Timmermans, Gooik and Meerbeke

The first documented Timmermans in my genealogy is Franciscus Timmermans who passed away in Gooik on December 12 1692. He married Catharina Snoeck who died in Gooik on October 2 1673. Franciscus and Catharina had eight children in Gooik and were probably married there before 1649 - but no document survives in the parish registers (I haven't yet consulted any other possible sources). They probably were born around 1620 - 1630.

The parents of both Franciscus and Catharina are not documented, or not documented without doubt, in the family reconstructions of Gooik which have been recently published by the VVF. It is possible, but not certain, that both were born in Gooik and married there. There were at least five (probable related) Timmermans and two Snoeck families in Gooik at the end of the 16th century.

Their grandson Joannes married in Meerbeke, where descendants live up to now. He also had many descendants in Pamel (Roosdaal).

In the twentieth century, there were at last three Timmermans families in Meerbeke, the village where my father was born. At least two of them, and probably all three, trace back to the same roots in Gooik.