June 13 1706

Birth in Meerbeke of Petronella Van Eesbeke, daughter of Abraham and Adriana Ingelbeens.

In 1736 she married Nicolaes Timmermans (Meerbeke 1711 - 1808) with whom she had six children at least, including my ancestor Philippus (Meerbeke 1740 - 1814). Petronella died on January 8 1772, and Nicolaes remarried in November of the same year with the some 24 years younger Maria Berlindis De Mongh (Meerbeke 1745 - 1811) with whom he had another five children at least.

Philippus thus was barely five years older than his stepmother. As stated before, Philippus was the grandfather of my great-grandfather Josephus Timmermans (Meerbeke 1858 - 1929).

Both Philippus and his son Charles (Meerbeke 1812 - 1883) married twice, and by both I descend from their second marriage.

I wrote it often enough before : a lot of work remains to be done about my father's ancestors, in Meerbeke and other locations. But the relationship between my eyes and microfilms is bad, and getting worse all the time.

One "small" detail : I was surprised not to find any children from the first marriage of Karel in Meerbeke, until recently - quite by accident - I discovered they were born in Ninove. Karel, a farmer, and his first wife were shopkeepers in Ninove : they had six children but five of them died when they were less than three years old.