December 2

Two of my known ancestors died on December 2 :

-- on December 2 1888 Franciscus Muylaert died in Denderhoutem. He was born in Nieuwerkerken on November 28 1818. He was the second husband of Coleta Vlaminck (Denderhoutem 1813 - 1891). They had three children. Blondina (Denderhoutem 1849 - Pamel 1942) was their eldest child and she was my great-grandmother, the spouse of Felix De Vidts (Pamel 1853 - 1940). Blondina had a brother and a sister, four half sisters and a half brother, the children of Coleta and her first husband Josephus Baeyens (Denderhoutem 1805 - 1846).

I may have written before that, according to my mother, my great-grandmother Blondien never ate fish (because the bodies of the people, drowned in the sea, had been eaten by the fish), kept her washed laundry in a butter barrel (or churn) and systematically refused to have her picture taken. I have photos of seven of my eight great-grandparents, but not of Blondien.

-- Two of my great-grandparents were alive when I was born : Blondien and Petrus Joannes Ravijst (Nieuwenhove 1861 - Meerbeke 1944), the father of my paternal grandmother Rosalia Margaretha Ravijst.

-- My grandmother Rosalia Margaretha Ravijst was born in Meerbeke on March 20 1892 and died in the university hospital (UZ) in Ghent on December 2 1973. I have commemorated her in a numer of posts.

In my genealogy, the Ravijst line is the most difficult to follow : I still am stuck on my grandmother's great-grandparents : I know their names but I have no idea who their parents were, where they were born, lived and died, if they had other children. Moreover, my forementioned great-grandfather Petrus Joannes Ravijst is a natural son - his father is unknown : he bore the family name of his mother Rosalia.