Bierman family expresses gratitude to Kathorus Mail
You are a kind and generous soul and I wish someone on your path would do something this special for you as you did for my family
Hi Zaid, Thank you for your excellent article on the graves in the township of Vosloorus. I do sincerely appreciate your beautiful words towards my grandmother – she was very dear to me.
Ineke Prinsloo
The granddaughter of the Bierman family.
Letter via Messenger
Thank you Ineke Prinsloo for coming forward to claim your Afrikaner descendants who were buried in the township of Vosloorus.
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Mystery of white graves in Vosloorus unravelled
It is difficult to say which of the two Bierman daughters – Susanna Josina Bierman and Johanna Catherina Bierman who were born in 1893 and 1896 respectively – is your maternal grandmother.
Johanna Catherina died on July 3, 1947, at the age of 51. Her younger sister, Susanna Josina, died seven years later on January 29, 1951, at the age of 58. The sisters are buried together side by side, or in the same grave, and share a single gravestone at the Vosloorus burial site. (See photo)
One thing I can confirm, though, is that your grandfather Jan Marais is perhaps the first Voortrekker farmer to settle at the foot of the Suikerbosrand valley south of Kathorus, and built his homestead which still stands today. He was the first Afrikaner to encounter the lush sugarcane fields that grew in the area just over 100 years ago, thus the name “suikerbos” valley.
The two sisters were most likely the children of Hermina Christina Maria Isabella Marais who was born on February 22, 1864, and died on October 22, 1836, at the age of 20. Or they may have been the daughters of Susanna Josina Bierman, who was also born Marais on February 18, 1876, and died at the age of 68 in 1945. Both women may have at some stage been married to Izak B. Bierman who appeared to have been the patriarch of the Bierman family.
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I have not been to the Suikerbosrand Museum, but I have been informed by Professor Karim Sadr that there is a museum that is dedicated to a woman whose maiden name was Marais.
Please feel free to send us any family photos you may have in your possession as you indicated in your telephone message.
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