The 7 & 6 Pretoria News Legal Notice closes out Sarah's life

I was in Pretoria yesterday and decided to pop past the National Archives again, this time for my great-grandmother Sarah Petronella van der Veen, born Wessels.

My mother's female ancestors interest me, because so little is known about them and that we have very little to help with the research.

The dry, factual Estate Late files add very little insight. And yet, I get some sense of who they might have been and I find them interesting to browse and to read.

I noted that she was born in the Cape Province which I did not know, the information for her parents is left blank on her Death Notice, which would make it difficult to trace the Wessels ancestors.

I wonder what brought her to Pretoria; did she arrive with her parents, or come up to work or did she meet Arend Johannes van der Veen?

One of the challenges of this type of research is the variation of the spelling of names. Sarah, Suzara, Susara are just some of the options I have noted in her file. In fact the Estate Notice and her Death Notice are different!

This 7 & 6 advert in the Pretoria News, cut and pasted into Sarah's file, caught my eye, it makes me melancholy, the end of a life with an advert and a receipt to close it off.

She was Ouma to my mother and I have found traces of her in a dear little
brown suede photo album that Nan put together for Mom as a little girl growing up in Pretoria.

On the back of this van der Veen family photo Nan jotted down names and Ouma is back row on the left - Sarah Petronella.

Mom is 6 years old in the photo, so looking at the Death Notice, Ouma would have died soon after this was taken, she was 55 years old and 5 months when she died on the 1 July 1938.

I was excited to see that Sarah appears in one other photo in the little album and her role as Ouma is evident.

Sarah is standing behind Mom at a table, set on a veranda, for the birthday with an iced cake and tumblers for cold drinks, as well as 4 quite mischievous looking little boys, cousins perhaps?

From the photos around this one it seems to be Mom's 4th birthday.

Ouma is mindfully dressed, wearing a frilly blouse, a necklace as well as a brooch on her tailored jacket. It was her distinctive hairstyle that made me realise that this was her in the photo.

The building in the background looks so familiar too, time to google and do more research - is this the home of Ouma and Oupa van der Veen in Gezina, Pretoria?

A few generations of Bricklayers

Pa and Nan on their wedding day, 2 June 1928

I remember signing Fred and I up for a Bricklaying course in the south of Johannesburg soon after we were married. The plan was to build our own home, as we had bought a piece of ground.

What was I thinking! Me laying bricks? We did the course, after work for quite some weeks. It may even have been winter as it was freezing cold in the huge warehouse. I made notes, laid bricks and then never touched them again.

When I found this duplicate of Pa and Nan van der Veen's Marriage Register in Nan's Estate Late file at the National Archives in Pretoria, I was just a little bemused. Pa, like his father Arend, was a Bricklayer by trade. The bricklaying gene was not passed down effectively.

I never knew what Pa's work was as a young child spending time with him, looking back though I recall all the brick work of their Faraday Boulevard home in Vanderbijlpark, especially the backyard with its brick paving, brick flowerbeds and brick retaining walls.

How I love these old documents and the stories they tell. Nan was older than Pa, another little insight to file in this journey of mine into our ancestors.

"We appreciate your custom"

The receipt with its 1d stamp dated 23 April 1919 for 12 pounds: 13 shillings: 8 pence caught my eye as I was trawling through documents in the Estate Late file of William Argyle, my mother's maternal grand-father.

This was a significant outstanding account considering the letter from the  Office of the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the South African Railways and Harbours confirming Argyle: Carpenter: Deceased with a final wages and sick pay of just over 41 pounds.

The detail on these two statements from T.W. Beckett & Co, Church Street, Pretoria, in William Argyle's file is quite wonderful.

I can get lost in picturing life in the late 1880's and early 1900's at the store. A typing pool to get the statements out, shop assistants at the top of their game able to organise and assist in the specialist departments and always the focus on personalised service.


The sketch in the top lefthand corner shows a tram in Church Street running past this classic corner store which must have been a real destination for Pretoria housewives, like William's wife Fanny.

The sketch shows horse-drawn carriages arriving and parking too and on the pavement one can make out women in their fine long dresses and fancy hats and men standing around talking.

The clock, below the T.W. Beckett & Co flag is just before 9am, and the bustle is already evident.

Monthly accounts were the norm and I assume the goods got delivered too.

William had died on the 10 March 1919 and looking at the April statement Fanny did some stockpiling that March; loads of butter, bacon, cheese, colony, coffee, tea, oats, biscuits, even a bolt of calico and the last items, an underskirt and an umbrella.

Life must have changed dramatically for her, William was only 49 years old when he died and he left her with debt, 3 daughters and her step-daughter, Nellie, my grand-mother.
















The history of the store makes interesting reading too - Five Roses Tea, wow.


Postscript:
Thomas William BECKETT * in 1851 at Merton Abbey in Kent. The family moved to Australia, where Thomas had a few years of schooling, before moving to South Africa.

T.W. Beckett & Co. was founded in 1875. Mr. Beckett bought land and built a
single-storey store in Pretoria. 
In 1885 T.W. Beckett and Co. expanded into a double-storey building. Doors were open early in the morning and, before any business was done, time was made to meet friends and socialise. T.W. himself was always ready to stop work to have a cup of coffee with his customers.

In 1887 T.W. bought land in Johannesburg. Prior to this, T.W. Beckett and Co. became a Limited Liability Company. The directors were T.W. BECKETT and his friends James HILL and John PADDON. All the shareholders were family members.

In the early 1900's, Phillip GAWITH joined the company and introduced the name Five Roses and was registered as a Becketts trademark in 1909.

In 1912, a branch was opened in Durban, which was followed by the establishment of the first tea and coffee factory. Branches were also opened in Cape Town and East London.

Matching long forgotten signatures

The Death Notice for Arend Johannes van der Veen also fleshed out an insight into my grand-father's siblings.

In the winter of 1967 I was in Messina visiting my Pa's family, I have traces of the visit in my little Autograph Book, a copper plate with an etched baobab and a poem, a signature and  the date.

I now know who that signature belongs to, my Pa's sister, Johanna Jacoba Roos (nee van der Veen). Also known as Sissie.

One of the documents in the folder I had requested at the National Archives in Pretoria is a Notarial Deed of Donation and gives the detail of Arend donating his property in Gezina to his 3 children on the 2 September 1939.

Doreen calls me the 'detective'. So here is what I am surmising. Arend's wife Sarah Petronella had died the year before, in 1938, he then met Ellis Vivian, wanted to marry her but also needed to secure his children's inheritance, hence the donation of his property a year later.

What I love though is that this document lists his children, so I know now that Pa was the oldest, born in 1905, of 3 and he had 2 sisters, Johanna Jacoba, born in 1909 and the youngest Mary Wilhelmina, born in 1913.

At the time of the donation both sisters were married.

They all signed the document in 1939. How remarkable to see my great-grandfather's signature as donor, my grandfather William Henry's signature as a donee as well as those of his 2 sisters.

Sissie's signature is identical to that in my little Autograph Book, 28 years later in 1967. I wonder why she got to chose this extract from the rather melancholy Clough poem?

Arthur Hugh Clough: 1819 - 1861

Say not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!

Visit to the National Archives in Pretoria

I woke up with conviction yesterday, it was time to visit our National Archives in Pretoria, to understand where they are and how to access the files that I had researched online.

Mom's ancestry has been an exciting challenge for me, she left a few clues, but very little detail about her parents and their stories.

I have loved the discovery and the surprises, so I was full of anticipation for what this visit would surface about my many unanswered questions.

I was in search of my great-grandfather Arend Johannes van der Veen, my mother's paternal grand-father.

I have found one image of him. It's on a small black-and-white photo and he is in the background, head at a slight angle and a rather  stern look to camera.



I took a seat in the Reading Room, waited patiently through the lunch break and eventually the dusty, boxed records started to arrive.

Note to self: do not wear a white shirt when working in the archives.

You are allowed a pencil into the Reading Room and cameras. I had my cellphone. Exploring these old documents was energising but I kept having waves of emotion, these were people's lives, now just fragile pieces of paper that seem a little pointless after the fact. Lists of possessions and their values, bills to be paid, endless lawyer letters and legal forms.

One form in particular was moving for me, the Death Register, completed by the District Registrar, a Mr C. D. Heaman, on the 1st July 1946.

Here was Great-grandfather Arend, in his 60's, a bricklayer living in Gezina, Pretoria at 578 11th Avenue. He was cared for by Dr. Loubser and had died at home on the 8th June 1946 of cancer of the lips.

I read and reread the form wondering if lips was hips, but I think I am correct with lips. And in response to question 15, the duration of the disease or last illness -  44 years!

Goodness me. Is this the result of all the man-hours of working in the blazing sun as a bricklayer. Yesterday the temperatures were in the mid 30's in Pretoria, fiercely hot, not conductive to manual labour at all.

Zooming into the small photo does not give a good enough resolution to see his mouth.

His Death Notice was also revealing. He was South African, from Pretoria, which I had assumed, but I was disappointed that no details were given of Arend's parents. I am curious about the ancestry of the van der Veen's.

He was survived by his second wife Ellis Vivien. My great-grandmother, Sarah Petronella (nee Wessels) had died on the 1st July 1938, my grand-father, Bill, would have been 33 years old and 41 when his father died.

Friday nights at McDonald's, St. Germain-en-Laye

Waking up on her 3rd birthday, so excited with her bike

We might have been living in one the most glamorous and romantic cities in the world, but Friday nights were reserved for a trip to McDonald's in St. Germain-en-Laye with Shawni and Barry.

The littley's loved the play zone, they could run wild and they certainly did so! The friday night of my letter, Fred was playing with them on the slide and I was catching up on my letter writing to my family.

"Hamburgers, chips and coke." 

No wonder Shawni nagged to go and got so excited about the outings. I remember the french flair made this particular McDonald's a real treat.

Fred will still sneak in a McDonald's if he is given half a chance.

McDonalds for the birthday party,
Barry with Tom and Topsy in the background

In fact it was such a hit that we had Shawni's 3rd birthday party at the same McDonalds, on the 12 November 1987, just before leaving France to head back to South Africa.

When they opened their first South African outlet in November 1995, we drove across to Northcliff and queued for more than an hour for take-aways!

I am not quite sure why, but we did, along with hundred's of other people. It holds none of the simple magic it did for me when my children were little, when they loved these outings and when they also loved their McDonald dolls.

My siblings in the September of 1987

 I went looking at Mom's letter this morning to see what my sisters, Inel and Doreen, were doing in the September of 1987.

Mom had organised Inel to come back to Howick from St Johns' in Pietermaritsburg and 'babysit' Doreen. Like all good mothers she prepared and froze dinners for the girls, like she wrote: "Spoilt eh!"

Further on in the letter she writes about getting back after a weekend in Harrismith with their special friends, Bill and Jill. Inel is packed and ready to leave: "I'm sick and tired of cooking, sick and tired of housework, sick and tired of playing chauffeur". 

Makes me laugh too.

This was a good dry run for Inel, a few years later I asked her to babysit Shawni and Barry while we did a return trip to Europe. She must have been frazzled after weeks with two small children and Barry still in nappies. Nothing like the shower hose in the bath to wash down offending 'bits' and smells. Thanks again Inel, not sure how you did it!

In the September of 1987, Inel had completed her Master's thesis and she was getting ready for her final exams. Mom writes that she thinks the thesis is very good, she must have loved the theme, an in-depth study of six houses in Pietermaritzburg, "all in one street and has lovely sketches, all with the view of restoring them to Victorian charm and becoming monuments." 

Historical houses and sketching, the thesis would definitely have ticked all Mom's interests.

Meanwhile, Doreen is 16, at school in Howick and very involved on the Standard 9 school dance Committee. The theme is Alice in Wonderland and Doreen is doing the decor, Mom sketches the side of the hall to show me how the theme is coming to life, 'large playing cards' on the walls and stage.

Once again she is very involved, as she did for all the 25 years that she had children at school, it was always a lot of work for her, but art, decor and crafts were Mom's passions. This time it will be help with the dinner too. As she wrote; 'here I go again.' But she also wrote; "should all be great fun."

The travel to the conference in Klerksdorp gave the folks an opportunity to stay with Clive and Sabine in Johannesburg.

I was curious to see what she wrote, and it seems Clive was making use of the lovely spring rains that year to lay instant lawn and he was busy as usual; "Clive has started on his carport". 

He loved pottering, working on his homes and making things, so I am not surprised to read about his busyness around the house!

How special this letter is, Mom is well, happy with her 11 pages of news, taking pleasure in her adventures, pleasure in her children's lives and achievements, all this before the return of her cancer.

She died 6 years later.

"Longing for the 15th Nov."

'...longing for the 15th Nov. love Mom'

The only letter I kept from my mother while we lived in France.

And the letters from Paris stop.

The final letter to Mom and Dad in Howick, from Marly-le-Roi, France, is dated 26 October 1987.

I give her the latest travel and family news as well as  the plans for our move back to South Africa which were being finalised.

When my mother gave me this set of letters that I wrote to her  from France between the July of 1986 and October 1987, I popped Mom's last letter from the 22nd September 1987 into the large plastic envelop.

I am so pleased that I did so as it is the only one I kept. It is a wonderfully long newsy letter with newspaper cuttings of her and Dad in their Mayoral role. She writes about having a busy time and how after the Mayoral induction, they attended a conference in Klerksdorp, she sent me news about my school friends; babies, affairs and divorces and about her friends too. And of course news about what Inel and Doreen had been doing.

The last letter from France giving Mom my flight times.

My letter talks about Fred being 'fed-up with the situation here'. He never really settled or enjoyed the work experience in Paris. I do not even recall that he was offered a role in Taiwan! But I do know that  he was desperate to get back to South Africa.

I flew back first with Shawni and Barry, arrived on the 15th November and stayed with the folks in Howick, while Fred finished up in Paris, arranged the last details of the move and our French sojourn was abruptly over.

Our letters talk about looking forward to seeing each other, Mom even had a cot and high chair ready for the grandchildren. Yet I remember this time as being so difficult for me. I felt uprooted and just a little marooned in Howick, without a routine the kids were out of sorts too and the house felt too small for all of us.

I was unsure of our next steps, our house in Johannesburg was still tenanted, so no home, no cars, no work....
South Africa, instead of feeling like home, felt foreign and I was the stranger.

A shopping spree in Paris

Making coffee for Doreen and her family last night, using my Villeroy & Boch cups, I told her about our final shopping spree in Paris in the October of 1987 before coming back to South Africa.

We had chosen the 'Design Naif' set of crockery from the wonderful Villeroy and Boch store in Paris, as it reminded us of our travels to the south of France with the charming villages and countryside that we experienced.

My end of stay shopping spree in Paris, Villeroy & Boch and Christofle

What a spree, as in my letter, 'we went the whole hog! it's really beautiful.'  I have platters, bowls, servers, napkin rings, a pie dish, a roasting dish, over and above a full set of crockery for 8 and I have lived happily with our choice for almost 30 years. And in all these years, I have lost just one of the little cups.

Martie and Fred both bought an expresso machine, 'with hot water spout', making steamed, frothy milk was special then, we used ours for 15 years before it was retired. We then bought her machine as it was unused, that too lasted 15 years and is now retired as well.  Such hardy, valued cappuccino makers!

We rounded off our shopping with a set of Christofle cutlery too.

I am so thankful for the foresight that we had, amid the stress of planning our return, to make these purchases, they have served us well.

A taste of classical music at Eglise Saint-Louis en-L'ile

Chamber music in Paris at the Eglise Saint Louis en-L'ile.

Classical music has not been a part of my life whereas for my friend Lee it is an enduring love of hers.

She must have dragged me along!

Knowing me I would have been happy to sit at a Bistro pavement table and chair, watching people, with a sundowner in hand, enjoying some free time while Fred had the littley's.

I am rather amused at how I mentioned it in my letter to my folks on the 26th October - 'really classical stuff'. I must admit to having no recall of the music but I do remember the acoustics of the church, its formal beauty and how lovely the experience was.

Lee is now in Australia and I look forward to seeing her in December and to explore Melbourne with her as we did in Paris so long ago.

Picnics and chateaux, with Lee in the Loire valley

Picnics and chateaux, visit to the Loire Valley with Lee

Chinon, Villandry, Azay-le-Rideau, Langeais, the romance of the Loire Valley seen through the architecture and gardens of these magnificent chateaux and quaint villages.

Lee was on business in Paris from South Africa during the autumn of 1987 and we had this special opportunity to spend time together. This Postcard reminds me of our weekend away with her, 'doing' some chateaux as my card says, antiques, tapestries, complex and convoluted history and without a doubt the highlight was the formal vegetable garden at Villandry.

My photo album is dotted with many picnic scenes, coffee and croissants, baguettes and cheese. How I would love to sit on a grassy patch again and take in the french countryside with a picnic basket of treats. Lee, you keen?

The photo on the landing

Each day as I run up and down the stairs here at Arthur Road I glance at the photo of Shawni and Barry that Fred took while we were living in France. Barry looks surprised to find himself sitting in the clear, fresh stream and Shawni looks just a little annoyed by it all.

This huge photo has hung here, in this same spot, since 1988.

The scene is the Toulourenc River, one of the many beautiful clear mountain streams in the Haute Provence and we had been swimming. We were on holiday in the August of 1987 and staying in the village of Brantes with its wonderful view of Mt Ventoux.

At that stage in our lives Fred and I knew nothing about professional cycling and had not yet fallen in love with watching the Tour de France each July. It is a TV calendar highlight for us both and watching the race up the lunar landscape of Mt Ventoux, the highest peak in the Haute Province, is a thrill as we had driven up those crazy steep switchbacks and could picture the scene.

Looking at my PostCard from Brantes, with the top Mt Ventoux cut off - 'au loin', then the photo in the stairwell and the realisation that the Toulourenc River is a stream from these mountains around Mt Ventoux, I have had one of my 'who would have thought' moments.

I will call Fred now and tell him of the discovery.

Shawni goes to school

The 8 September 1987 and Shawni starts her life long commitment to learning. It's her first day of school in Marly-le-Roi, a small village to the west of Paris where we lived for a few years. She is 2 months short of three years old.

From my letter home: 'She is a little girl, speaks beautifully and has a vast vocabulary.'

Now a woman, she still speaks beautifully, still has a vast vocabulary, Shawni went on to matriculate from St. Mary's in Waverley, Johannesburg with 5 distinctions; has 2 honours degrees, has a CA (SA) and this year completed her 3rd and final year of CFA.

Craig posted this message when she got her result earlier in the year:

"This one is so clever! Passed CFA level 3, so now a CA(SA) and CFA! So proud of her! Love you! "

We agree!

A caravan, a tent and a naturalist beach along the Ardeche River Gorge

France, summer of 1987, with Martie and Jess

Camping Chez Oscar, girls in the caravan, boys in the tent, coffee and croissants sent down by 'round, jovial Dutch, French and English speaking' Oscar himself for our morning treat, bouillabaisse soup on the terrace of his Provencal restaurant followed by rabbit. What a find!

I look at my photo collage that I have just put together for the blog from my photos of this summer of 1987 with Martie in the south of France and around Paris, it looks joyous. 

It was a summer of much laughter.

One of the iconic memories of this time was the day we spent down on the Ardeche River. My letter to Mom talks about us 'invading' a German naturalist beach. We were laden, canoe, loads of delicious food for the picnic, Shawni, Barry and Jessica all needing help down the steep gorge to the river. Fred itching to get onto the river to canoe and to leave his '2 wives and 3 children'. 

And canoe he did, the minute he saw the minimalist (and nude) campers, he disappeared and spent most of the day on the river.  No wonder Martie and I giggled. The littley's loved it all, 'we had a super day just lazy in the sun and swimming'.

I wonder if I bought a French bag, cannot really remember the outcome after our boot was burgled, which came as a bit of a shock after the lazy day on the river.