Sophia Wilhelmina Jacoba van Niekerk

Born

3 November 1890 · Riversdale, Cape Colony

Spouse

Jacobus Lodewyk van Zyl · m. 1 January 1907, Albertinia, Riversdale, Cape Colony

FamilySearch

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Attie’s paternal great-grandmother on the van Niekerk / Van Zyl line. Born 3 November 1890 at Riversdale in the Cape Colony; baptised at Riversdale DRC on 4 January 1891. Her baptism register — indexed by FamilySearch — names her parents outright.

On 1 January 1907 she married Jacobus Lodewyk van Zyl at Albertinia (Riversdale district). She was 17 years old — the register consent field records “Ouders” (parents’ consent required because she was underage). The groom, then 28 and a butcher (“Slachter”), was already established at Albertinia. They raised six children together, of whom their youngest, Johan Wilhelm Albertus (b. 22 February 1920), is Attie’s maternal grandfather — named after Sophia’s own father, Johan Wilhelm Albertus van Niekerk. See the naming-echo thread.

Her parents Johan Wilhelm Albertus van Niekerk (1864–1938) and Maria Elizabeth Janse van Rensburg (1869–1952) were married at Riversdal on 5 November 1889 and had ten children total.

Her Christian names — Sophia Wilhelmina Jacoba — are inherited whole from her maternal grandmother Sophia Wilhelmina Jacoba van Zyl (1852–1926), her mother’s mother. And then, in a small coincidence the family didn’t plan, Sophia herself later married a van Zyl — Jacobus Lodewyk. Two independent van Zyl connections in one couple.