Pieter Adriaan Booyens (20 July 1815 - possibly After 1 July 1888)

At the time of Pieter Adriaan's baptism in the Dutch Reformed Church on 20 October 1815, his parents are recorded as living on the Olifants River. This is most likely the farm Keurfontein that is listed by name at the time of the baptism of his elder brother, Matthys Andries. The farm is just south of Towerwater Poort in the Swartberg, where the 21st century railway line passes through the Swartberg mountain range. The region is known as the Upper-Olifantsrivier Wyk.

When we meet Pieter again, it is far to the north at his marriage in Colesberg on 18 August 1845 to Isabella Duvenhage, daughter of Johannes Hendrik Duvenhage and Gesina Regina Victor.

They leave the Cape Colony soon after, because the next time they appear in any record is when they baptise their first child, Gesina Christina Regina in the Colesberg parish of the Dutch Reformed Church on 19 September 1847. The entry states that the child was born on 20 October 1846 "over de Grensen" (across the border). By 1849 Pieter and Isabella are baptising children at Bloemfontein. On 8 February 1863 the couple serves as witnesses to the baptism of brother Matthys Andries' son Pieter Adriaan in Ladybrand to the east. Pieter and Isabella ultimately baptise their last child, Abraham Jacobus in the Bloemfontein parish on 1 August 1869.

On 9 June 1872 Pieter and Isabella are witnesses to the Ladybrand baptism of grandson Pieter Adriaan, first son of their own first son, Matthys Stephanus. The last event we have in the life of Pieter Adriaan, is when he and wife Isabella serve as witnesses to the baptism of Pieter Adriaan, son of his own son, Jan hendrik and Anna Sophia Vorster and Lodewyk Vorster in Bloemfontein on 1 July 1888 [#1]. His daughter Isabella has recently passed away. The problem, though, is that we cannot be sure whether the Pieter Adriaan serving as witness is Pieter Adriaan *1815 or his son.

As he attends no more baptisms by any of his ten children, we are forced to assume that Pieter Adriaan Booyens dies not long after this date of 2 May 1886 but no death notice has been found for him. When wife Isabella dies in the feared and disgraceful Springfontein Concentration Camp in 1901, no one in control can determine the name of her husband. We take this as confirmation that Pieter has been dead for some years.

For the references, see below^#