The children of Barend Burger and Marritje Willems Schalks
email: Richard Ball
Main page with list of families in this web site  | The surnames in the Burger family tree  | The names of the people in the Burger family  | The sources from which the Burger information is drawn  | 
What follows are my reasons for assuming that

Barent Burger, born 1692, died 1729
Willem Burger, died 1731
Andries Burger, died 1750
Helena Burger, born 1702
Jacobus Burger, born 1704, died

are all siblings, the children of

Barend Burger, died 1705 and
Marritie Schalks Willemsdr (van der Merwe) died c 1709

1  

We have baptisms for:

Cape Town, 1692, den 7 September
Een kint gedoopt waer van de vader is Ba....(end of page)
Burger de moeder martha Willemsn/dr
getuygen (.?.) klaasen, ende genaamt Barent

Drakenstein; Le 8 Julliet 1701
Ellaina fille de beerne beurger et de Martha
Eskal Le temoins et françois du toit et Susanne
Seugnet pour marraine.

Drakenstein; 1704, 13 April 
Jacobus
de Vader Barent Burger, de Moeder Marrijtie Willemz, 
getuijgen Martinus Van Stade, Aaltie Willemz.

There are no baptisms of any other children of this couple to be found. I would assume that they were all baptised at Drakenstein where the Registers before 1717 were already known to be missing by 1726 and were later partly reconstructed from the notes of Pastor Simond and others.

Barend Burger died circa 1705. The inventory of his estate (MOOC 8/2, no.3) mentions his widow and his six minor children but does not name them.

There are no Weeskamer records extant for this period (Andre Kellerman investigated).

The Estate distribution accounts
1 for their mother, Marritje Willems Schalck, once again mention six minor children without any names. Her second husband, Lambert Smit, is mentioned in these accounts as the step-father of these children ('haer schoonvader Lambert Smit') and one small note mentions the names Jacobus and Helena Burgert without mentioning who they are, date 17 July 1710:

(Aan) Lambert Smit in voldoening van desselfs geheele 
Erfportie uijt deesen boedel behalven seekere 
f300:-:- die voor een jaer in sequestratie blijft 
tot betalingh van de nog opdagende schulden, en 
om deselve daer na of wel het Restant van dien 
goetgedaente worden aen de Reeken. van Jacobus 
en Helena Burgert jeder voor de helft (f.) 1660,-[]

The earliest date in this inventory is February 1710 but she seems to have died prior to October 1709, since there is an entry in the Estate Accounts of Johannes Bocklenbergh, 
dated 15 Ocober 1709: 

(pr.) den boedel van Lambert Smit en Marritje 
Willems Schalk over verdiend meesterloon en 
geleeverde medicijnen 60,,-,,-


2  

The inventory of the estate of Barend Burger 2, drawn up after his death in 1729, states:
So ... deselve bevorens 
bij goede mannen en naaste 
Bloedvrinden volgens inventaris 
sijn opgenomen ...

and the inventory itself is signed:

In't Land Van Waveren 
den 26 May 1729 

Willem Burger 
franssos dutoij de ijonge
josua joubert
jacob teron

This  is the weakest point in my argument

I am going to assume that Willem Burger was the 'Bloedvriend' (next-of-kin) and the other three were the 'goede mannen' (upright men) and from that I shall draw the very tenuous conclusion that he was a brother of the deceased Barend Burger, one of the three known children of Barend Burger and Marritje Willems Schalck. 

As some slight corroboration, this Willem's first son was named Barend (the convention of naming the firstborn son after the paternal grandfather was followed by many Cape families, as it was by many Dutch families).


3

Having assumed that Willem Burger was one of the children we move on to his own Estate Inventory3, drawn up in 1731, when Andries Burger attended to oversee the interests of the children, and Jacobus van der Merwe attended on behalf of the widow. 


4

When Maria van der Merwe, first wife of Andries Burger, died somewhere between 1725 and 1727, an inventory of her and Andries's joint estate was drawn up by Schalk Willems van der Merwe and Willem Burger. Later, Andries Burger, in his will dated 1727 named the above pair once again as the guardians of his children, identifying them as his father-in-law and brother4 .


5 The order of their birth. From the Opgaaf (tax) returns of 1692 we know that the first child must have been a daughter (who had presumably died before 1693 when the couple appear in the muster rolls as having just one child). This child  must have been Barend Burger junior, baptised 7 September 1692 who must have been the second child. Barent first appears as an individual in the Cape Muster rolls in the year 1708, at the age of 16. Next to appear is Willem, in 1713, then Andries in the roll dated the end of April 1716. Helena appears in the roll of 30th April 1718 as the wife of Jan Olivier, Jacobus Burger not until 1725.

Since no other person surnamed Burger appears during those years we must assume that the son whose name we do not know, died before he was of an age to be registered as an individual.5 .

I therefore conclude that Andries Burger and Willem Burger were brothers. From my previous deductions about Willem I now assume that Andries was another son of Barend Burger and Marritje Willems Schalck.

The sixth child is still unknown (to me).


I would be very glad to hear of any more evidence that anyone may have discovered.

The above notes researched and written by Richard Ball ©2003

1.
Cape Archives, MOOC 13/1/1,26
Boedelrekening Marritje Willems Schalck (excerpts)

11 Julij. ,den baes Smit Sigismundus zijnde 't geene
deselve uijt den gemeenen boedel van Lam
bert Smit te pretendeeren had, en aen de
minderjarige kinders van Marritje Willems
Schalk vereert heeft ... " 21.-.-

- - do. " de ses minderjarige kinders van barent bur,,
gert en Maritje Willems Schalk in voldoenin,,
ge van haer Vaderlik bewijs sijnde voor Jeder 
een somme van f1000:-:- " 6000,-,-

" do. ,het Vaderlijk bewijs van de ses minderjarige
kinders van Wijlen Barent Burgert, soo als 
de Generale Reeke. van haer schoonvader 
Lambert Smit ten Laste gebragtis ten 
bedrage van f.1000:-:- Jeder .... " 6000,-,-

- 17 Julij " Lambert Smit in voldoening van desselfs geheele 
Erfportie uijt deesen boedel behalven seekere 
f300:-:- die voor een jaer in sequestratie blijft 
tot betalingh van de nog opdagende schulden, en 
om deselve daer na of wel het Restant van dien 
goetgedaente worden aen de Reeken. van Jacobus 
en Helena Burgert jeder voor de helft " 1660,-[]

1711
28' Februarij ,d erfportie van Marritje Willemsz Schalk 
uijt den voorsz geneemden boedel van haer ver
sondene Man Lambert Smit ... " 2193.7.10

2.
Cape Archives, MOOC 8/5, 11 1729
Inventory - Barend Burger


...So en 
in diervoegen als deselve bevorens 
bij goede mannen en naaste 
Bloedvrinden volgens inventaris 
sijn opgenomen, en heden door 
d'ondergetekende gecomitte. Weesmr. 
in presentie van d'onderget: 
als naaste bloedvrind en 
goede men getaxt.


Note from Bob Kernkamp, by email 8th March 2003:


The phrase "in diervoegen" or "in dier voegen" means "in such a way", and is therefore another way of saying "so". I bet you must have come across many of these double phrasings in old records. They just love to say things twice, like "attesteren ende verklaren". The word "dier" is a declension of the indicative "die" (this, that), probably the genitive ...


"Bloedvrienden" can be translated literally into "bloodfriends" or "friends of the blood", and is another way of saying family, or relations. It was mostly, as indeed it is here, used in phrases like "naaste bloedvrienden",
meaning the closer relatives or next of kin. It is just one of these extinct words that you will come across.


The complete passage might thus be translated as follows: "such as these have been described in an inventory by good men and nearest kin"

3.
Cape Archives, MOOC 8/5, 35 1731
Inventory - Willem Burger


Andries Burger attended the estate inventory of 1731 to oversee the interests of the children, while Jacobus van der Merwe attended for the widow. Andries, in his will dated 1727 named his brother, the farmer Willem Burger, as one of the guardians of his children.

4.
Cape Archives, CJ 2604, 21
Will, Andries Burgert, 27 December 1727.

... den testateur als voogden nomineert aanstelt ende versoekte syn schoonvader den heemraad [Willem - crossed out] Schalk Willemsz vander Merwe en sijn broeder den Landbouwer Willem burgert, ...


5.
Cape Muster Rolls, Cape Archives, VC39 and VC40
and Opgaaf (Tax) returns

The Opgaaf (Tax) returns were lists of Free persons at the Cape with their belongings and their yearly produce, crops and animals, upon which their tax contribution was based. 

What has been consulted here is the computerised version of this information as produced at the University of the Western Cape.

In the Opgaaf return of 1692 Barend Burger and Maria van der Merwe are recorded as having just one daughter, in the muster roll of 1693 they have just one child (sex not specified) and in the opgaaf of 1695 they have just two sons.

Names and words in blue are links to more information

The names of the people in the Burger family   |  The surnames in the Burger family tree  |   The sources from which the Burger information is drawn |