Maria Petronella was die dogter van Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nel en Martha Jacoba Deetlefs.
Martha Jacoba gave birth to 14 children, but only 11 survived into adulthood. One child died young and a set of twins died in infancy. JHLN also had seven children with his first wife, who died young. In later years, as the older children married and had children of their own, Christmas gatherings were apparently attended by as many as 100 direct family members and the meal was prepared in sawn-off paraffin drums over open fires. Maria Pertronella Nell (later Wallace) - known to her family as Nellie - was born in 1904 in Sydney-on-Vaal One of her first memories was of sleeping under an ox wagon at a nagmaal gathering (a monthly overnight gathering at the nearest church in the district), and of seeing a vast, starry sky above her. The family appears to have moved around quite a bit on the diamond diggings. Maria Petronella first went to a farm school and later to a school in Upington when the family moved there. After some of the older children were already out of the home, the family moved to claim known as Louw's Koppie which, was nine miles from Sydney-on-Vaal. It was quite isolated and the nearest neighbours were three miles away. This was the family home for some time.At some stage, the children had to cross a river (Orange? Vaal?) by hand-operated pontoon to get to school. The children had to ride donkeys down to the river, corral them there and cross the river to go to school. As I understand it, this was an Afrikaans-language school. One day, Maria Petronella was on the pontoon when it was swept away by flood waters and she apparently nearly drowned. After that, her father moved her to an English-language school on the same side of the river as the family home, which is why she spoke such good English as an adult. At some stage, the children also had to walk to school, as Maria Petronella often mentioned them having to walk the distance of five miles barefoot. In the summer, the sand was so hot that, when they were walking home, they'd run across it for a while and then fall on their backs, putting their feet in the air to cool off. Maria Petronella may have left school as early as Standard Six (Form 1 / Grade 8). Even this was unusual for girls at the time and was considered a good education.She loved reading, though, and apparently used to sneak away to secret spots to read. She was also a gifted singer and, as a young girl (early teens?), a retired military officer who lived in the district offered to fund her so that she could go to Cape Town to study to become an opera singer. However, JHLN believed a girl shouldn't leave home unless it was to get married and he wouldn't let her take up the offer. Maria Petronella was baptised in the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) (Dutch Reformed Church) but, as a youngster, was apparently suspended (geskors) for dancing on the eve of her confirmation. When she was reinstated six months later, she refused to return to the church and joined the Congregational Church instead. She later became a Mormon. She was an active member of the Mormon Church for many years and sang in the church choir. She later stopped attending because the church had refused to send missionaries to preach to black Africans in the rest of Africa, which she believed to be contrary to the teachings of Jesus. She nevertheless specified in her will that she wished her funeral to be held in the Mormon Church, which it was. She met and married John Edward Wallace, who was 21 years her senior, when she was 20 or 21. He was a driver for the Diamond Fields Advertiser, and they met when he was making a run between Kimberley and the diamond sorting house in Sydney-on-Vaal (where JHLN and his family must have been living at that time). She first met her future husband when returning to Sydney-on-Vaal from an out-of-town trip. He helped her off the bus at the hotel and offered to buy her a cooldrink. He came to know one of her brothers separately on the diggings and, on an errand to collect his drivers' licence for him from the family home discovered that the girl he'd helped off the bus was his friend's sister. The Nell house was apparently next to the diamond exchange in Sydney-on-Vaal, just off the main square. She invited him into the house and, in conversation, mentioned that she needed petrol to clean one of her brothers' suits. Wallace offered to bring some the next day, but appeared with a bottle the same evening and that, as she says, is when the romance began. He apparently didn't reveal the big difference in age between them until they were married. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
Prior
to them meeting, he had apparently worked as a printer at the
Diamond Fields Advertiser but had caused an
explosion by lighting up a cigarette in the printing works, which blinded him
for three days. After his recovery, he had been demoted to the position of
driver. They
married in Sydney-on-Vaal in September 1925, only a few months after they met. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
https://www.geni.com/people/William-Edward-John-Wallace/6000000017734983942
https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736
William Edward John Wallace, was apparently born on board ship while his parents were emigrating from Kelso in Scotland to South Africa. He was a combatant in the Anglo-Boer War and fought on the British side. Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nell, later nicknamed him 'The Irish' (even though he was of Scots descent), a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that they had been on opposing sides during the war. He was also a colonial soldier in World War I, during which time he served in East Africa. It was here that he contracted the amoebic dysentery that would later lead to his death. He was a qualified printer and, after the war, worked for the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley. After he lost this job (apparently for lighting up a cigarette in the printing works and causing some kind of explosion), he became a driver for the newspaper, and it was at this time that he met his wife. (https://www.geni.com/people/William-Edward-John-Wallace/6000000017734983942)
After
their marriage, they lived in Kimberley, but she returned to Sydney-on-Vaal for
Maude's birth. She was born in the hospital there, which was apparently
situated across the town square from the family home.While
still living in Kimberley, with a young child to care for and another one on
the way, she was standing at the back door of the house one day, looking out
over the diamond diggings. As she did, the thought crossed her mind: "Is
this it?". At
some point soon after that, he lost his job as a driver because he was
apparently reported for detouring to Sydney-on-Vaal while on some kind of work
errand. The young family then moved to Lychtenburg, where she gave birth to an
infant daughter who lived for only two hours. Wallace, who'd found another job
as a driver, was away from home at the time and received a telegram which read:
"Nellie gave birth to a daughter. Died two hours later." He was
absolutely distraught, as he thought it was his wife who had died. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
She had eight pregnancies - all girls - and two of these children died as infants, while a third was stillborn. Five daughters survived into adulthood, although Edna died at the age of 19. She succumbed to heart failure resulting from damage to her heart caused by a bout of rheumatic fever she'd had as a child. Edna was born at this time, while the family was living in North Avenue Flats. Shortly after that, Granddad had what was referred to then as a 'nervous breakdown', probably brought on by the straitened circumstances in which the family had been living during the Depression years. He was advised by his doctor to leave the city. He later managed to buy a small claim at Droogveldt, situated between Louw's Koppie and Sydney-on-Vaal. It was apparently there that she delivered a stillborn child under very sad circumstances. The children were in the kitchen when Edna reached for something hot and she rushed to stop her. She stumbled and fell heavily against the kitchen table, tummy first. The child she was carrying at the time died as a result of this and was later stillborn. Edna was burnt in this incident too and was apparently scarred by it. The family later moved back to Johannesburg again, to a terrace house situated at 288 Commissioner Street in Jeppe. Once back in Johannesburg, he worked as a taxi driver. He would come home on a Friday evening, saying of the drivers on the roads: "All the buggers are drunk". Whenever money was short, he'd say that the money trees at Park Station had been bare. They called each other 'chum', and it seems that they made a loving home for their daughters. John Edward died in his early 50s, though, from complications relating to amoebic dysentry contracted on active service during WW I. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
He apparently died after he had been hospitalized for medical treatment and had been put in a bed near an open window. He contracted pneumonia, which was the immediate cause of his death. However, as the underlying cause was amoebic dysentery contracted on active service. (https://www.geni.com/people/William-Edward-John-Wallace/6000000017734983942)
Maria Petronella apparently promised him on his deathbed that she would try to do everything they had planned for their children. After his death, she worked as a shift supervisor on the factory floor at the Hillbrow Plumbing Works. She had been left with five children and 30 pounds. As the eldest daughter, Maude, was already working, and as she had to go out to work too, she decided to use the 30 pounds to put down a deposit on an Otto-Bach piano, which was in her home right up until the time of her death. It was willed to Olive. She later applied for - and was granted - a military pension, which she received for the rest of her life. Once the pension had been granted, and once Hilda and Mom started working, the family decided she should stay home to manage the household, and she left her job at the factory. Maude was already married by this time. The family later managed to put down a deposit on a house at 11 Senator Road, Malvern East, and moved there just before Christmas in 1950. She lived in the house for 40 years, before being moved to a frail care centre a few weeks before her death. She was an avid gardener and turned her small patch of land into a little paradise, with fruit trees and a veggie patch in the back garden and shrubs and flowers in the front. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
https://www.geni.com/people/William-Edward-John-Wallace/6000000017734983942
https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736
William Edward John Wallace, was apparently born on board ship while his parents were emigrating from Kelso in Scotland to South Africa. He was a combatant in the Anglo-Boer War and fought on the British side. Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nell, later nicknamed him 'The Irish' (even though he was of Scots descent), a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that they had been on opposing sides during the war. He was also a colonial soldier in World War I, during which time he served in East Africa. It was here that he contracted the amoebic dysentery that would later lead to his death. He was a qualified printer and, after the war, worked for the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley. After he lost this job (apparently for lighting up a cigarette in the printing works and causing some kind of explosion), he became a driver for the newspaper, and it was at this time that he met his wife. (https://www.geni.com/people/William-Edward-John-Wallace/6000000017734983942)
She had eight pregnancies - all girls - and two of these children died as infants, while a third was stillborn. Five daughters survived into adulthood, although Edna died at the age of 19. She succumbed to heart failure resulting from damage to her heart caused by a bout of rheumatic fever she'd had as a child. Edna was born at this time, while the family was living in North Avenue Flats. Shortly after that, Granddad had what was referred to then as a 'nervous breakdown', probably brought on by the straitened circumstances in which the family had been living during the Depression years. He was advised by his doctor to leave the city. He later managed to buy a small claim at Droogveldt, situated between Louw's Koppie and Sydney-on-Vaal. It was apparently there that she delivered a stillborn child under very sad circumstances. The children were in the kitchen when Edna reached for something hot and she rushed to stop her. She stumbled and fell heavily against the kitchen table, tummy first. The child she was carrying at the time died as a result of this and was later stillborn. Edna was burnt in this incident too and was apparently scarred by it. The family later moved back to Johannesburg again, to a terrace house situated at 288 Commissioner Street in Jeppe. Once back in Johannesburg, he worked as a taxi driver. He would come home on a Friday evening, saying of the drivers on the roads: "All the buggers are drunk". Whenever money was short, he'd say that the money trees at Park Station had been bare. They called each other 'chum', and it seems that they made a loving home for their daughters. John Edward died in his early 50s, though, from complications relating to amoebic dysentry contracted on active service during WW I. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
He apparently died after he had been hospitalized for medical treatment and had been put in a bed near an open window. He contracted pneumonia, which was the immediate cause of his death. However, as the underlying cause was amoebic dysentery contracted on active service. (https://www.geni.com/people/William-Edward-John-Wallace/6000000017734983942)
Maria Petronella apparently promised him on his deathbed that she would try to do everything they had planned for their children. After his death, she worked as a shift supervisor on the factory floor at the Hillbrow Plumbing Works. She had been left with five children and 30 pounds. As the eldest daughter, Maude, was already working, and as she had to go out to work too, she decided to use the 30 pounds to put down a deposit on an Otto-Bach piano, which was in her home right up until the time of her death. It was willed to Olive. She later applied for - and was granted - a military pension, which she received for the rest of her life. Once the pension had been granted, and once Hilda and Mom started working, the family decided she should stay home to manage the household, and she left her job at the factory. Maude was already married by this time. The family later managed to put down a deposit on a house at 11 Senator Road, Malvern East, and moved there just before Christmas in 1950. She lived in the house for 40 years, before being moved to a frail care centre a few weeks before her death. She was an avid gardener and turned her small patch of land into a little paradise, with fruit trees and a veggie patch in the back garden and shrubs and flowers in the front. (https://www.geni.com/people/Maria-Petronella-Wallace/6000000017735562736?through=6000000018025990889)
eGGSA library Gravestones in South Africa
Gauteng Gauteng, JOHANNESBURG, Urban area Gauteng, Johannesburg, MONTGOMERY
PARK Gauteng, Johannesburg, MONTGOMERY PARK, West Park cemetery W - Surnames ::
Vanne - W Wa - Surnames starting with the letters Wa WALLACE William Edward
John 1883-1942 & Maria Petronella NELL 1904-1990
j. Maude Patricia WALLACE (Sydney-on-Vaal) X Braxton.
j. Infant Daughter/s WALLACE (Lychtenberg)
j. Hilda WALLACE (Potchefstroom)
j. Edna Armistice WALLACE (Johannesburg)
j. Gloria Leslie WALLACE (Sydney-on-Vaal) x Cahill
j. Olive WALLACE(Johannesburg).
j. Another child was born at Barkly West, probably before or after the stillborn child.
