Nog Okegem

Ik heb de Rattenberg (Leopoldstraat), hier in de vroege twintigste eeuw gefotografeerd van aan de "barreel van den ijzeren weg", nog praktisch in de afgebeelde toestand gekend. Behalve dat het huis vooraan rechts in mijn jonge tijd café Astrid was. Dat was kort na de tweede wereldoorlog, toen ik mijn vakanties in Okegem doorbracht.

Mijn moeders ouders Franciscus Neukermans (Okegem 1866 - Aalst 1961) en Maria-Antonia De Vidts (Pamel 1885 - Okegem 1949) woonden juist voorbij de draai waarvan de aanzet in het midden van de foto te zien is. Ze woonden aan de linkerkant, boven op de "berg". Indien ik de gegevens van Herman Van Isterdael goed begrijp was dat kleine stukje Okegem al een paar eeuwen familiebezit. In mijn jonge jaren was er nog altijd een concentratie van Neukermansen.

Nu is die straat onherkenbaar veranderd ; om te beginnen is er zelfs geen barreel meer en werd links vooraan een straat gelegd naar de Kattestraat en naar de enige spoorwegovergang die de modernisering overleefd heeft. En het huis van mijn grootouders is al lang verdwenen, evenals hun graven, hetgeen ik erger vind.

Ja, soms is het echt zo : heimwee doet mijn hart verlangen ...

Tijd en familie

Van mijn acht overgrootouders zijn er maar twee die mijn geboorte meebeleefd hebben (Petrus en Blondine). Een derde moet nog geweten hebben dat mijn moeder zwanger was (Felix). En met de oudste van mijn overgrootouders (opnieuw Blondine) heb ik een link tot 1849, 161 jaar ver.

Weird isn't it ?

Even herhalen. Mijn geboortedatum : 3 december 1940.

De grootouders van mijn vader :

Jozef Timmermans (Meerbeke 1858 - Meerbeke 1929) en Maria Elisabeth Goessens (Brussel 1862 - Meerbeke 1934) ;
Petrus Joannes Ravijst (Nieuwenhove 1861 - Meerbeke 1944) en Joanna Maria (Leontien) De Schepper (Meerbeke 1864 - Meerbeke 1926).

De grootouders van mijn moeder :

Hermilianus Neukermans (Okegem 1855 - Okegem 1932) en Clementina Broeckaert (Okegem 1858 - Okegem 1939)
Felix De Vidts (Pamel 1853 - Pamel 1940) en Blondina Muylaert (Denderhoutem 1849 - Pamel 1942).

Maar het werkelijke geheugen reikt veel minder ver. Ik heb geen enkele persoonlijke herinnering aan die mensen. Wat ik over hen weet komt van mijn ouders of uit mijn opzoekingen ...

En toch weet ik me zeer eng met hen verbonden !

8 juni 1914

Op die datum, een paar maand voor het uitbreken van de eerste wereldoorlog, werd mijn moeder zaliger Margaretha Felicitas Neukermans geboren te Okegem als tweede kind en enige dochter van Joannes Franciscus Neukermans (Okegem, 24 december 1886 - Aalst, 1 juli 1961) en van Maria Antonia De Vidts (Pamel, 31 januari 1885 - Okegem, 25 september 1949).

Ons ma zou dit jaar dus 96 jaar geworden zijn indien ze ons tien jaar geleden op 26 september 2000 niet ontvallen was, na een lang en moeilijk leven, getekend door ziekte, maar ook door een sterke wil, een diep geloof en een zo goed als onverwoestbaar optimisme.

En ik kan niet over ons ma schrijven zonder onze pa Petrus Joannes Timmermans te vermelden die ons véél en véél te vroeg ontviel in 1980 (Meerbeke, 14 october 1913 - Gent, 20 april 1980) en die zijn leven volledig en totaal, zonder enige reserve, gewijd heeft aan zijn vrouw en kinderen en daar eigenlijk ook de hoogste prijs voor betaald heeft.

Mogen zij allen rusten in vrede.

January 31 1885

Today I celebrate the one hundred and twenty fifth birthday of my maternal grandmother Maria Antonia De Vidts. She was born in Pamel, and, as I wrote before, she did not have a very happy life : she lost two sons.

I am am her oldest grandchild and I was her "eye's apple", as we say in Flemish. It still hurts that she died - way too soon, before my ninth birthday - on September 25 1949. My mother, her daughter, followed her 51 years and one day later.

Yesterday night I had dinner with one of my nieces and her family and I happened to talk about my dear grandmother. Her reaction was about the same as it would have been had I spoken about the early middle ages. She doted on both her grandmothers (including my mother) and I had to remind her quite sternly that my beloved grandmother was no further away from me than her beloved grandmothers from her.

But then, for this younger generation, everything that happened before 1980 is prehistory.

In memory of nonkel Paul

My uncle Paul Joannes Neukermans, fourth of five children of Joannes Franciscus (Cis) and Maria Antonia De Vidts, was born in Okegem on January 25 1920 and died fourteen years and four days later on January 29 1934.

I have written a number of posts about him and his immediate family. He was a very exceptional kid, wise beyond his years. I am truly sorry that I have not known him personally.

Ancestors born and died ...

... between January 2 and January 13 :

On January 2 Catharina De Brabander died in Denderhoutem in 1746.

On January 3 Joanna Maria De Vidts was born in Pamel in 1683.
On January 3 Judoca Arnou (or Heerenhoudt) was born in Pamel in 1729.

On January 6 Elisabeth Van Overstraeten was born in Sint Kwintens Lennik in 1692.

On January 8 Jasperina De Boeck died in Impegem in 1652.
On January 8 Petronella Van Eesbeke died in Meerbeke in 1772.

On January 9 Adrianus Neukermans was born in Okegem in 1788.
On January 9 Karel Bernard Broeckaert died in Okegem in 1928.

On January 10 Bernard Broeckaert died in Serskamp in 1802.

On January 12 Catharina Asselman died in Okegem in 1892.
On January 12 Josina Van Oudenhove died in Pamel in 1668.

De Schepper

One of my great grandmothers was Joanna Maria (Leontien) De Schepper in Meerbeke, the mother of my paternal grandmother. I already knew Leontien's paternal grandfather and grandmother, but there it stopped for the De Schepper family.

Leontien's mother of course was Antonia De Vidts, an elder sister of my mother's maternal grandfather Felix De Vidts. I explained this in detail in a number of earlier posts. I can trace that De Vidts line back to the early sixteen hundreds.

But as stated before, the line of the De Schepper's stopped with Joanna Maria's grandfather Judocus. Today, digging through the data of Rik Van Hauwe, I found - quite by accident - a link to Rita Van Isveldt's data for Pamel, which allowed me to add seven generations to the De Schepper line : seven couples and their children. Not bad for one day's work, isn't it ? So, another line is opened up to the early 1600s.

My eyes are terribly tired. But that's OK : the winnings are great ! Details will follow.

December 31 - January 1

Births and deaths among my ancestors on December 31 :

1723 : death of Pierre Colins in Oetingen - 8th generation ;
1762 : death of Egidus Goossens in Denderhoutem - 7th generation ;
1775 : death of Carolus Van Tricht in Pamel - 8th generation.

Births and deaths among my ancestors on January 1 :

1595 : birth of Petrus Guns in Denderhoutem - 10th generation ;
1861 : birth of Petrus Joannes Ravijst in Nieuwenhove (a great-grandfather of mine).

Twenty years

I have mentioned this often times before :

on December 2 1973, it seems like yesterday, my father's mother Rosalia Margaretha Ravijst died in Ghent. Almost exactly twenty years earlier, on December 4 1953, my paternal grandfather Pieter Jozef Timmermans had passed away in Ninove.

My mother, Margaretha Felicitas Neukermans also survived my father Petrus Joannes Timmermans by twenty years. My father passed away on April 20 1980 ; my mother left this world on September 26 2000. Both died in Ghent.

My mother survived her own mother Maria Antonia De Vidts by fifty one years and a day. My maternal grandmother died on September 25 1949 in Okegem. My mother and her mother were the only ones to die in their own home.

I include the name of my maternal grandfather Joannes Franciscus Neukermans, who died in Aalst on July 1 1961, and thus come to remember the six most painful days in my life. The six days in which I lost the six most important persons in my life.

But I also recall the sea of fond and happy memories which my parents and grandparents left for me. And I remember their unending love and the sacrifices they made for their children and grandchildren.

On this day, those memories are particularly important to me. May they all rest in peace and eternal happiness.

September 25 1949

Sixty years ago today, my dear godmother and grandmother Maria Antoina De Vidts, born in Pamel on January 31 1885, died in her home in Okegem. She passed away in the presence of her husband and her three surviving children. I will never forget the dramatic story of her death as my mother told it many, many times.

My grandmother had been visiting us in Ghent, were we lived in the St Maartensstraat 5, and had fallen very ill during her visit - a very dangerous pneumonia if my memory serves me correctly. At a given moment we even thought she would never see her home again. And every single day, her devoted husband, my dear grandfather Joannes Franciscus Neukermans, came over from Okegem by train - we did not have the place to let him sleep over.

But she recovered quite well and returned home to die shortly afterwards and quite unexpectedly from a coronary disease (hartaderbreuk). She was 64 years old - I don't know why my mother always said her mother was 63 years old when she died.

In previous posts I have described how her life was filled with misery, grief and mourning and very little joy. Still she remained a shining exemple of love and devotion to the grandchildren who knew her. We will never forget her.

A follow up

Gerardus Martinus Van Lierde, the second husband of Maria Mattens, thus was a witness to the death of three out of four of his wife's children and then lost Maria and his own daughter in a couple of days (see the previous post).

But things could go fast in those times. Maria died on May 9 1743 and on September 3 1743 Gerardus Martinus married Elisabeth Baveghems "rentenierster" (a woman of independent means, whatever that meant at that time) who was born in Pamel on September 7 1723, a daughter to Joannes (1681 - 1737) and Joanna Maria De Vidts (1683 - 1726).

Elisabeth gave birth to seven children : we know for a fact that three of them died in young age too.

Gerardus Martinus himself died in Pamel on April 6 1754. His youngest daughter Catharina Theresia was born almost two months later on May 25 1754, but she was one of the three who didn't make it : she died, less than a year old, on March 29 1755.

On January 11 1755, months after the death of Gerardus Martinus, Elisabeth married Petrus De Kerpel (ca 1727 - 1792) but, to the best of our knowledge, they had no offspring. Elisabeth died in Pamel on June 29 1807.

As stated a number of times before, I descend from Joannes Josephus Van Lierde (Pamel June 19 1746 - April 1 1811), the second child and second son of Elisabeth and Gerardus Martinus and a miller like his father. On January 26 1782 he married Maria Josina Covens (Pamel October 8 1759 - April 12 1827).

Complicated relations

I sometimes think that future genealogists will have serious problems to decode the multiple possible relationships - and the potential confusion about family names - which have developed recently or are developping still. But that is nothing new. Even with the single form of religious marriage (plus births out of wedlock) things could get complicated too.

The following comes from "Gezinsreconstructie gemeente Pamel 1622 - 1796" by Rita Van Isveldt, who, by the way, has contributed a very significant part to my ancestry chart.

I shall give the year of marriage and of death only. The information is complicated enough as it is.

My ancestor Cornelius Sterckx married three times :
-- in 1694 : Elisabeth Van der Beeren : they had two children (one still born). Elisabeth died in 1708 ;
-- in 1708 : Maria Huylenbroeck : they had one child. Maria died in 1713 ;
-- in 1713 : my ancestor Catharina Van Cauwelaert : they had four children.
Cornelius died in 1719.

In 1720, Catharina Van Cauwelaert remarried Joannes Van den Bossche with whom she had four children.

After Catharina died in 1751, Joannes married Joanna Maria De Vidts : they had six children. Joannes died in 1763.

And the show went on : Joanna Maria De Vidts married Bernardus Smet, probably in the mid- or late sixties. Maria Anna had another six children and died in 1779.

Bernardus Smet married two more times :
in 1780 he married Elisabeth Kestens and they had one child. Elisabeth died in 1784 ;
in 1784 he married another Elisabeth, family name Van Linthoudt : they had seven kids. Elisabeth died in 1804 and Bernardus followed in 1812.

I repeat :

Cornelius Sterckx had seven children out of three marriages ;
Catharina Van Cauwelaert had eight children out of two marriages ;
Joannes Van den Bossche had ten children out of two marriages ;
Joanna Maria De Vidts had twelve children out of two marriages ;
Bernardus Smet had fourteen kids out of three marriages.

My ancestor Nicolaes Sterckx (Pamel 1714 - 1803) - a son of Cornelius Sterckx and Catharina Van Cauwelaert, thus had three types of siblings on his father's side, and two on his mother's side. But then his stepfather had two types of children too ... and the story continues ...

By the way, I hope I got all that right !

My mother and her mother

My mother Margaretha Felicitas Neukermans (Okegem 1914 - Gent 2000) and her mother Maria Antonia De Vidts (Pamel 1885 - Okegem 1949) on their way to Sunday mass in the late 1940's. The picture has been taken on the "Plesj" in Okegem.

January 31 1885

One hunderd and twenty four years ago, my maternal grandmother Maria Antonia De Vidts was born in Pamel. She was the second child of Felix De Vidts (Pamel 1853 - 1940) and Blondina Muylaert (Denderhoutem 1849 - Pamel 1942). Their eldest daughter Maria Adelina lived for less than two months in 1883. Their third daughter Adelina lived for almost three years (1887 - 1890). Their third daughter Adelina lived for almost 91 years (Pamel 1890 - 1981) and their only son Petrus Joannes died young too (Pamel 1893 - 1922). So Felix and Blondine survived three of their five children. That was not an uncommon occurence, but not less painful for that matter.

My mother was the second child and only daughter of Maria Antonia (Marie) and Joannes Franciscus (Cis) Neukermans (Okegem 1886 - 1961) whom she married in church on July 3 1912. They too lost two of their five children.

As I have written in previous posts, they had a very hard life. My grandmother passed away, way too soon, on September 25 1949. She wasn't even 64 years old. The first pitch black day in my young life.

I was eight years old when she died but I still have very vivid memories of her. I was her eldest grandchild. Need I say more ?

The picture of my grandmother and me was made in the garden of her home in Okegem in 1941.

Joannes Baveghems

Joannes Baveghems was born in Meerbeke on August 7 1681. He was a son of Judocus and Josina Goutswilders and became a blacksmith. We have reported on him in previous posts, the last on July 3 1737, the day he died in Pamel.

In 1711 he married Joanna Maria De Vidts (Pamel 1683 - 1726) in Pamel and they had five children. The pair lived in Meerbeke until after the death of Joanna Maria's parents, when they moved to Pamel.

-- Josina was born in Meerbeke in 1712 and died in Pamel in 1800 - she was married ;
-- Maria Anna was born in Meerbeke in 1715 ;
-- Joannes, born in Meerbeke in 1718, died in Pamel Lombeekstraat in 1789. He married in Liedekerke ;
-- Elisabeth, Pamel 1721 - 1723 ;

-- and another Elisabeth, my ancestor ; she was born in Pamel in 1723, about eight months after the death of the first Elisabeth. In 1743 she became the second spouse of Gerardus Martinus Van Lierde (born in Idegem, and who died in Pamel in 1754). They married in Pamel. After his death she remarried and died herself in Pamel in 1807.

Catharina Van Duest

Catharina Van Duest died in Pamel on August 1 1635. See the post for that date. She was the spouse of Nicasius De Beer who had preceded her in death on Januari 20 1635.

The very early parish records of Pamel registered two children :

-- Joanna De Beer, who died in 1673 in Pamel (Keer-Kwinkeleer) and who married Pashasius De Vidts in 1622. This couple is among my ancestors ;

-- Petrus De Beer, who died in Pamel in 1666. He married Anna De Bal and they had one (recorded) child.

There has been no sign of other Van Duest's - or Van Diest's for that matter - in the parish records of Pamel, and the De Beer's seem to have disappeared from the Pamel records before the end of the 17th century.

Petrus Joannes De Vidts

Petrus Joannes died in the Piezelstraat in Pamel. He had been born on September 19 1749 and married Carolina Van der Straeten (Ternat ca 1753 - Pamel 1801). He was the last "meisenier" in his line.

Petrus Joannes and Carolina had ten children :

-- Catharina Theresia Petronella (born in Ternat in 1774). She married Petrus Joannes d'Hoye in Pamel in 1797. They may have lived in Halle ;
-- Maria Jacoba (Pamel 1776 - ?) ;
-- Anna Petronella (Pamel 1778 - 1785) ;
-- Joannes Dominicus (Pamel 1780 - 1846). He married Joanna Christina Baveghems and died in the Wolvenstraat ;
-- Joanna Maria (Pamel 1782 - 1809). With her husband Petrus Josephus Evenepoel, she lived "In de Groenen Boomgaard" ;

-- Joannes Franciscus (Pamel 1784 - 1839). He married Maria Elisabeth Van Lierde and they lived in de Brusselstraat ;

-- Maria Petronella (Pamel 1786 - 1795) ;
-- Judocus (Pamel 1789 - 1869). He married Maria Theresia Van Lierde (a sister of Maria Elisabeth) and they lived in the Steenbergstraat ;
-- Catharina (Pamel 1791 - 1795) ;
-- Josephina (Pamel 1794 - ?).

I descend from Joannes Franciscus and Maria Elisabeth (see a number of previous posts).

Maria Elisabeth Van der Sleyen

See the posts : "July 22 1860" and several others.

On that day Maria Elisabeth Van der Sleyen died in the Koestraat in Pamel. She had been born on May 11 1811. Her parents were Michael (Pamel 1758 - 1827) and Petronella Van Eeckhoudt (Pamel 1771 - 1828). In 1834 she married Joannes De Vidts (Pamel 1811 - 1881). They were farmers.

They had eight children :

-- Henrica (Pamel 1835 - 1873) who married Jacobus De Doncker in Pamel in 1864 ; Jacobus, born in Pamel in 1838, remarried after Henrica's death and got a divorce from his second wife in 1882 ; he may have died in Lille, date unknown.

-- Philomena (Pamel 1837 - 1870) who married Simon De Roock (Pamel 1838 - 1909) in Pamel in 1864. He too remarried after Philomena's death ;

-- Antonia (Pamel 1840 - I haven't yet researched the date of her death, probably in Meerbeke) who married Ludovicus De Schepper in Pamel in 1862. They were the great-grandparents of my father ;

-- Petrus Josephus (Pamel 1843 - 1891) who married Appolonia De Paepe in Pamel in 1873) ;

-- NN a baby in 1845 - it died on the day of its birth ;

-- Benedictus, who lived for almost three months in Pamel in 1847 ;

-- Jan Baptist (Pamel 1850 - 1860) ;

-- Felix (Pamel 1853 - 1941), who married Blondina Muylaert (Denderhoutem 1849 - Pamel 1942) in Denderhoutem in 1882. They were the maternal grandparents of my mother.

My grandmother, Maria Antonia De Vidts (Pamel 1885 - 1949), a daughter of Felix and Blondina, thus knew none of her paternal blood uncles or aunts, with the possible exception of Antonia, who probably was her godmother, and possibly of Petrus Josephus (she was six when he died).

A line of mothers

Joanna Maria Renneboog was born in Aaigem on July 16 1705. She is the oldest female ancestor in the all female line that I have found till now. I haven't researched her ascendents yet.

The all female line :

Joanna Maria Renneboog (Aaigem 16.07.1705 - Denderhoutem 06.10.1775) was the mother of

- Joanna Catharina De Dier (Denderhoutem 1738 - 1822) who was the mother of

- Maria Anna Goossens (Denderhoutem 1738 - 1822). She was the mother of

- Coleta Vlaeminck (Denderhoutem 1813 - 1891), the mother of

- Blondina Muylaert (Denderhoutem 1849 - Pamel 1935), the mother of

- Maria Antonia De Vidts (Pamel 1885 - Okegem 1949). Maria Antonia was the mother of

- Margaretha Felicitas Neukermans (Okegem 1914 - Gent 2000), my mother.

Anna Maria (de) Colins

Anna Maria, the maternal grandmother of my great-grandfather Jozef Timmermans (Meerbeke 1858 - 1929) died in Lieferinge where she had been born on November 12 1784.

See the post on "July 11 1839" published last year.

Some more information from the (not always very legible) "Lieferinge gezinsreconstructies 1599 - 1833" by Edgard De Geyter.

Anna Maria was the second of five children born in Lieferinge of "Pro Dom Philippus Max. Ant. Sig. Cam (Hanno - Montana)(*)" who married Petronella Van den Houte in Lieferinge in 1781. Philippus died in Lieferinge in 1800 ; his wife died there in 1818.

I already wrote some articles about my branch of the Colins family, which lost its fortune late in the 18th century. Philippus (jr) was a son of the rather infamous Philippus (de) Colins, lord of Lieferinge and Heetvelde, who married Anna Maria de Schrevel, baronne de Callandt. The baroness died in 1747. Her husband died in 1777 and is buried in the church in Lieferinge.

But Petronella leads us once more to a De Vidts family. Her father was Petrus Van den Houte, "ex Marcke" and her mother Joanna De Vidts from Lieferinge.

Petrus was the son of another Petrus, who lived in Meerbeke. Joanna De Vidts was a daughter of Cornelius De Vidts (Lieferinge) and Van den Borre Joanna Elisabeth. I have no dates yet for these ancestors, but I assume that somewhere in a distant past there was a link between the De Vidts family in Lieferinge and the De Vidts family in Pamel. But the forementioned source yields no clue.

Back to the five (**) children of the unfortunate Philippus De Colins and Petronella Van den Houte :

-- Vincentius, born in Lieferinge in 1782. He died there in 1809.
-- Anna Maria, my ancestor.
-- Theresia Alexandrina Felicia, born in Lieferinge in 1787. She died there in 1800, three days before her father.
-- Albertus Maximilianus, born in Lieferinge in 1790.
-- Adriana Antonia, born in Lieferinge in 1794. She married in Gooik in 1823.

In 1811 Anna Marie De Colins married Philippus (Maximilianus Albertus) Van den Houte (Lieferinge 1779 - 1849). Philippus de Colins (jr), forementioned, was his godfather as well as his father in law, but died in 1800, years before his daughter's wedding.

Anna Maria De Colins and Philippus Van den Houte had five children I know of :

-- Adriana Josepha, born in Lieferinge in 1813.
-- Joanna Maximina, born in Lieferinge in 1814.
-- Jan Baptist, born in Lieferinge in 1816.
-- Maria Anna, born in Lieferinge in 1825. She was the second spouse of my great-great-grandfather Karel Timmermans (Meerbeke 1812 - 1883). She was my great-great-grandmother.
-- Maria Theresia, born in Lieferinge in 1828.

A lot more digging and study is required to get a clear overview of this intricate ragweb of relationships in and around Lieferinge in the17th, 18th and 19th century ...
---------
(*) Hanno-Montana or ex Hannomontana : from Hainaut. Philippus was born in Mons.
(**) In my own research I have a marriage - in 1821 - of Angeline, daughter of Philippus and Petronella, but without further data. Neither Angeline, nor her husband, nor the marriage are mentioned in the Gezinsreconstructies - an oversight ? But the Gezinsreconstructies do mention an Angelina Christina, godmother to a daughter of Adriana Antonia.