Jan Adriaan Coetzee Circa 1845-1900
Born Circa 1845, Free State 3
Died 18 October 1900, Ceylon as POW 4

Notes: Jan Adriaan Coetzee (Jr.), is born circa 1845 to Jan Adriaan Coetzee Snr and Isabella Maria Booyens.


By 1866, Jan is on the farm Mierfontein in the Bloemfontein district. On 26 November 1866 he marries Gesina Christina Regina "Gesie" Booyens in Bloemfontein. His age is given as 20 years, suggesting 1845 as his year of birth. 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, Jan and Gesie serve as witnesses to the baptism of Gesie's own youngest sibling in Bloemfontein [#1]. 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 at Ladybrand, and 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 [#2]. 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. His death notice states his age as 55 years, confirming the estimated year of birth.

#1. Baptism of Abraham Jacobus Booyens: LINK
#2. Anglo-Boer War Museum Database: ID=8628 or search for "Jan Adriaan Coetzee" at Anglo-Boer War Museum Database


 x Married 26 November 1866 Bloemfontein 5
Gesina Christina Regina Booyens 1846-1888
Born 20 October 1846, "Over de Grensen" - Free State 6
Baptised 19 September 1847, Colesberg 7
Died 23 October 1888, Ladybrand, Free State Republic 8