July 11 1839

On July 11 1839 Anna Maria (De) Colins - the “de” appears to have been added by the end of the 18th century - died at Lieferinge, where she had been born on November 12 1780. She was at the centre of a fantastic family lore, about which more will be written later, and which proved true after almost 200 years of oral transmission.

Anna Maria was a daughter of “sieur” Philippe Maximilien Sigmonde (?) Cornille De Colins and of Petronilla Van den Houte. The Colins family can be traced back to the 14th century. Anna Maria thus descended from a relatively well known family with a lot of soldiers, priests, nuns and civil servants in Flanders and Hainaut. The family had multiple branches, one of which - Colins de Ham - produced one of the “fathers” of sociology. The Colins family will also be addressed in a future article.
Anna Maria’s direct ascendants were “heren” (lords) of Lieferinge and Heetvelde, but wasted their holdings during the 18th century. Local lore still holds some frightening stories about these "gentlemen".

Anna Maria married Philippus Van den Houte, a local farmer, in 1812. One of their children was Maria Anna Van den Houte, born at Lieferinge in 1825, who became the second spouse of Charles Timmermans in 1857. Charles was born and died in Meerbeke (1812 – 1883). Maria Anna was listed as a maid, and later a farmer’s wife. From (relative) richness to (almost) rags in a couple of generations …

Charles and Maria Anna were the parents of my great-grandfather Josephus Timmermans (Meerbeke 1858 – Meerbeke 1929).