How little they owned...

Johanna Dorothea Muller and Coenraad Willem De Buys were married at St. Mary's Church, Barkly West on 28 January 1882.  Johanna was already pregnant with their first child, Petrus which could be why they got married in an Anglican church instead of in the Dutch Reformed Church.  Coenraad was listed as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Griquastad in 1882.  The marriage certificate shows that Johanna could not write as she signed her name with a cross, Coenraad, however, could write.

Johanna and Coenraad's 1882 marriage certificate

When Johanna died on 16 October 1892 at the tender age of 29 years old her estate listed only the following possessions:

• Bed (complete)
• cupboard
• Stoel
• 2 pots
• tin kettle and 1 blanket
• 2 plates, 2 kommetjies (?), 2 cups and saucers
• 2 knives, 2 forks and two spoons
• 1 bread pan
• 1 grid

Dutch inventory of Johanna Dorothea

She had given birth to three children: Petrus who was 10 years old; Coenraad Willem, who was 8 years old and Susara Gesina, who was 6 years old when Johanna died.  Coenraad died several years later, in 1901. Coenraad and Johanna are my great-great-grandparents.