Gesina Christina Regina Booyens 1846-1888
Born 20 October 1846, "Over de Grensen" - Free State 5
Baptised 19 September 1847, Colesberg 6
Died 23 October 1888, Ladybrand, Free State Republic 7

Notes: Gesina Christina Regina Booijens is born on 20 October 1846 on the farm Vlakfontein [#1] in the Bloemfontein district to Pieter Adriaan Booyens and Isabella Duvenhage.There is indeed a farm named Vlakfontein southwest of Bloemfontein. By 1846 there is already a Dutch Reformed Parish at Bloemfontein. However, they baptise "Gesie" in Colesberg in the Cape Colony on 19 September 1847, at which time the place of her birth is given as "Over de Grensen", implying they are located in the Free State. Colesberg seems a terribly long way to go by oxwagon for a baptism if Bloemfontein is nearby.


The 21-year old Gesie Booyens marries the 20 year old Jan Adriaan Coetzee of the farm Mierfontein on 26 November 1866 in the NG Church in Bloemfontein. For the next eighteen years they live in the Bloemfontein region and baptise seven children in the church where they married.


On 1 August 1869, Gesie and her husband serve as witnesses to the baptism of her own youngest sibling in Bloemfontein [#2]. At some point, between July 1884 and August 1887, they move to the Ladybrand district where they baptise their final two children. Gesie dies on 23 October 1888 on the farm Athlone near Ladybrand at the age of 42 years, leaving one child unbaptised. This leads one to conclude that she died from complications due to childbirth.


Jan Adriaan remarrries to Susanna Elizabeth Johanna Wessels who gives him three more children. When the Second (Great) Anglo Boer War breaks out in September 1899, Jan is associated with the farm Lovedale in the Moroka District of the Orange Free State. On 30 July 1900, after the retreat from the seminal Battle of Paardeberg, Jan Adriaan is taken prisoner of war by the British at Fouriesburg [#3]. His age is recorded as 58 years at that time. He is sent to the Diyatalawa POW camp on the Island of Ceylon. The passage is on the ship Bavarian. On 18 October 1900 Jan dies in British custody in that camp.

#1. Free State Archive VAB MHG B920; Death Notice Gesina Christina Regina Booijens: LINK
#2. Baptism of Abraham Jacobus Booyens: LINK
#3. Anglo-Boer War Museum Database: LINK


 x Married 26 November 1866 Bloemfontein 8
Jan Adriaan Coetzee Circa 1845-1900
Born Circa 1845, Free State 9
Died 18 October 1900, Ceylon as POW 10

Matthys Stephanus Booyens 1848-1929
Born 25 October 1848
Baptised 10 January 1849, Fauresmith, then Riet Rivier
Died 14 August 1929, Mooigekry, Brandfort
 x Married 24 July 1871 Ladybrand
Maria Susanna Elizabeth Duvenhage 1853-1930

Helena Aletta Booyens 1851-1909
Born 19 January 1851 11
Baptised 6 April 1851, Bloemfontein 12
Died 5 May 1909, Onverwacht plaas, Middelburg 13
 x Married 10 June 1872 Ladybrand
Marthinus Petrus van Staden Born Circa 1851
Born Circa 1851

Isabella Maria Booyens 1853-1886
Born 9 February 1853, Bloemfontein 14
Baptised 4 April 1853, Bloemfontein 15
Died 26 March 1886, Ladybrand 16

Notes: Isabella is born in Bloemfontein on 9 February 1853 and is baptised in the local Dutch Reformed Church on 4 April of the same year [#1]. At the age of just under 18 years, she is comfirmed in the Dutch Reformed Parish of Ladybrand near the Basotuland border on 30 January 1871 [#2]. We next meet her as a 29 year old lady at her marriage to Johannes Lodewyk Vorster on 23 March 1885 in Bloemfontein [#3]. Her residence at the time is given as Ladybrand. Almost exactly a year later, on 26 March 1886 Isabella dies on the farm Koppieskraal in the Ladybrand district, most likely in childbirth. The death notice [#4] lists an unbaptised child to be named Petrus Adrian Lodivicus Vorster.


#1. Baptism Book of the Dutch Reformed Church Parish of Bloemfontein (1851-1865): LINK
#2. Membership Book of the Dutch Reformed Church Parish of Ladybrand (1871-1882): LINK
#3. Marriage Book of the Bloemfontein Parish of the Dutch Reformed Church (1870-1890): LINK
#4. Free State Archives, VAB MHG Ref. B792: LINK



 x Married 23 March 1885 Bloemfontein 17
Johannes Lodewyk Vorster 1842-1906
Born 29 November 1842, Agter Sneeuwberg
Died 1906, Vrystaat

Petronella Adriana Booyens Born 1855
Born 11 November 1855 18
Baptised 17 February 1856, Bloemfontein 19
 x Married
Unknown

Johannes Hendrik Booyens Born 1858
Born 29 May 1858
Baptised 3 October 1858, Bloemfontein
 x Married 9 May 1887 Bloemfontein
Anna Sophia Vorster 1868-1901

Pieter Adriaan Booyens 1860-1928
Born 12 September 1860
Baptised 30 December 1860, Bloemfontein
Died 16 November 1928, Hobhouse, district Ladybrand, OFS
 x Married 1912 Wepener, Free State
Isabella Petronella Margaretha Blignaut Born 1883

Andries Matthys Booyens Born 1863
Born 9 July 1863
Baptised 6 September 1863, Bloemfontein
 x Married 10 November 1891 Ladybrand
Susanna Elizabeth Botha

Christina Susanna Hendrina Salmina Booyens 1865-1903
Born 7 October 1865 20
Baptised 6 May 1866, Bloemfontein 21
Died 2 December 1903, Bloemfontein, Slypsteenberg

Notes: She baptises a child on 23 feb 1896 in Ladybrand with husband Barend Johannes Vorster, and Abraham Jacobus Booÿens is a witness

 x Married 22 August 1887 Bloemfontein
Barend Johannes Vorster Born 1863
Born 22 February 1863, Middelburg KP.

Abraham Jacobus Booyens 1869-1952
Born 9 June 1869
Baptised 1 August 1869, Bloemfontein
Died 13 January 1952, Farm Lottery, Thaba Nchu
 x Married
Francina Barendina Blignaut