New Year and ancestry

In my ancestor chart - and up to now - I found two ancestors who were born on New Year's day.

The first one was Petrus Guns, born in Denderhoutem on Jaunuari 1 1595 and who died in Denderhoutem in July 1646. I am the tenth generation after him.

The second is Petrus Joannes Ravijst, the father of my paternal grandmother. He was born in Nieuwenhove on New Year's day in 1861 and died in Meerbeke on January 21 1944, four years and almost two months after my birth. I am sorry to say I have no recollection of him whatsoever and that I heard very few, sometimes slightly contradictary, tales and stories about him.

He lived a couple of houses up the Hemelrijk(straat) from where my father's parents lived. The house has been demolished and replaced by a new construction years ago. It doesn't seem very long ago, but time flies so fast it may have been twenty, thirthy, or even more years ago.

None of my known ancestors died on New Year's day.