Who was Willem’s mother?

Who was the mother of Willem MORKEL 1803 – 1876, the 9th son of 3rd generation Daniel Johannes MORKEL?

According to the Morkel Genealogies, Daniel’s second wife Maria Dorothea LOUW, died in 1801, two years before Willem’s birth.   Daniel married a third time, to Sophia Alida BRINK (widow VAN AS), in 1808, five years after Willem’s birth.  There is clearly a wrong date somewhere.

Initially I thought the date of the third marriage was wrongly transcribed, i.e. instead of 1808 it was 1802 (an easy mistake to make).  Willem would then have been the son of Daniel Johannes and his third wife Sophia Alida BRINK, listed as widow VAN AS.   This was the best way to resolve the puzzle.

However, a few months ago I learned that the VAN AS couple had a child baptised in 1804, so my assumption of an 1802 marriage was wrong.   Research in  Cape Archives shows that the Will of Daniel Johannes and Maria Dorothea was filed in 1807.  She would have died shortly before that, most likely in the same year.   She was thus the mother of Willem, not Sophia Alida.  I have changed the family lines on our website.  However, the Genealogy for the total family, is on “Family Tree Maker”, a wonderful Genealogy Program, but so constructed that this simple change in mothers requires a fairly massive re-entering of names and dates.   I shall do this over time.

Additionally:

1.  One of the Genealogies stated that Maria Dorothea died in childbirth in 1801.  This is wrong as she lived until 1807.

2.  Sophia Alida BRINK was not a widow.  She and her husband Willem VAN AS were divorced.  Willem VAN AS re-married in 1813, to Johanna Philippina MORKEL, Daniel’s niece.   Willem Rijnhard VAN AS divorced for the second time in 1830.   Was he a difficult person to live with?

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