July 4 1857

My great-great-grandfather Amandus Neukermans, a millers helper, died in Okegem, Rattenbergstraat. He was born in Okegem on March 15 1824 and thus was barely 37 years old when he passed away. Whether he died by illness or by accident, I haven't researched (yet).

On September 6 1849 he married Catharina Asselman (Okegem 1823 - 1893). Both of the spouses could write their name, which was not too common at that time. Catharina never remarried.

They had five children :

-- Maria Elisabeth Neukermans (Okegem 1849 - 1892). She was "landbouwster" (at that moment in time most people were) and married Karel Lodewijk Cobbaert (Okegem 1851 - 1898), a carpenter ;

-- Rosalia Neukermans (Okegem 1851 - 1922). She was a glove maker - a common female occupation in Okegem in the 19th and early 20th century (my mother's mother and my mother also were glove makers). She married Adrianus Cobbaert (Okegem 1845 - 1918), a carpenter and brother of Karel Lodewijk ;

-- Clara Cecilia Neukermans (Okegem 1853 - 1854). She died one day before her first birthday ;

-- Hermilianus Neukermans (Okegem 1855 - 1832), farmer and "kloefkapper" (he made wooden shoes), who married Clementia Broeckaert (Okegem 1858 - 1939), a glove maker. They were my great-grandparents ;

-- (Jozef ?) Ferdinandus Neukermans (Okegem 1858 - 1939), farmer. Like his brother he lived on the Rattenberg - they probably split the property of their parents (to be verified). Ferdinandus married Odila Maria Broeckaert (Okegem 1862 - 1945), who also was a glove maker, and a sister of Clementia.

Ferdinandus was born some months after his father's death, and even his slightly older brother, my great-grandfather, could not possibly have had any direct memories about his father.
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Of all the people mentioned by name in this post "tante Adèle" is the only one I have known personally. She was a direct neigbour of my maternal grandfather and grandmother, and their aunt.

In the 1940s - 1950s there was a cluster of Neukermans on the Rattenberg :

-- tante Adèle, widow of Ferdinandus Neukermans (nonkel Jef) and her daughter Clementia Neukermans (Manse - Okegem 1895 - Denderleeuw 1955) ;

-- the family of my grandparents Joannes Franciscus Neukermans (Okegem 1886 - Aalst 1961) and Maria Antonia De Vidts (Pamel 1885 - Okegem 1949) ;

-- and my grandfather's brother Joannes Amadeus (nonkel Wentj - Okegem 1895 - 1976) with his family.

I think some of the Cobbaert offspring also lived in the immediate vicinity, but I do not remember meeting them.