April 12 1853

Felix De Vidts, the father of my maternal grandmother, was born in Pamel. He was the last child in a series of eight for Joannes De Vidts (Pamel 1811 - 1881) and Maria Elisabeth Van der Sleyen (Pamel 1811 - 1860).

In 1882, he married Blondina Muylaert (Denderhoutem 1849 - Pamel 1942). It would be interesting to know how those two met. Denderhoutem isn't that far from Pamel, but I don't think there were too many contacts between those villages, except maybe for (distant) family relationships.

Felix and Blondina had five children :

Maria Adelina (Pamel 1883 - 1883, less than two months old) ;
Maria Antonia (Pamel 1885 - 1890), my maternal grandmother ;
Adelina (Pamel 1887 - 1890) ;
Adeline (Pamel 1890 - 1981), who continued to live in the parental home in the Piezelstraat, and of which offspring ;
Petrus Joannes (Pamel 1893 - 1922), who died a bachelor.

When Felix came to visit his daughter, my grandmother, he liked a little drop, and sometimes more than one. My mother told me that, once at least, he left my grandparent's house close to the windmill, but came back fifteen or twenty minutes later, out of breath and panting that he couldn't cross the Dender river because the "framassons" (free masons) were dancing there and had threatened him. My grandfather then had to accompany him part or all of the way, which wasn't that far after all.

My mother also told me that Felix couldn't read or write but was very sharp with numbers. But I vaguely remember to have seen an official paper to which he had signed his name, which of course is no proof in se that he was literate.

Felix died in Pamel on June 8 1940 ... old enough to have seen the beginning of the second world war. If he were to come back, he wouldn't recognise the world, or the environment in which he lived and which was so familiar to him.

When I look back to my own youth, it is unbelievable how very much and incredibly fast the world has changed. It most certainly changed more between 1940 and now that it had changed in hundreds and hundreds of years before.

***
And a small reminder : on my mother's side I descend from Felix. On my father's side I descend from Antonia, his elder sister, born in Pamel in 1840.