October 11 1929

My great-grandfather Josephus (Jef) Timmermans died in Meerbeke. He had been born in Meerbeke on December 8 1858 and married Maria Elisabeth Goessens (Nederhasselt 1862 - Meerbeke 1934) in Nederhasselt on January 24 1883. The couple lived on various locations in Nederhasselt and in Meerbeke. Their last address was the Schalkom farm, a small vestige of an important farm which had been the property of the Abbey of Ninove until the French revolution. According to official sources, he was an agricultural laborer("dagloner"), later a farmer. He probably was the first Timmermans on the Schalkom farm.

I never really asked my father - who passed away more than 20 years before I had the time to really start digging in my ancestry - for a complete list of his uncles and aunts. My mother always mentioned that my grandfather was one of 11 children. I found thirteen, but I still have a lot of work to do to clear this out.

I have written before that, on my mother's side, I was fortunate enough to be able to question her extensively, and to dispose of lots of reliable published sources (Okegem, Pamel, Denderhoutem ...). My father passed away much too soon for me to ask him lots of specific questions about his ancestors, and - to the best of my knowledge - there are no published sources for Meerbeke which could facilitate my family reconstructions. Except for surviving, but fading memories of a very few family members, I have to dig it all out of the archives.

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