Exploring the old cemeteries in Pretoria

Great grandparent's grave in the Holland C section of Rebecca Street Cemetery, Pretoria

I convinced Fred to take me to the old cemeteries to the west of the Pretoria city centre on Friday, the historic Old Church Street Cemetery which was first used in 1867, as well as the Rebecca Street Cemetery which has been in use from 1905. I paged through the old journals at the Rebecca Street office and found both my great grandparents information; Suzara Petronella in 1938 and Arend Johannes in 1946 on plots 4017 and 4018 in the Holland C section. We wandered around and it was Fred who found the van der Veen gravestone. It is remarkable to stumble across a grave and to know how you are connected to these long dead people. There are other van der Veen's buried here at Rebecca Street but I wanted to go across to the Old Church Street cemetery as I have been given information that the original Arend Johannes van der Veen, who came to South Africa in 1859 from Brummen in Holland, had bought 8 plots here at the Old Church Street Cemetery.

Journal from the late 1800's showing the van der Veen family plot.

We found the site easily, the plots are right next to the fence along the busy Church Street.

The oldest grave is Geertjen Meyer, the daughter of AJ van der Veen, she died in 1870, only 3 years after the setting up of this cemetery. I am slowly piecing together this family and their history, the research has certainly been intriguing and just a little bit shocking too.

Seeing this family plot and walking among the graves is making the research come alive.

Arend Johannes van der Veen, the original Dutch settler, died in 1882 and if he was buried here at the Old Church Street cemetery, there is no trace of his headstone. I found two of his three sons here though, Bernadus Johannes and William with their wives, as well as some of the next generation.

More about this family soon...