TOPIC:

Greetings and Happy New Year to all.
I am busy tracing our family history, which includes my paternal Great Grandmother who, according to family journals, was widowed during the second Boer War and then married my Great Grandfather. She (Johanna Wilhelmina Voges) married Pieter Hermanus Graaff on 15 October 1894 and then had a couple of children before the war started. In 1902 she married James Firmin Manning who, again according to family history, was tasked with escorting Boer women and children back to their farms. Johanna is listed as a widow on her second marriage certificate, yet her first husband was sent as a POW (Prisoner Number 1061) to St Helena Island after being captured at Paardeberg on 27 Feb 1900 (Source: Anglo Boer War Museum 2016). Did Graaff perhaps die on St Helena, or was he repatriated? I have traced a person with a similar name and age who came back from the war and moved up to the mines - he died in 1932. Is there any way of confirming that Graaff survived and returned to South Africa. Thanks for any help in solving this intriguing part of our family history. Vince

Hi Vince

See the following re Pieter Hermanus Graaff.

Thanks a lot for that Elmarie. I have a Baptism certificate for his son in 1897 which shows that he was living in Klipdam before the war, hence his rebel status? As I suspected, he survived internment and came back to South Africa, to find that his wife had married someone else (an Englishman at that!). Presumably that would make my Great Grandfather's marriage invalid? Would there have to be a presumption of death / declaration of death for Pieter Graaff before they could marry? All very intriguing.