Genealogy without Frontiers

The Church and its registers.

The members of the original settlement at the Cape from 1652 onwards were supplied by the Dutch East India Company with a sieketrooster (a lay reader). He held Sunday services where he was allowed to read sermons (but not preach) and to instruct the children in their religion, but not to offer communion, or to marry or baptise. Sieketroosters up to 1665 were Willem Wylant, Pieter van der Staal, Ernestus Back and Jan Jorisz Greef.

Marriages were conducted either by the Commander (civil marriages were part of the normal system in the Netherlands) or by ministers passing on ships calling at the Cape and these latter also conducted any baptisms required.

Eventually the Dutch East India Company management decided to appoint a resident minster at the Cape (all such religious ministers were company salaried officials) and on 18th August 1665 Dominee Johannes van Arkel landed at Table Bay. ¹

Dr Boeseken, in her book Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700, Tafelberg, 1777, page 25, states that 'in the Church Books which he started on the 23rd of August 1665, the Rev. Joan van Arckel with great foresight tried to record the names of the children who had been baptised before his arrival by visiting ministers.

As for the slaves, the first entries were Cornelia and Lijsbeth Arabus. Then followed Heindrick, Pietertje, Reijntje, two Jacobs, an Annetje, Cathalisa, Mary and Lowijs, who had been baptised on the 8th April 1663. Another Mary and Jan Bruijn are registered as children of mixed marriages.

On the 28th of August 1665 the Rev. Joan van Arckel began baptising the children of the settlement who had not yet received the sacrament ...'

She gives as her reference: Archives of the Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Town, 1/1: Minutes of the Church Council, 1665-1695, pp. 1-2, but I have been unable to find such a list in the VC copy of these church books at the Cape Archives from which I have made this transcript, so I included the quote above.

The transcript.

This transcription has been made from the Cape Archives document VC 603, which is a photocopy made during the 1980s of the original register in the Archives of the Nederduits Gereformeerde Church, at that time in Cape Town, now in the Theological College, Stellenbosch.

This photocopy was made for the Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and a copy was donated to the South African Archives, a copy going to the Cape Town repository and to the Pretoria Repository (where it is part of the FC series).

I have decided to make this transcript available since I was unable to obtain a microfilm copy from my local Latter Day Saints family history centre (from their catalogue it seems that they do not have a microfilm copy of this particular register) and the Church Archive Repository mentioned above is no longer open to the general public, leaving the only consultable copies that I am aware of in the Cape Town and Pretoria repositories of the South African Archives, and in Stellenbosch at the Genealogical Institute of South Africa which has a microfilm copy of the original register.

This is my own, unaided transcription of the baptisms and marriages in the register known as NGK G1 1/1, which also contains members lists and Church Council meetings for the stated period but I have received help with corrections from Delia Robertson and Alwyn Smit to whom my grateful thanks.

There are mistakes, both of typing and no doubt of transcription, and they are all mine! I shall continue to revise and correct, but decided that if I waited until I had it perfect it might never be made available. Please be so kind as to report any obvious mistakes so that I can check and correct them.

I am also happy to answer any queries you may have regarding my transcription of any particular entry.

While the handwriting to be found in most of the 17th and 18th century documents at the Cape is extremely neat and generally very legible, the section of this register between 6 February 1689 and 9 April 1694 is written in a truly horrible handwriting and is not easy to read. It starts with these words: Dese volgende kinderen sijn van mij ghedoopt Dr. Leonardus [Terwoltij], and I assume the handwriting is his. Here is a sample from 1690:

Den 31 Dito een kindt gedoopt waer van vader is Adrian van Bra=
=kel, de moeder Sara van Rosendal, als getuijge stondt
Jan Dirkz de Beer ende Helena Gulx, is genaemt
Maghtill

There is also the problem that, at least in this photocopy, words can disappear into the binding margin, the ink can have faded or the extreme edges of the page may be missing. Any problems of missing information of this kind, as also doubtful interpretaion or legibility, I have indicated with square brackets.

I have transcribed the register exactly as I find it, that is text and spelling as best I can read them, but I have not always used the original use of upper and lower case letters. In order to make the reading easier I have transcribed all personal names, and names of months, to begin with an upper case letter, although this is not always how they are written in the original. I have not, however, done the same for place names, transcribing them as written. In addition, with certain letters it is not always possible to judge if upper or lower case is intended.

I have added, from the book Die Sieketroosters in Suid-Afrika ² the record of the Cape baptisms that Pieter van der Stael, sieketrooster, included in his report dated 20 January 1664 sent to the Classis in Amsterdam from Batavia. These are baptisms that took place during 1663, when he was sieketrooster there.

I hope this transcript may be of some use to researchers.

Richard Ball

Norfolk, England

©May 2006

References

1. South African Stamouers: Kerke van die Kaap, by Johann Erasmus

2. Die Sieketroosters in Suid-Afrika 1652-1866 by J.P. Claasen, 1977, pages 264-267