Maria Jacoba was die dogter van Johannes Petrus Nel en Susanna Nel.
Die volgende aanhaling uit Gustav Bauman se
biografie *The Lost Republic The Biography of a Land Surveyor: It was in this year (1885) that I first met old Mr.
Zacharias Koekemoer. Oom Zacharias had been a boy of six years old when
his parents, and the parents of his future wife – the Nels – had trekked over
the Drakensberg to Natal. Crossing the Berg, a wagon went over the little
Nel girl's leg and broke it. This incident saved the Nel and Koekemoer
families from being massacred at Weenen, as they were in the same party as the
people murdered there by the Zulu Impis. They stayed together on the Berg until
the child's leg had healed, then trekked on together and eventually
settled on the Tugela. The Koekemoers lived at
Rondehoek, near Senekal. (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BUITENPOSTEN/2008-04/1209200280)
Daar is verder 'n mooi storie oor 'n onderwyser wat in Natal vir Zacharias en ander kinders skoolgehou het. Die man was 'n rondreisende messelaar wat nadat hy blind geraak het, begin skoolhou het. Koekemoer is na die tweede dag vebied om terug te gaan skool-toe nadat hy 'n vlieg wat op die slapende onderwyser se neus gesit het met 'n stukkie bamboes en 'n klippie probeer afskiet het. Baumann was beindruk daarmee dat die ou man could read the Bible fluently, and could write a letter in Afrikaans, which astonished me, as I knew the difficulty the Voortrekkers had to get their children education at all. Die ou man het genoem dat hy sy geleerdheid van sy moeder gekry het, siende dat sy nie ongeletterd was nie. (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BUITENPOSTEN/2008-04/1209200280)
Dan is daar ook twee stories oor twee baie onafgeronde ou tannies – Baumann kry een se man eendag in die veld en vra hom wat maak hy daar. Hy antwoord: I don't know what has come over old Betty. She told me to catch a ewe. I could'nt – I am too old – so she just swore at me and drove away, saying I could walk home. And that's to far! Luckily this type of woman was in the minority. Most of our pioneer womenfolk were like old Mrs. Koekemoer, who was a thorough lady, every inch of her five feet. I shall never forget how, whenever I arrived at the farm, she took my keys from me and overhauled every bit of my clothing – darning my socks, mending my shirts and seeing to the washing and ironing of my soiled linen. She was a good little mother to all her guests and the whole neighbourhood. There were scores of other women like Mrs. Koekemoer all over the country.(http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BUITENPOSTEN/2008-04/1209200280)
Kinders:
h.1. Susanna Maria KOEKEMOER,
geb. 1847, oorl. 1923
h.2. Joachim Marthinus KOEKEMOER, geb. 1849, oorl. 1910
h.3. Johannes Petrus KOEKEMOER, geb. 1851
h.4. Neeltje Cornelia Susanna KOEKEMOER, geb. 1853, oorl. 1912
h.5. Maria Jacoba KOEKEMOER,
geb. 1855, oorl. 1928
h.6. Zacharias Johannes KOEKEMOER, geb. 1857, oorl. 1927
h.7. Heila Magdalena KOEKEMOER, geb. 1859, oorl. 1937
h.8. Louis Jacobus KOEKEMOER,
geb. 1862, oorl. 1909
h.9. Philippus Johannes KOEKEMOER, geb. 1865
