James Gaybba, SV/PROG

The following children and their ages are named on James Gaybba's DN:

Mattheus (24 yrs), Johan Hendrik (23 yrs), Hester Elizabeth Martelina Maria (22 yrs), James Andrew (20 yrs), Elizabeth Catrina (16 yrs), Helena Susanna (14 yrs), Maria Jacoba (12 yrs) and William (9 yrs).

Extract from Journal by Brian Patrick Gaybba

AN OUTLINE OF WHAT I KNOW OF THE FIRST THREE GENERATIONS OF GAYBBAS (THIS IS A SECOND VERSION, DRAFTED IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT RESEARCH).

1. THE FIRST GENERATION.

So far the only Gaybba patriarch we know of and the one to whom we have so far been able to trace the lineage of all but one of the Gaybbas who have contacted us is a man called James Gaybba. He was born in Scotland in 1830. He was a mason or bricklayer, came to the old Cape Colony where he died on the 25th June 1882. 25 years earlier, on the 27th September 1857, he married Helena Susanna Amandina Lerm in Calvinia, who married a Jan Hendrik Lategan (widower) after James died.

I did some further research on him two weeks ago. He got married within about 6 years of his arrival in the Western Cape Colony. I saw his marriage certificate. He had a well-schooled handwriting and so was not uneducated. He also signed himself "Gaybba" - i.e., with the spelling that we all use today. So any corruption of a different name had already taken place during that time. Neither of the two witnesses at his marriage were Gaybbas so either the story of the three brothers is wrong or the two brothers were already far from Calvinia, where the wedding took place. I also came across his original death certificate (there were two). He died a tragic death in Oudtshoorn on June 23rd 1882. His home base was at Saldanha Bay but he traded in cattle and sheep and donkeys and drove his animals to Oudtshoorn to sell them there. He lost several animals due to drought and disease but he seems to have made some money from the sale of the rest. However, according to a newspaper report (Oudtshoorn Courant), he spent the night carousing and upon waking in the morning must have found himself penniless after all his work. So he took his rifle, laid himself down under his wagon, put the business end of the rifle into his mouth and pulled the trigger with his toe. Very sad ending to our ancestor's life. His other death notice, that was signed almost a year later by his wife Helena, noted that he left nothing to his heirs.

Death:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQ6-LPGM?i=316&cc...

Marriage:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKD-W9BS-F?cc=282...