On that day, my paternal grandmother was born in Meerbeke. Rosalia Margaretha Ravijst was a daughter of Petrus Joannes Ravijst (Nieuwenhove 1861 - Meerbeke 1944) and Joanna Maria De Schepper (Meerbeke 1864 - 1926). To the best of my knowledge Petrus Joannes and Joanna Maria had six children. I list them, not necessarily in chronological order : Jef, Margriet (my grandmother), Louis, Benoë (Benedictus), Ber (Albert) and Line,
Margaretha married Pieter Jozef Timmermans (Meerbeke 1886 - 1953) ; she died in the UZ in Ghent on December 2 1973. She was the last of my grandparents to pass away. They had seven children, two of whom died very young. I have listed their children in various previous posts.
Petrus Joannes was a natural child of Rosalia Ravijst and an unknown father (there were a couple of not very credible family legends about that father). According to very sparse family info, Rosalia probably married in Tollembeek some time after the birth of Petrus Joannes, but I have not been able to find the name of her husband nor possible halfbrothers and halfsisters of Petrus Joannes (but there may have been a halfsister named Leontine).
And up to now I haven't been able to locate the place of birth, marriage and death of Rosalia's parents Joannes Baptiste and Joanna De Vits. But I found that Rosalia had at least two sisters.
The Ravijst line is the main "black hole" in my family tree. And as primary research in the archives is out of the question for the time being it may remain so for the foreseeable future ...
In the De Schepper line, the situation is totally different and ample information is available. It is in that line that the distant family relationship between my father and mother can be found. That also has been described in previous posts.
1 comment:
The shame about the natural birth of my great-grandfather - I think that my father never knew that his grandfather was a a natural child -and the not always optimal relations between the siblings of my great-grandparents result for me in a rather incomplete view of that part of my family.
Post a Comment