletta's father
b5 Nicolaas named after Claas
Very likely another child Alleta was born and died young see next paragraph
b6 Hendrik named most likely after the eldest brother of Claas
b7 Sophia named after Aletta's eldest sister
Did they have a child named Aletta?
The naming method used and speculation follows the naming custom. The naming is consistent with custom, apart from Sophia. She should have been named Aletta after the mother, with the ne xt daughter according to custom receiving the name Sophia. They either deviated from custom or I would suggest they had another infant girl after Cecilia, who would have died young, named Aletta after the mother. There seems to be enough time between child b5 Nicolaas who was baptised March 1720 and child b6 Hendrik who was baptised September 1723 for such a possibility . Is it a coincidence that the Stellenbosch 'Krygsraadsvergadering' Militia Meeting on 21 Sep tember 1721 gave Claas time off from attending the militia practice in Stellenbosch for the end of September and October of that year. The minutes states that Claas Jansz: 'van die krijsbootens g'excuseert' (quoted in J.H. van Rensburg Die Rietvleiers p 16). Maybe Aletta was close to having this child, who would have also been called Aletta or did she already have this child and something have gone wrong and thus Claas was excused ? This is speculation but fairly plausible. Research into the incoming and outgoing letters to the Stellenbosch Krygsraad at this time would be worthwhile.
Intermarriages with van der Merwe family
It is amazing to notice the numerous connections to the van der Merwe's. The early Cape can be
described as a Colony of cousinary tangled marriages.
van Rensburg and van der Merwe intermarital tree
The Key to this Tree
The right branch consist of van Rensburg children who got married to a van der Merwe. The
corresponding number with "X" is the family member they got married to. Note 3X and 4X are listed
twice, but it is the same person. Note the numbers were created only to explain the intermarital
relationship.
VAN RENSBURG CHILDREN:-1=
Elsie, 2= Cecilia, 3= Willem, 4 = Hendrik, 5= Sophia
1,2 and 5 - the three sisters married three brothers (they were the children of Aletta's brother Schalk Willem van der Merwe and his wife Anna Prevot) who were their cousins.
3 - Willem married the daughter of two of his cousins (she was the daughter of Aletta's sister Elsie van
der Merwe and Willem Burger)
5 - Hendrik married one of his sister's children (she was the daughter of Sophia Janse van Rensburg and David van der Merwe) and Hendrik and David was also cousins.
Where he Lived: Farms Hottentotsfontein and Rensburg
The exact place where Claas lived when he got married is not certain. We do know that they had their first son baptised at Stellenbosch 7 July 1709 that could have been due to them living closer to Stellenbosch or the little church at Drakenstein was in bad shape and still very much French. In the 1708-1710 'Paden and Weggenrol (24) , the road maintenance list, he had to work on the road between Drakenstein and the West side of Paarl. We can presume that this would have been the vicinity of his first place of dwelling after his marriage. Van Stade made a drawing of Paarl mountain in 1710 (11k). His name is removed from the list in 1710. Claas obtained a loan farm Hottentotsfontein on 17 October 1708 at Riebeecks Casteel (25) it was renewed on 10 May 1709 (26) . A Map from 1720 (21k) indicates Hottentotsfontein farm. Today there is a farm called Hottentotsvallei in this area which could be the same farm. Claas received a loan farm (27) at the side of the Breede river on 17 Dec 1711 in 'Land van Waveren', opposite Philip du Pree, the present Tulbagh (28) area. This was the farm known as Rensburg. We have a description of van Heerden's house at Weltevreden, he was Claa s's brother-in law. Their farms were separated by only one other farm. The van Heerden house consisted of three rooms: a larger room which functioned as the general bedroom, the 'voorhuis' family room, and the kitchen quoted in M. Cairns (29) . This gives us some idea of what Claas's house may have been like. The early farmers who went to the 'Land van Waveren' had to offload and dismantle their wagons. They carried everything by human effort over the Obiqua mountains (30) . Hottentot's raiding their farms harassed those living in the 'Land van Waveren'. Since the inhabitants "in en omtrent Land van Waveren en de Berghrivier gelegen, zodanigh benauwen en bang maken, dat des nagts nauwelijks als met geweer in die hande derven slapen" (31) They were so afraid of being attacked that they had to sleep with their guns in their hands. They decided to form a local burgher commando under the leadership of Schalk Willem van der Merwe and Jan Harmense Potgieter. A commando consisted of the local farmers forming a defense and pursue system. Here we have the origin of the Commando. Twenty three volunteers joined this expedition. It is most likely that Claas was part of this commando, since he lived there; we know he later served as a sergeant; and van der Merwe was his brother-in-law (32) .
Calamities
The family seems to have escaped the Smallpox epidemic of May 1713 due to the isolation of the Land van Waveren. This epidemic left Drakenstein with only 20 able whites. This epidemic caused a lot of deaths amongst the Hottentots. At the same time the Cape experienced the commen cement of 2 years of drought and 7 years of stock sickness (p 48,49 Thom Skaapboedery).
CLAAS JANSZ VAN RENSBURG
Claas Jansz was the father of all the Van Rensburgs in South Africa. When he was 47 years old, on the 14th August 1708 at Stellenbosch, he married Aletta van der Merwe, 24 year old daughter of Willem Schalk van der Merwe and Elsie Cloete. She was the widow of Marthinus van Staden.
Claas Jansz (meaning: Claas who is the son of Jan) was born in 1661. However his year of birth, which is determined from his will stating that he was 66 at the time of making the will on the 21st March 1727, is not above question. The will states that his wife Aletta was 40 at the time of the will and this age is incorrect as it does not fit in with her baptism on the 30th April 1684. Thus her age at the time of the will according to her baptism must have been 43.
His mother's name was most likely Cecilia, since it was customary to name the second daughter after the father's mother. Where Claas came from is not a settled issue. Some feel that he came from Rijnsburg, 5 km North of Leiden in the Netherlands. Research into the baptismal records conducted at Rijnsburg was fruitless according to Heese, since baptismal records for the church, which are held at the Algemeen Rijksargief of Den Haag, commence only in 1675 and Claas was born prior to this. Research that was done into the "regterlike" and "notariële" archieves at Den Haag found that no mention is made of a Rijnburger who moved or travelled to the Cape or Southern Africa. Others feel that he came from Rendsburg in Schleiswig-Holstein in Germany. Research done on the baptismal records at Rendsburg, on behalf of the writer and others, have not yet been able to identify Claas.
R.T.J. Lombard sheds a different view on people such as Claas whose place of origin his descendents took as their surname. According to him, the place of origin does not necessarily indicate the place of birth, it could just indicate the place of last dwelling. If this is the case with Claas Jansz then it makes it so much more difficult to get a connection to a European country or place of birth. It should also be remembered that the place of origin and name which were recorded in documents were written by government officials or clerics, who spelled the place of origin and name in their own ways. Thus spelling of these names vary. This serves to further complicate the search for the place of origin.
Alternative location: Rensburg, Denmark
Alternative location: Rensburg, Denmark
Arriveer aan Kaap tussen 1705 en 1708 vanaf Rhynsburg, naby Leiden in Nederland - NEE, vanaf Rendsburg in Schelswig-Holstein
Arrived 24 Jan 1708 aboard the Generale Vrede
Volgens Pama II was hy waarskynlik van Rynsburg by Leiden in Nederland afkomstig.
Du Plooy.paf:
Die Rietvleiers - Die familiegeskiedenis van 'n tak van die familie Van Rensburg - J H van Re nsburg a1 (stamvader)
Arriveer c. 1708, waarskynlik van Rensburg in Schleswig-Holstein (destyds deel van Denemarke ) of, soos sommige meen, van Rynsburg in Nederland, boer agtereenvolgens te Hottentotsfontei n by Riebeek-Kasteel, Rensburg in die Land van Waveren en Zeekoeigat (naby Wellington).
Mystery of Claas's Arrival at the Cape
Claas Jansz was the 'stamvader' of the Van Rensburg's in South Africa. Mystery surrounds his first 47 years, our first contact with him is his wedding entry, in 1708. The arrival of Claas at the Cape is not known. Leaving Europe and making his way to the southern part of Afric a was a major relocation, on arrival he would have seen this view of Cape, with Table mountai n(30k), painting is from early 1700's. Research into early documents does not reveal his pres ence earlier at the Cape. (1)
Earliest Record at the Cape 1708
The earliest record of his presence at the Cape is his marriage, in the year 1708. The Cape w as filled with great political changes. The previous few years there were major confrontatio n between the burghers (some of the key burghers Husing, Tas (2) ) and Governor W.A. van de r Stel. He was feathering his own nest and denying them opportunities with contracts to suppl y the Company with wine and meat. It is presumed that Claas must have arrived in 1708, the year preceding Governor van der Stel was removed due to corruption. The Marriage entry at Stellenbosch church, 14 th August 1708 (8k) has recorded Claas marrying Aletta van der Merwe (3 ) , the minister H. Beck officiated. We have a very good idea what the village and church would have looked like since there is a drawing made less than two years later. Here is the drawing by van Stade from 1710 of the village Stellenbosch with the church(23k) (4) . One must admire a 47 year old man being able to persuade a 24 year old widow to marry him, and/or did she need some security, being just widowed and having two little children. It is likely that Cl aas had been previously married since the title "jonge man" or abbreviation j.m. (meaning bac helor), is not attributed to him with his wedding entry. Claas Jansz (which means Claas the s on of Jan) was born in 1661. Since Nicolaas is the family name, it is most likely his full na me. His year of birth is determined from Claas's will (31k) (5) which states that he was 66 a t the time of making the will on the 21 st March 1727.
The Naming says it All:
The custom, prior to surnames usage was that a person was known as: "Given name and then Fath er's name plus son". Applying this to Claas Jansz: His given name is - Claas. His father's name was 'Jan' and 'sz' represents 'se zoon' which means son (or son belonging to him). Thus each next generation, the last named changes to who their father was. The full name of Jan was most likely Johannes since the eldest son was named such. Claas's mother's name was most pr obably Cecilia, since it was customary (6) to name the second daughter after the father's mother. The child Hendrik could have been named after Claas's eldest brother if they followed the naming pattern in this footnote, refer also to table under Naming Custom and Claas's children further below. Thus we can presume that Claas's eldest brother was called Hendrik. If we apply the naming custom now to these two brothers we get the following possibilities:
If Claas was the eldest son and Hendrik the second eldest. This would mean that Claas was named after his father's father and Hendrik was named after his mother's father. The ancestral chart would look like. If Hendrik was the eldest son and Claas was the second eldest son the n Hendrik was named after his father's father and Claas was named after his mother's father . Claas could not have been a third eldest son since he did not receive his father's name, r efer to footnote 5.
If Claas was the fourth eldest son. Then Hendrik was the eldest son and named after his fathe r's father. We would not know the name of the second eldest son who was named after the mothe r's father. The third eldest son would have been named Jan after the father and Claas the fou rth son would have been named after the father's eldest brother. Furthermore with Claas we h ave a major change in usage of names and surnames. Dr C. Pama wrote in a letter to me 18 August 1988 (28k) "In the Low Countries and north of it one usually find s that fixed surnames start in the south and the further one goes to the North, the later th e adoption of surnames. In Flanders they are quite common already in the 13th and 14th centur y but in Amsterdam they appear not earlier than the 16th Century. In Frisia(Friesland) it app eared that when in 1811 Napoleon compelled everyone in Holland to adopt a fixed surname, mos t of the Frisians did not have one yet." Claas was then still using the old naming customs, a nd yet during his life time we have the introduction of surname usage in our ancestors. Wit h his descendants many wanted to maintain both the old custom that was in use up and until Cl aas, therefore using 'Janse' and yet also using the introduced surname 'van Rensburg'.
Rijnsburg versus Rendsburg
Where Claas originated from is not a settled issue. Some feel that he came from Rijnsburg , 5 km Northwest of Leiden in the Netherlands. Research into baptismal records conducted at R ijnsburg was fruitless according to Heese (7) . Baptism records for the church which are hel d at the Algemeen Rijksargief of Den Haag go back to 1675 and Claas was born prior to that. Research that was done into the 'regterlike' and 'notariele' archives at Den Haag found no mention made of a Rijnsburger who moved or traveled to the Cape. Others feel that he came from Rendsburg in Schleiswig-Holstein, Germany. Research done into the baptismal records there have not substantiated this theory either.
The evidence for Rijnsburg,
Dutch origin-Some official documents spelt Claas's place of origin as Rijnsburg 1. Claas's so n Johannes (b1) spelt his surname as Rinsburg (2k) (8) 2. Claas married Aletta whose family was of Dutch origin 3. This theory is supported by E. Rosenthal, Dr W.H.J. Punt and Dr C. Pam a (9) 4. The evidence for Rendsburg (10) , German origin-Some official documents spell Claas' s place of origin Rensburg and Rensborg (the latter supports Rendsburg since this town was a disputed town with Denmark and they sometimes spelled the tow n with the "borg" ending)
1. The Cape was Dutch, thus it is more plausible to have a German/Danish name being Dutchified a t the Cape, than have a Dutch name being altered to a German/Danish way of spelling at the Cape
2. In the document of request (11) for Land ownership, the measurement is given as "Rijnsland ro eden". Yet place of origin for Claas in the same document is given as Rensburg. A clear disti nction between 'Rens' and 'Rijns' thus not from the same root origin
3. The Dutch version has the prefix "Rijn" which was very commonly known, the river Rhine is spe lt 'Rijn'
4. Claas does not appear as a Member of the Drakenstein Church (61k) (12) compiled by minister P etrus van Aken, even though Aletta is on it. A possible reason could be that he was Luthera n thus from German origin and not Calvinistic which would mean he was from Dutch origin
5. His son Hendrik (b6) spells the surname as Rensenbur (2k) , could this variation indicate th e missing "d"
6. The Boer president W.C.J. van Renseburg of the ZAR 1863, spelt his surname (3k) (13)as such , yet conversely claims that he was from Dutch descent
7. If Claas served as a soldier, it should be noted that Germans tended to serve in the army an d Dutch in the navy
8. This theory is supported by Dr J Hoge and H.T. Colenbrander (14)
9. What was the real surname: van Rensburg, Van Rensburg, Jansen van Rensburg?
Are they all from the same ancestor? and which is the authentic one? There was only one stamv ader and the facts are that he signed his name as Claas Jansz. Which means Claas the son of J an. In order to distinguish between all the people who were Jansz (in other words their fathe rs had the same name, there were scores of Jansz at the Cape. The real difficulty was that th ere were a number of persons with the same name as our stamvader: Claas Jansz: van Hofland; C laas Jansz: van Alkmaar; Claas Jansz: van Amsterdam; Claas Jansz: van Reeuwijk) the authoriti es added where they were from in order to distinguish them from one another. Thus some peopl e eventually received a double barrel surname. Based on Patronym and Toponym, who they were descendant from and where they originated from. My grandfather (Nicolaas Jacobus Van Rensburg) in our case decided to do away with one part of this double barrel surname. To contend that one surname is the authentic one is absurd, since our stamvader only signed himself as Claas Jansz, and never included van Rensburg. We have four documented signature's (7k) (15) of him. Some family members insist on using 'Janse' and others vehemently insist on 'Jansen'. Two of Claas's sons' signatures already adopts both these positions. Janse used by b1 Johannes (2k) and Jansen used by b6 Hendrik (2k) When it comes to spelling one finds all kinds of variations, it should be kept in mind that it was
Ecclesiastical figures and Company officials who recorded the names and they spelled it which ever way it sounded. Thus even in the original documents you will have differences. Other surnames were "Dutchified". All this further complicates the search for his place of origin. R.T .J. Lombard (16) sheds a different view on people such as Claas, whose place of origin his descendants took as their surname. According to him, the place of origin does not necessarily indicate the place of birth, it could just indicate the place of last dwelling. If this is the case with Claas Jansz then it makes it so much more difficult to get a connection to a European country or place of birth. There have been numerous variation in usage and spelling of our surname.
Seven children born to Claas and Aletta
b1 Johannes baptized 7 July 1709 (17) , and married 27 August 1730 Anna Margaretha Botha
b2 Elsie baptized 31 July 1712 (at Stellenbosch), died 15 October 1776 and married 12 August 1731 Pieter van der Merwe, died 2 May 1763
b3 Cecilia baptized (18) 21 April 1715, died 25 July 1774 and married 19 April 1732 Izaak van der
Merwe, died (19) 26 April 1774
b4 Willem baptized (20) 21 November 1717, died 21 July 1746 and married 2 July 1740 Anna Sophia Burger b5 Nicolaas baptized (21) 31 March 1720, and married 31 March 1743 Maria Marais
b6 Hendrik baptized (22) 12 September 1723, and married 1747 Anna Maria van der Merwe
b7 Sophia baptized (23) 23 December 1725, and married 30 November 1745 David van der Merwe Claas and Aletta's offspring multiplied rapidly with 16 grandsons as offspring (4), ensuring the multiplication of van Rensburg descendants.
Naming Custom: Claas & Aletta followed the custom
CHILD NAMED AFTER CLAAS'S CHILDREN
First Son Father's father Johannes
First Daughter Mother's mother Elsie
Second Son Mother's father Willem
Second Daughter Father's mother Cecilia
Third Son Father Nicolaas
Third daughter Mother ???
Fourth Son Father's eldest brother Hendrik
Fourth Daughter Mother's eldest sister Sophia
b1 Johannes named after Claas's father,
b2 Elsie named after Aletta's mother
b3 Cecilia named most likely after Claas's mother
b4 Willem named after Aletta's father
b5 Nicolaas named after Claas
Very likely another child Alleta was born and died young see next paragraph
b6 Hendrik named most likely after the eldest brother of Claas
b7 Sophia named after Aletta's eldest sister
Did they have a child named Aletta?
The naming method used and speculation follows the naming custom. The naming is consistent wi th custom, apart from Sophia. She should have been named Aletta after the mother, with the ne xt daughter according to custom receiving the name Sophia. They either deviated from custom o r I would suggest they had another infant girl after Cecilia, who would have died young, name d Aletta after the mother. There seems to be enough time between child b5 Nicolaas who was ba ptised March 1720 and child b6 Hendrik who was baptised September 1723 for such a possibility . Is it a coincidence that the Stellenbosch 'Krygsraadsvergadering' Militia Meeting on 21 Sep tember 1721 gave Claas time off from attending the militia practice in Stellenbosch for the e nd of September and October of that year. The minutes states that Claas Jansz: 'van die krij sbootens g'excuseert' (quoted in J.H. van Rensburg Die
Rietvleiers p 16). Maybe Aletta was close to having this child, who would have also been call ed Aletta or did she already have this child and something have gone wrong and thus Claas wa s excused ? This is speculation but fairly plausible. Research into the incoming and outgoin g letters to the Stellenbosch Krygsraad at this time would be worthwhile.
Intermarriages with van der Merwe family
It is amazing to notice the numerous connections to the van der Merwe's. The early Cape can b e
described as a Colony of cousinary tangled marriages.
van Rensburg and van der Merwe intermarital tree
The Key to this Tree
The right branch consist of van Rensburg children who got married to a van der Merwe. The
corresponding number with "X" is the family member they got married to. Note 3X and 4X are li sted
twice, but it is the same person. Note the numbers were created only to explain the intermari tal
relationship.
VAN RENSBURG CHILDREN:-1=
Elsie, 2= Cecilia, 3= Willem, 4 = Hendrik, 5= Sophia
1,2 and 5 - the three sisters married three brothers (they were the children of Aletta's brot her Schalk Willem van der Merwe and his wife Anna Prevot) who were their cousins.
3 - Willem married the daughter of two of his cousins (she was the daughter of Aletta's siste r Elsie van
der Merwe and Willem Burger)
5 - Hendrik married one of his sister's children (she was the daughter of Sophia Janse van Re nsburg and David van der Merwe) and Hendrik and David was also cousins.
Where he Lived: Farms Hottentotsfontein and Rensburg
The exact place where Claas lived when he got married is not certain. We do know that they ha d their first son baptised at Stellenbosch 7 July 1709 that could have been due to them livin g closer to Stellenbosch or the little church at Drakenstein was in bad shape and still ver y much French. In the 1708-1710 'Paden and Weggenrol (24) , the road maintenance list, he ha d to work on the road between Drakenstein and the West side of Paarl. We can presume that thi s would have been the vicinity of his first place of dwelling after his marriage. Van Stade m ade a drawing of Paarl mountain in 1710 (11k). His name is removed from the list in 1710. Cla as obtained a loan farm Hottentotsfontein on 17 October 1708 at Riebeecks Casteel (25) it wa s renewed on 10 May 1709 (26) . A Map from 1720 (21k) indicates Hottentotsfontein farm. Toda y there is a farm called Hottentotsvallei in this area which could be the same farm. Claas re ceived a loan farm (27) at the side of the Breede river on 17 Dec 1711 in 'Land van Waveren'(map 41k), opposite Philip du Pree, the present Tulbagh (28) area. This was the far m known as Rensburg. We have a description of van Heerden's house at Weltevreden, he was Claa s's brother-in law. Their farms were separated by only one other farm. The van Heerden hous e consisted of three rooms: a larger room which functioned as the general bedroom, the 'voorh uis' family room, and the kitchen quoted in M. Cairns (29) . This gives us some idea of wha t Claas's house may have been like. The early farmers who went to the 'Land van Waveren' ha d to offload and dismantle their wagons. They carried everything by human effort over the Obi qua mountains (30) . Hottentot's raiding their farms harassed those living in the 'Land van W averen'. Since the inhabitants "in en omtrent Land van Waveren en de Berghrivier gelegen, zod anigh benauwen en bang maken, dat des nagts nauwelijks als met geweer in die hande derven sla pen" (31) They were so afraid of being attacked that they had to sleep with their guns in the ir hands. They decided to form a local burgher commando under the leadership of Schalk Wille m van der Merwe and Jan Harmense Potgieter. A commando consisted of the local farmers formin g a defense and pursue system. Here we have the origin of the Commando. Twenty three voluntee rs joined this expedition. It is most likely that Claas was part of this commando, since he l ived there; we know he later served as
a sergeant; and van der Merwe was his brother-in-law (32) .
Calamities
The family seems to have escaped the Smallpox epidemic of May 1713 due to the isolation of th e Land van Waveren. This epidemic left Drakenstein with only 20 able whites. This epidemic ca used a lot of deaths amongst the Hottentots. At the same time the Cape experienced the commen cement of 2 years of drought and 7 years of stock sickness (p 48,49 Thom Skaapboedery).
Kom waarskynlik vanaf Rynsburg naby Leiden in Nederland
Mystery of Claas's Arrival at the Cape
Claas Jansz was the 'stamvader' of the Van Rensburg's in South Africa. Mystery surrounds his first 47 years, our first contact with him is his wedding entry, in 1708. The arrival of Cl aas at the Cape is not known. Leaving Europe and making his way to the southern part of Afric a was a major relocation, on arrival he would have seen this view of Cape, with Table mountai n(30k), painting is from early 1700's. Research into early documents does not reveal his pres ence earlier at the Cape. (1)
The Naming says it All:
The custom, prior to surnames usage was that a person was known as: "Given name and then Fath er's name plus son". Applying this to Claas Jansz: His given name is - Claas. His father's na me was 'Jan' and 'sz' represents 'se zoon' which means son (or son belonging to him). Thus ea ch next generation, the last named changes to who their father was. The full name of Jan wa s most likely Johannes since the eldest son was named such. Claas's mother's name was most pr obably Cecilia, since it was customary (6) to name the second daughter after the father's mot her. The child Hendrik could have been named after Claas's eldest brother if they followed th e naming pattern in this footnote, refer also to table under Naming Custom and Claas's childr en further below. Thus we can presume that Claas's eldest brother was called Hendrik. If we a pply the naming custom now to these two brothers we get
the following possibilities:
If Claas was the eldest son and Hendrik the second eldest. This would mean that Claas was nam ed after his father's father and Hendrik was named after his mother's father. The ancestral c hart would look like. If Hendrik was the eldest son and Claas was the second eldest son the n Hendrik was named after his father's father and Claas was named after his mother's father . Claas could not have been a third eldest son since he did not receive his father's name, r efer to footnote 5.
If Claas was the fourth eldest son. Then Hendrik was the eldest son and named after his fathe r's father. We would not know the name of the second eldest son who was named after the mothe r's father. The third eldest son would have been named Jan after the father and Claas the fou rth son would have been named after the father's eldest brother. Furthermore with Claas we h ave a major change in usage of names and surnames. Dr C. Pama wrote
in a letter to me 18 August 1988 (28k) "In the Low Countries and north of it one usually find s that fixed surnames start in the south and the further one goes to the North, the later th e adoption of surnames. In Flanders they are quite common already in the 13th and 14th centur y but in Amsterdam they appear not earlier than the 16th Century. In Frisia(Friesland) it app eared that when in 1811 Napoleon compelled everyone in Holland to adopt a fixed surname, mos t of the Frisians did not have one yet." Claas was then still using the old naming customs, a nd yet during his life time we have the introduction of surname usage in our ancestors. Wit h his descendants many wanted to maintain both the old custom that was in use up and until Cl aas, therefore using 'Janse' and yet also using the introduced surname 'van Rensburg'.
Rijnsburg versus Rendsburg
Where Claas originated from is not a settled issue. Some feel that he came from Rijnsburg , 5 km Northwest of Leiden in the Netherlands. Research into baptismal records conducted at R ijnsburg was fruitless according to Heese (7) . Baptism records for the church which are hel d at the Algemeen Rijksargief of Den Haag go back to 1675 and Claas was born prior to that. R esearch that was done into the 'regterlike' and 'notariele' archives at Den Haag found no men tion made of a Rijnsburger who moved or traveled to the Cape. Others feel that he came from R endsburg in Schleiswig-Holstein, Germany. Research done into the baptismal records there hav e not substantiated this theory either.
The evidence for Rijnsburg,
Dutch origin-Some official documents spelt Claas's place of origin as Rijnsburg 1. Claas's so n Johannes (b1) spelt his surname as Rinsburg (2k) (8) 2. Claas married Aletta whose family w as of Dutch origin 3. This theory is supported by E. Rosenthal, Dr W.H.J. Punt and Dr C. Pam a (9) 4. The evidence for Rendsburg (10) , German origin-Some official documents spell Claas' s place of origin Rensburg and Rensborg (the latter supports
Rendsburg since this town was a disputed town with Denmark and they sometimes spelled the tow n with the "borg" ending)
1.
The Cape was Dutch, thus it is more plausible to have a German/Danish name being Dutchified a t the Cape, than have a Dutch name being altered to a German/Danish way of spelling at the Ca pe
2.
In the document of request (11) for Land ownership, the measurement is given as "Rijnsland ro eden". Yet place of origin for Claas in the same document is given as Rensburg. A clear disti nction between 'Rens' and 'Rijns' thus not from the same root origin
3.
The Dutch version has the prefix "Rijn" which was very commonly known, the river Rhine is spe lt 'Rijn'
4.
Claas does not appear as a Member of the Drakenstein Church (61k) (12) compiled by minister P etrus van Aken, even though Aletta is on it. A possible reason could be that he was Luthera n thus from German origin and not Calvinistic which would mean he was from Dutch origin
5.
His son Hendrik (b6) spells the surname as Rensenbur (2k) , could this variation indicate th e missing "d"
6.
The Boer president W.C.J. van Renseburg of the ZAR 1863, spelt his surname (3k) (13)as such , yet conversely claims that he was from Dutch descent
7.
If Claas served as a soldier, it should be noted that Germans tended to serve in the army an d Dutch in the navy
8.
This theory is supported by Dr J Hoge and H.T. Colenbrander (14)
9.
What was the real surname: van Rensburg, Van Rensburg, Jansen van Rensburg?
Are they all from the same ancestor? and which is the authentic one? There was only one stamv ader and the facts are that he signed his name as Claas Jansz. Which means Claas the son of J an. In order to distinguish between all the people who were Jansz (in other words their fathe rs had the same name, there were scores of Jansz at the Cape. The real difficulty was that th ere were a number of persons with the same name as our stamvader: Claas Jansz: van Hofland; C laas Jansz: van Alkmaar; Claas Jansz: van Amsterdam; Claas Jansz: van Reeuwijk) the authoriti es added where they were from in order to distinguish them from one another. Thus some peopl e eventually received a double barrel surname. Based on Patronym and Toponym, who they were d escendant from and where they
originated from. My grandfather (Nicolaas Jacobus Van Rensburg) in our case decided to do awa y with one part of this double barrel surname. To contend that one surname is the authentic o ne is absurd, since our stamvader only signed himself as Claas Jansz, and never included va n Rensburg. We have four documented signature's (7k) (15) of him. Some family members insis t on using 'Janse' and others vehemently insist on 'Jansen'. Two of Claas's sons' signature s already adopts both these positions. Janse used by b1 Johannes (2k) and Jansen used by b6 H endrik (2k) When it comes to spelling one finds all kinds of variations, it should be kept i n mind that it was
Ecclesiastical figures and Company officials who recorded the names and they spelled it which ever way it sounded. Thus even in the original documents you will have differences. Other sur names were "Dutchified". All this further complicates the search for his place of origin. R.T .J. Lombard (16) sheds a different view on people such as Claas, whose place of origin his de scendants took as their surname. According to him, the place of origin does not necessarily i ndicate the place of birth, it could just indicate the place of last dwelling. If this is th e case with Claas Jansz then it makes it so much more difficult to get a connection to a Euro pean country or place of birth. There have been numerous variation in usage and spelling of o ur surname.
Naming Custom: Claas & Aletta followed the custom
CHILD NAMED AFTER CLAAS'S CHILDREN
First Son Father's father Johannes
First Daughter Mother's mother Elsie
Second Son Mother's father Willem
Second Daughter Father's mother Cecilia
Third Son Father Nicolaas
Third daughter Mother ???
Fourth Son Father's eldest brother Hendrik
Fourth Daughter Mother's eldest sister Sophia
b1 Johannes named after Claas's father,
b2 Elsie named after Aletta's mother
b3 Cecilia named most likely after Claas's mother
b4 Willem named after Aletta's father
b5 Nicolaas named after Claas
Very likely another child Alleta was born and died young see next paragraph
b6 Hendrik named most likely after the eldest brother of Claas
b7 Sophia named after Aletta's eldest sister
Did they have a child named Aletta?
The naming method used and speculation follows the naming custom. The naming is consistent wi th custom, apart from Sophia. She should have been named Aletta after the mother, with the ne xt daughter according to custom receiving the name Sophia. They either deviated from custom o r I would suggest they had another infant girl after Cecilia, who would have died young, name d Aletta after the mother. There seems to be enough time between child b5 Nicolaas who was ba ptised March 1720 and child b6 Hendrik who was baptised September 1723 for such a possibility . Is it a coincidence that the Stellenbosch 'Krygsraadsvergadering' Militia Meeting on 21 Sep tember 1721 gave Claas time off from attending the militia practice in Stellenbosch for the e nd of September and October of that year. The minutes states that Claas Jansz: 'van die krij sbootens g'excuseert' (quoted in J.H. van Rensburg Die
Rietvleiers p 16). Maybe Aletta was close to having this child, who would have also been call ed Aletta or did she already have this child and something have gone wrong and thus Claas wa s excused ? This is speculation but fairly plausible. Research into the incoming and outgoin g letters to the Stellenbosch Krygsraad at this time would be worthwhile.
Where he Lived: Farms Hottentotsfontein and Rensburg
The exact place where Claas lived when he got married is not certain. We do know that they ha d their first son baptised at Stellenbosch 7 July 1709 that could have been due to them livin g closer to Stellenbosch or the little church at Drakenstein was in bad shape and still ver y much French. In the 1708-1710 'Paden and Weggenrol (24) , the road maintenance list, he ha d to work on the road between Drakenstein and the West side of Paarl. We can presume that thi s would have been the vicinity of his first place of dwelling after his marriage. Van Stade m ade a drawing of Paarl mountain in 1710 (11k). His name is removed from the list in 1710. Cla as obtained a loan farm Hottentotsfontein on 17 October 1708 at Riebeecks Casteel (25) it wa s renewed on 10 May 1709 (26) . A Map from 1720 (21k) indicates Hottentotsfontein farm. Toda y there is a farm called Hottentotsvallei in this area which could be the same farm. Claas re ceived a loan farm (27) at the side of the Breede river on 17 Dec 1711 in 'Land van
Waveren'(map 41k), opposite Philip du Pree, the present Tulbagh (28) area. This was the far m known as Rensburg. We have a description of van Heerden's house at Weltevreden, he was Claa s's brother-in law. Their farms were separated by only one other farm. The van Heerden hous e consisted of three rooms: a larger room which functioned as the general bedroom, the 'voorh uis' family room, and the kitchen quoted in M. Cairns (29) . This gives us some idea of wha t Claas's house may have been like. The early farmers who went to the 'Land van Waveren' ha d to offload and dismantle their wagons. They carried everything by human effort over the Obi qua mountains (30) . Hottentot's raiding their farms harassed those living in the 'Land van W averen'. Since the inhabitants "in en omtrent Land van Waveren en de Berghrivier gelegen, zod anigh benauwen en bang maken, dat des nagts nauwelijks als met geweer in die hande derven sla pen" (31) They were so afraid of being attacked that they had to sleep with their guns in the ir hands. They decided to form a local burgher commando under the leadership of Schalk Wille m van der Merwe and Jan Harmense Potgieter. A commando consisted of the local farmers formin g a defense and pursue system. Here we have the origin of the Commando. Twenty three voluntee rs joined this expedition. It is most likely that Claas was part of this commando, since he l ived there; we know he later served as
a sergeant; and van der Merwe was his brother-in-law (32) .
Nicolaas married Aletta VAN DER MERWE, b7 on 14 Aug 1709 in Stellenbosch, Cape, South Africa. Aletta (daughter of Willem Schalkzoon VAN DER MERWE, progenitor and Elsie CLOETE, b1) was born on 30 Mar 1684 in Cape Town, Cape, South Africa; was christened on 30 Apr 1684 in Cape Town, Cape, South Africa; died on 30 Sep 1729 in Drakenstein, Cape, South Africa(Paarl). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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