Maria Dorothea Smuts Gray Cary, c19

Pics from Ancestry Profile photo & grave in Salisbury, Rhodesia

Death Cerificate on Family search

Two Maria Dorothea Doubell Smutses – Cousins or Mother & Daughter?

1) For Maria Dorothea Smuts Doubell (1860 - 1902) - we have baptism sources showing her as the daughter of Wessel Michiel Smuts & Marian / Mary Anne Jones Smuts (1844 – 1902); and her death docs name a Walter David Peter Doubell as her husband: Presumably this one: Walter David Peter Doubell (1861 - 1950) (who incidentally, as a widower, got a special licence to marry Maria's sister, Charlotte Smuts in 1903)

2) Maria Dorothea Smuts Doubell (c 1882 - )(not mentioned in SAG - who, however, leave off half of the children of Walter & Esther Doubell anyway), but cited here http://www.mytrees.com/ancestry/Other/Born-1878/Do/Doubell-family/C... (if anybody can get in to check the doc that would be great!) as the 14th child of Walter David Peter Doubell (c1830 -) & Hesther Arabella Jones Doubell (- 1906)

As the two mothers (Mary Anne Jones Smuts (1844 - 1902) & Hesther Arabella Jones Doubell (- 1906) ) were sisters: That would mean that the two Maria Dorothea Smuts Doubells were cousins – even though born about 20 yrs apart, and 1) with Smuts as a Maiden Name & Doubell as a Married Name, & 2) with Smuts as a middle name, & Doubell as a Maiden Name.

(A further complexity is introduced by the fact that the two sisters’ (Mary Anne Jones Smuts (1844 - 1902) & Hesther Arabella Jones Doubell (- 1906) ) kids married each other. So, Maria Dorothea Smuts Doubell (1860 - 1902) marries, in c1882 Maria Dorothea Smuts Doubell (c 1882 -)’s much older brother: Walter David Peter Doubell (1861 - 1950). Does her mother in law/Aunt Hesther Arabella Jones Doubell (- 1906) name the child born at the time of the wedding after her new daughter in law/ niece (including in its middle name, her daughter in law/niece’s Maiden name)? Implausible, except that these sisters obviously had somewhat of a fascination with incestuous connections

OR is the baby namesake actually the child of the new daughter in law – hence being given her name? The Walter David Peter who is baby Maria Dorothea’s father is then Walter David Peter Doubell (1861 – 1950) (presently positioned as her much older brother). I think this is more likely altogether: Depending on what the birth/baptism doc on http://www.mytrees.com/ancestry/Other/Born-1878/Do/Doubell-family/C... gives for her mother’s name – I would suggest the younger Maria Dorothea’s present (Aug 2015)position on the tree as Hesther & Walter (1834)’s daughter, not Maria & Walter(1861)’s daughter , is simply an error caused by the cousin marriages & crossover of names; or that she is an out of wedlock child with her grandparents’ names on her birth certificate – but her mother’s Maiden name inserted into her middle name as a marker

However, that still leaves the problem of Marian Smuts Doubell (c1884 -) as Hesther & Walter's last child. Why add Smuts into her middle name? Perhaps Hesther, for some reason, was simply giving her daughters the exact names of her sister's girls as a tribute? [Sharon Doubell Aug 2015]

[Craig Sheldon Aug 2015[: I was in the past in contact with some relatives of hers who said that their aunt remembers talking with Maria and that she said she came from a large family which would match up with Walter and Hesther's 19 children, not so much with Maria Smuts, whose Death Notice (MOOC; Vol. No.: 6/9/465; Ref. No.: 4538) only listed Wessel Michael Doubell and Henry Jones Doubell. There was, however, some distorted memory that Maria (born 1882) might have been raised by her elder brother and his wife, which would presumably be Walter (born 1861) and Maria (born 1860). The Marian Smuts Doubell (born 1884) question I can't answer, though.

[Sharon Doubell: Aug 2015]: ahh - the large family comment is valuable. Maybe Hesther wanted to ensure an interest in her youngest daughters by their cousins who were of a better age than she to be mothers? Maybe she worried that she herself might not outlive their childhood?