Cape Town Baptisms 1743 - 1756

Cape Town Baptisms 1743 - 1756 (VOC employees, burghers, and slaves)

! Sensitivity : It is crucial to handle this database with care and a strong sense of responsibility. Many of the terms used were originally assigned by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and often do not reflect how individuals and groups identified themselves. The terms themselves can be misleading, as they oversimplify the complex social realities experienced by people at the time.

This database may also contains terms that are considered derogatory, offensive, or harmful. The concepts within it are deeply connected to a history of colonial violence, enslavement, and racism that persisted both during and after the VOC's existence.

I've aimed to preserve the original spelling of names from the archive, which may differ from modern usage. Many surnames were "modernised" in the archive to move away from the creolisation legacy. For illegible or faint writing, I've used "****" or "?" to denote uncertainty. Please also note that "ij" may be substituted with "y" in some entries. I have omitted most diacritical marks to enable smooth search of the database.

The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), a direct descendant of the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, was brought to the Cape by Dutch settlers in 1652. As the official church of the Cape Colony, it played a central, authoritative role in the colonization effort, effectively serving as a tool to establish and enforce the hierarchy within the civil society.

Terms used in the archive and transcribed in this database:

In the archive, the term "Onecht" signifies that the child's parents were not legally married and/or that one or both parents were unbaptised. Unbaptised slaves and their unbaptised descendants were not permitted legal marriage, often resulting in de facto or Islamic marriages instead.

Vrij geboren - never enslaved

Vrij Zwart - freed or manumitted slave

Lijfeigen or slaaf - slave

Heelslagh - full black with no interracial admixture, i.e., negro, caffer, Indisch, Chinees

Halfslagh/halvslag/ mesties/mestiço - half caste, i.e., white father and Asian slave mother

Mulatto - half caste i.e., white father and Black African/Bantu/"Negro" mother

Kastiço/kasties - offspring of a white father and mesties or mulatto slave mother

Bastaard - offspring of white father and Khoisan (Hottentot/"Bushman") mother

Bastaard Hottentot - offspring of Black African/"Negro"/Bantu/Asian slave father and Hottentot/"Bushman" mother

Hottentot - indigenous cattle owners, i.e., Quena/Khoena/Koina

Bushmen - indigenous hunter gatherers, i.e., San 

[Source for explanation of terms : Mansell Upham's Blog : Muatze - www.mansellupham.wordpress.com]

National Archives of South Africa

Transcribed by Lara Seaward from the records of the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederdeutsche Gereformeerde Kerk)

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