Hendrik's

Note 19: Marriage partners of Hendrik's children: Myburgh, du Toit (both in Ross's 1983 list of 19 major vine-cultivating families), Hauman, van Heerden.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Hendrik's daughter Aletta Sibella, through her marriage to Nicolaas van der Merwe, was as important in creating the next generation of van der Merwe sons as her brothers were.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Anna van der Merwe, Hendrik's wife, was a child of David's first marriage, thus Sophia's stepdaughter.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Just one of Hendrik's four van der Merwe grandsons married, however, and it does not appear that he had children. 17 One of those grandsons, Theodorus, was the son of Hendrik's daughter, Aletta Sibella.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Note 34: Hendrik's sister, Sophia van Rensburg, was David van der Merwe's second wife.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

However, extant records reveal what his society thought was relevant to Hendrik's place in it.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Petronella, one of Hendrik's elder sisters, married Johannes Cloete — her first cousin and the elder brother of Hendrik's first wife, Catharina.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Note 20: At his death, each of Hendrik's children received RxD 631, 14 stuivers, and one slave.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Theodorus did not marry, though, so all of Hendrik's great-grandchildren appear in the family trees of the Myburghs, the du Toits, and the de Villiers, among others. 19 Whatever their surnames, these descendants 'material circumstances were undoubtedly influenced by the material legacy Hendrik bequeathed. 20 His children were not poor; those who lived long enough married into families possessed of landed wealth in Stellenbosch and Drakenstein.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

Even with Aletta's and Maria's van der Merwe sons and son-in-law, Hendrik's van der Merwe offspring ended with his grandchildren, reminding us of how important it is to consider both halves of a matrimonial union, since the transfer of wealth and kin relationships were not defined only according to family name or male descendants.

Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008