July 25 1694

On July 25 1694 Judocus Timmermans passed away at Gooik. He had been baptized at Gooik on September 21 1649 and married Catharina (Maria) Appelmans (Gooik 1656 - 1733), who remarried after his death.

They had two children : Cornelius lived for less than a month in november 1679 and Joannes who was born at Gooik in 1686 died at Meerbeke in 1769. He married Maria Anna De Vleeschauwer (Meerbeke 1683 - 1761).

Their son Nicolaes Timmermans - who married twice - lived for almost one hundred years in Meerbeke - from 1711 to 1808. Both father and son had a lot of children. One of them was Philippus (Meerbeke 1740 - 1814). He was a son of Nicolaes and of his first wife Petronella Van Eesbeke (Meerbeke 1706 - 1772). Philippus also married twice and his second wife was Petronella Van den Berghe (Meerbeke 1766 - 1824).

According to my research, this Philippus was the father of Charles Timmermans, who was born at Meerbeke in 1812, when his father was 71 and his mother 46. That is the reason why, a couple of almost ironclad checks notwithstanding, I still hesitate to claim for certain that this Philippus is the real father of Charles.

There are three possibilities : either the data are correct and Philippus is the real father ; or the data are correct and Philippus is the legal, but not the real father ; or an - improbable - mistake slipped in my research and the father of Charles is another Philippus Timmermans altogether.

In genealogy nothing ever is absolutely certain, but to be "as certain" as possible, I will have to reconstitute all the Timmermans families in Meerbeke in the 18th en 19th century - and there are lots of them. This will require very significant additional research but will pay off eventually as I will get a reliable overview of the exact relationships (or lack of it) between all the people bearing the same family name.

Charles who died at Meerbeke in 1883 was married twice too. He and his second wife Maria Anna Van den Houte (who was born in Lieferinge in 1825) were the parents of my great-grandfather Jozef Timmermans (Meerbeke 1858 - 1929).