December 8 1858

My great-grandfather Josephus Timmermans was born in Meerbeke on December 8 1858 as a son of Charles Timmermans (Meerbeke 1812 - 1883) and his second spouse Maria Anna Van den Houte, born in Lieferinge in 1825. I haven't yet reconstructed the family of Charles and his two spouses.

The reason is that without a rigorous research structure one gets lost in the "sea" of Timmermans in Meerbeke in the 19th century. I thus decided to systematically note down each and every act with a Timmermans in it, family or not. That is the only way to get a correct overview of the various Timmermans branches. As stated before (and up to now), I have found three apparently unrelated branches, but two of them go back to a common ancestor ; the third one probably does too - but that remains to be proven.

Josephus married Elisabeth Goessens in Nederhasselt in 1883 ; Elisabeth was born in Brussels in 1862 and died in Meerbeke in 1934. They had thirteen children and lived in one of the oldest farms in Meerbeke : the Schalkom. Thus my grandfather was Pieje uit "t Schalkom. I have to find out still how Charles, or maybe even his father Philippus, "landed" in that farm.

See also : "November 1 1808", "October 11 1929", "My great-grandparents" ... .