Welcome/Welkom:
INTRODUCTION
This website is dedicated to the family history of the JANSEN VAN VUREN family
(197 names) in Southern Africa. It is maintained by Pieter (Riaan) C Jansen van
Vuren and his wife Lynette. Riaan is one of the 7th great-grandsons of
the family proginator Gerrit Jansen van Vuren.
Riaan or Lynette can be contacted via the GuestBook or at the email address
rvanvuren@mweb.co.za. Please also visit our family website at Riaan en Lynette van Vuren se Tuisblad
OTHER JANSEN VAN VUREN WEBSITES
For other websites dealing with the Jansen van Vuren family see the following links:
Gerrit van Vuren nageslag or
Stamboom van Gerrit van Vuren or
Genealogie Jan Loyen.
The last website deals with the descendants of Jan Loyen in the Netherlands who
in the fourth generation also adopted the surname van Vuren. There exists no
evidence that Gerrit Jansen van Vuren is descendant of or related to this
family (see the Gerrit van Vuren nageslag website
link for more information on the other van Vuren families in the Netherlands
and the earliest known person with the surname).
On Facebook a number of groups have been created for members of the Jansen van Vuren family including the following group established by myself:
Jansen van Vuren Family
Group.
NEW - A virtual Familiebond (Family Association) has been established for all
members of the Janse(n) van Vu(u)ren family. Visit the Familiebond website to join the Bond. Membership is currently free!
GERRIT JANSEN VAN VUREN
Gerrit arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in September 1687 from the town of
Vuren in the Netherlands (see the following website for more information on the
town of Vuren).
Gerrit was known in the town of Vuren only by his first name. If he were to be
distinguished from other persons by the same name he was called Gerrit Janszoon
to identify him as the son of Jan (the shortened version of his farther name
Johannes). This is called a patroniem or vadersnaam and for interesting
information on the use of a vadersnaam see the website on the Gerrit van Vuren nageslag.
Netherland Flag
Gerrit emigrated to the Cape in 1687. His reasons for the leaving the
Netherlands are not known but on the website Water in Vuren it is mentioned that at
the beginning of the 1680's the town experienced high levels of poverty. This
is said to have been mainly due to a widespread "watersnoden" (flooding) and
damage caused to the area by the French in 1672 during the Third Anglo -Dutch
War (1672 to 1674). Perhaps Gerrit emigrated to the Cape to escape these
circumstances.
Gerrit arrived on the Southern tip of Africa in September 1687 on board of one of the following ships: "De Lek, Waterland, de Grote Visserie" or the " t'Rad van Aventure". About 50 persons on board the above ships requested Commandant Van Der Stel to stay on in the Cape as farmers. Most of the requests were denied and only 17 persons allowed to stay behind. On 16 October 1687 twenty-three farmers, Vryboere (free citizens not in the service of the Dutch Indian Company or VOC), including Gerrit, were allocated farms in the Bergriver Valley below the majestic Drakenstein mountains.
He started cultivating the farm with life stock, wine vineyards and seedlings. The first crop was collected in 1689 and the details thereof was recorded on the 1690 rolls of the Rijksarchief at 's-Gravenhage in the Netherlands. The roll indicated that he was married at the time with no children and that he inter alia possessed 350 sheep, 9 oxen, 2 cows and 2 pigs. That the farm was planted with wine seedlings are obvious from the 1600 wine reeds listed on the roll. He also possessed a number of weapons including two "snaphanen", one "karabijnen" and one "zijdegeweer".
He and his wife Suzanne called the farm Bellingchamp. The name is of French origin and undoubtedly was the choice of his wife Suzanne who was of French descent. The name possibly refers to a meadow in which animals like sheep graze with bells around their necks to warn about any dangers such as thief's. The farm is today known as Bellingham and is the estate that produces the famous Bellingham label of wines. For information on the roots of the Bellingham Wine Estate see the following website:
Bellingham Wines.
On 8 October 1695, eight years after he was allocated the farm the formal deed of grant (drawn up already in 1694) was issued. The deed contained the name of the farm and the family name and therefore for the first time established Jansen van Vuren as an official surname. It could be said that if the said deed was never issued the surname might never have been known in Southern Africa.
VAN VUREN or VAN VUUREN ????
I get a lot of enquiries about the 'correct' spelling of the family name. As indicated above the surname is derived from the town of Vuren in the Netherlands and it could be argued that the correct spelling is with only one 'u' as opposed to two.
For me it is more important that, as far as could be ascertained, most of the Jansen van Vuren and Jansen van Vuuren families in Southern Africa are related and descendants from Gerrit irrespective of the spelling of the family name. At our church in 2003 we for example met a family from Namibia with the surname Jansen van Vuuren. We subsequently became good friends and in going through the book of Johannes Petrus Jacobus Jansen van Vuren (see acknowledgements below) we found out that we are related as 8th Distant Cousins despite the fact that we spell our surnames differently.
But why then the two versions of the family name? One explanation advanced by
Johannes Petrus Jacobus Jansen van Vuren in his book is that the Bellingham
farm was only officially surveyed in 1870 by Charles Bell who on the official
documents (see the Gerrit
van Vuren nageslag website for a photo of the survey diagram) wrongly
indicated that the farm fomerly belonged to Gerrit Jansen van Vuuren.
This 'wrong' spelling of the surname on the official document is what according
to Johannes Petrus Jacobus Jansen van Vuren led to most of Gerrits
descendants 'wrongly' spelling their surname with two u's.
VISIT TO VUREN
I briefly visited the town of Vuren in 2000 and stopped by Fort Vuren on the outskirts
of the Town. I was in the Netherlands at the time to attend the conference of
the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) held in Rotterdam.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Most of the information was obtained from a book compiled by Johannes Petrus
Jacobus Jansen van Vuren. The book published by Babelegi (Edms) Bpk is
titled "Stamboom van Gerrit van Vuren". Without this excellent source of
information it would not have been possible to compile this website. For the
SNYMAN history thanks must also go to Kobus Snyman for his research on the
Snyman Family (Snyman Genealogy).
OTHER FAMILIES INCLUDED
The website also contains portions of the family history of a number of the
members of the SNYMAN (66 names) and DANEEL (27 names) families
and because of my marriage with Lynette Gouws a number of the
GOUWS/Gous/Gauch (48 names) ancestors (see links to Gauch/Gous/Gouws
websites below).
Other families with more than one name include (see List of Last Names below for more details):
- Viljoen (20 names)
- Bekker (16 names)
- Van der Merwe (15 names)
- De Beer (15 names)
- Mare (13 names)
- Potgieter (12 names)
- Bezuidenhout (11 names)
- Botha (11 names)
- Malan (11 names)
- Van Staden (11 names)
WHO IS INCLUDED OF THE JANSEN VAN VUREN FAMILY
Gerrit's only son Johannes had five sons and three daughters. Of the sons three have descendants namely Johannes, Lucas and Pieter and for them information up to the fifth generation (up to +/- the early 1800s in most instances) is captured on the website. Only for my direct line (Johannes 2nd son Johannes Petrus and his one son Marthinus Petrus) the full descendants are captured until the present.
HOW TO GET AROUND
To start exploring the family history just go to the Tree menu above and then
the family link on the said menu. This will take you to the page for the family
proginator Gerrit Jansen van Vuren.
If you are looking for any other person see the surname list below. For more
information on how to navigate this website see the section on getting around
below or watch the TribalPages Tour for your convenience, to learn
how to browse this familytree and to enjoy all features.
AFRIKAANS/ENGLISH
Why an English webpage if most of the Jansen van Vuren family members home language is Afrikaans? Unfortunately TribalPages currently do not provide for multilungual support and to get the Jansen van Vuren Family history published on TribalPages required that English be used as the main language medium.
CONTRIBUTIONS/COMMENTS
Please contact me via the link above should you have any comments or
contributions to the family history or should you wish to obtain the visitors
password to view the full website. See also the useful links below should you wish to
undertake geneology research and especially the link to the
Ancestry24 website.
CORRECTIONS/ERRORS
The information on the website was created via a Gedcom import. I am aware of a number of data errors that occurred during this process mainly with the wording of some of the events and notes and these will be corrected over time. If there are any other errors and/or omissions on this website I do apologise and will make the necessary corrections as soon as they become apparent or brought to my attention.
DISCLAIMER
The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice. Neither I nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy of the family history details shown on these pages. Great care has been taken in the preparation of these pages but errors cannot be excluded. You acknowledge that such information may contain inaccuracies or errors and I expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors. Your use of any information on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which I shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES
This website also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that I endorse the website(s). I have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).
Please sign our GuestBook and thank you for dropping by!
Greetings
RIAAN AND LYNETTE VAN VUREN
4 January 2008
