FAURESMITH NEDERDUITSE GEMEENTE, SOUTH AFRICA

Fauresmith is a little town in the South Free State province. The first De Beer trekkers (my De Beer roots) who moved deeper into the hinterland of South Africa from Graaf Reinette and Colesburg in the former Cape Province settled round about 1840 (circa) in this region. They wer mainly farmers who helped to establish the Fauresmith community. Barent Petrus De Beer and some of his offspring were born and christianed in the Nederduitsse Parish (NG-Church) of this town. Registers of the NG-Church could be consulted in the archives of the church in Bloemfontein, however, the building in the photograph above, is also a cum museum/church office in Fauresmith. My great ancestors got farms from the sovereign rulers of the day to settle themselves on farms surrounding Fauresmith. They eventually build their farm house on INHOEK (near Petrusburg in the free State) and occupied a salt pan with lots of grazing for their cattle. Their graves could still to be identified at INHOEK next to the salt pan.