Alida Barendina van der Walt, b4c7 - Was Alida Barendina van der Walt, b4c7, a Griqua?

The baptismal record of the mother of President Kruger ought to give us clarity. If Alida Barendina is given as her mother, we can most probably lay the Griqua story to rest. The daughter in case is Elsje Francina Kruger. @alida francina steyn
Anybody have this information?

Brendan Sorry I cant help. Maybe somebody can get hold of a Source document. During 1994 there was a claim by a black woman that he was her Grandfather. If it is so, so what ? his` is just a bit nearer then mine and most of our earlier European settlers. I see that Elsje Francina Steyn is nearer family to me then Chris. My DNA was sent to National Geographic but due to the Ebola virus it was blocked en way. The results will be due any day now. Then I will be in the position to make some "Land Claims" as Harry The strandloper is one of my forebears I can lay Claim to the choosiest parts of the Cape front.

A response from Facebook -
I found this on Rootsweb.....From: mansell <krotwa@iafrica.com>
Subject: Kruger in the dark...
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 05:41:39 +0200

Sidney:

Why not also mention the author of the article in the 'Weakly Female &
Guardian' - Antjie Krog - so that we know 'who' and 'what' political,
soothsaying jill-come-very-lately we are dealing with?.

Antjie Krog's newly acquired and trite enlightenment derives from Leon Hattingh's research which first already appeared in print in the academic journal KRONOS in 1980 - TWENTY YEARS ago - and was given prominent media coverage (also inside apartheid South Africa) at the time. The woman in question is the Cape-born Lijsbeth Sanders (the form 'Liesbet [sic] van die Kaap [sic]' is part of Krog's wild or received imaginings) whom Hattingh mistakenly attributed as being a biological foremother to Paul Kruger via the 2nd wife of his maternal grandfather Douw Gerbrand Steyn, Margaretha Aletta Botha. Paul Kruger actually descends from the 3rd wife Catharina Maria Potgieter.

Lately there has been a flurry of fashionable 'Van die Kaaps' in
publications by writers jumping on the bandwagon of political correctness,
eg Karel Schoeman's "Armosyn van die Kaap", Dalene Mathee's Pieternella van die Kaap and now Brink's latest novel featuring Annatjie van die Kaap- the form 'van die Kaap' is modern Afrikaans and is never found in the early colonial period of the Cape and is misleadng.

Already in 1969 most of the (then known) antecedents (non-whites included) of Paul Kruger were meticulously set out in FAMILIA by the late Dr J.A. Heese - including the descent from wife no 3 (and not wife no 2).

Paul Kruger had the usual fair share of non-European antecedents that most 'white-looking' South Africans of early Cape colonial ancestry have in
common.

At the time of Hans Heese's book "Groep Sonder Grense" in 1984 which was sensationalised by the twin Afrikaans/English magazines "Huisgenoot" / "You", which both published a list of 'blackened' surnames - including Kruger and Steyn - and had the whole of 'white' South Africa and many others talking, soul-searching, denying, arguing, enquiring,
most even voting for change and willingly or unwillingly dismantling
apartheid and co-founding the New South Africa etc, descendants of Paul Kruger himself, were still nevertheless likely to have been less aware of even more controversial ex-slave ancestors such as the convict Catharina van Paliacatta and the criminal Catharina van Malabar - whose lives were
amplified in print later - and also the elusive Ansela van de Caab of
'Muratie'-fame now labelled on wine bottels as 'Ansela van die Kaap'.
Already informed in print by Hans Heese in 1979 that Paul Kruger was a
direct descendant of the Slave Lodge-born Maria Lozee and her bastard son named Steyn (pronounced 'stain'), certain of these unnamed / unknown direct descendants apparently were further outraged and hurt by the revelation of also being descendants of the more obvious or male-line-visible Cecilia Sweeres van de Caap who was mother to the Kruger founding mother: Jannetje Kemp. Some of these offspring even threatened taking the matter to court but nothing came of it as no legal grounds could be found. Ironically, awareness of Paul Kruger's even more illustrious
indigenous ancestor, the 'Hottentot' whore and drunk Krotoa, alias
Eva Meerhoff, never seems to have caused much fuss, although this particular descent was recently re-featured but this time in genealogical chart-form on national television in the series "Groep Sonder Grense" (after Hans Heese's book).

Another irony highlighted by Hans Heese in 1979 is the fact that section 6
of the ZAR (Transvaal Republic)'s constitution (very likely an American-inspired constitution?) explicitly outlawed any mixed-race person (up to10 generations back!) from holding office. Either Kruger knew, deliberately chose to ignore his own mixed-race descent, was in denial or simply did not know (like so many of us) his own pedigree...

All this goes to show that perhaps we are not really so isolated or in the
dark and perhaps, like numbering systems in genealogy, some of the things we do in South Africa, amount to custom, practice, usage and choice and need not necessarily be backward or agterste-voor!!!

Hope this helps.

Mansell Upham

>Date: 14 Sep 00 13:59:41 MDT
>From: keith meintjes <umfundi@usa.net>
>Subject: [Liesbet van die Kaap Slave foremother of Oum Paul Kruger?

>OK, that makes the question much clearer.
>
>I will send you (off the list) a compilation of Oom Paul's ancestors (as an
>attachment). I looked at it last night, and did not find Liesbet. This is
>not to say she is not in there, perhaps by a different name.
>
>There is at least one freed slave in the list, the mother of Christoffel
>Snyman (Snijman). She was also an ancestor of more Prime Ministers /
>Presidents than just the two in your list.
>
>I will do some more looking.
>
>Best wishes
>Keith
>=================================
>
>Sidney Allinson <sidneya@home.com> wrote:
>At 08:04 AM 9/14/00 -0600, you wrote:
>>It would help to know your references. Also, do you have any indication of
>>the family through which she is supposed to be an ancestor?
>>Best wishes
>>Keith
>
>Thanks, Keith.
>My references amount to a few passing allusions to Pres. Kruger's ancestry,
>most recently in the South African newspaper, Daily Mail & Guardian,
>October 11, 1999. Headlined:
>
>"President's heritage. President Paul Kruger's foremother
>was a freed slave, which is a little-known fact in Afrikaner history."
>
>The newspaper goes on to state:
>
>"The story less known is that the freed slave Liesbet van die Kaap was the
>foremother of two presidents and two generals: Paul Kruger and Steyn, Botha,
>and De la Rey."
>
>At first glance, this is a remarkable assertion, given the prevalence of
>certain
>attitudes prevailing in Transvaal during the Anglo-Boer War era. I would be
>interested to learn any opinions about it by knowledgeable genealogists in
>South Africa.
>
>Here is a link to the article in full:
>http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/99oct1/11oct-boer.html
>
>- Sidney.
>
>__________________________________________________
>"KRUGER'S GOLD", a new historical novel of the Anglo-Boer War,
>by Sidney Allinson, publication coming October, 2000.
Content Not Found - Mail & Guardian
The Mail & Guardian Online is South Africa's oldest quality news source on the web and Africa's first...
mg.co.za

This is the baptism record for Alida as recorded on Family Search.

.Family Seach.
Alida Barendina Van Der Walt
South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers
Name: Alida Barendina Van Der Walt
Event Type: Baptism
Event Date: 05 Oct 1781
Event Place: Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
Father's Name: Tjaart Van Der Walt
Mother's Name: Anna Martha Venter
Witness: Hendrik Kruger.
Witness: Lasya Venter.
GS Film number: 2214108 , Digital Folder Number: 004434412 , Image Number: 00034

Thank you, Marie.

Thank you , Brendon and Marie. Quite interesting and worth reading.