Belgian Ancestry Help

02/05/2025

Ever walked or cycled along a towpath and wondered about its past?

For centuries, these peaceful paths alongside rivers and canals were lifelines for inland shipping. Long before engines, boats were pulled by sheer human effort—often by women and children—while the skipper fought to keep the vessel steady in the channel.
These “towpaths” or “trekking trails” date back to at least 1669 and were carefully kept free of trees and obstacles so a rope could run smoothly from the puller—sometimes a horse, but often a person—to the boat. Even small bridges were equipped with smooth railings to help the rope glide.
With the rise of the horse-drawn barge, special canals and towpaths were built just for this purpose. It was tough work, known as “jagen” in Dutch, and those who did it became known as scheepstrekkers—ship pullers.
Today, we enjoy these paths for leisure, but behind the quiet beauty lies a rich, hard-working history.
Picture: ship towing on the Willebroek Canal.
https://www.willebroek.info/HANDEL/STRATEN/KLWSASPL/KLWSASPL_SS_3.htm

08/09/2023

Do you have vintage objects made from bakelite lying around in your home? Bakelite owes its name to Leo Hendrik Baekeland, an American chemist of Belgian origin. He was born on November 14, 1863 in Gent, son of working class parents Charles Baekeland and Rosalia Merchie. From an early age he showed academic brilliance. Read all about in in our blog - https://belgianancestry.weebly.com/blog.html

02/02/2023

The "passe-vite" Belgian invention
One of the most commonly used inventions for kitchen use is the passe-vite (a hand-crank rotating food sieve with milling disks) invented by Victor Simon from Belgium. (Victor Fernand Joseph Simon, born in Carnières, on March 22, 1888, son of Jean Baptiste Simon and Marie Cathérine Léonard)

In 1928, Simon applied for a patent for "a rapid action food sieve for vegetables and other edibles". The inventor stated that the device could cook in one minute the amount of vegetables needed for a meal for eight people, with the downward action of the compression spring leaving peel and skin in the sieve.

Simon decided to give it a try at the Brussels Trade Fair where his invention received an unexpected welcome with 500 pieces ordered. The success was overwhelming. After having transformed his small workshop for the production of prototypes, Simon joined forces with ironmonger Richard Denis to create the "Simon & Denisé" company in 1929.

The passe-vite was so successful that the brand name became very well-known. A whole range of products was soon developed. Some seven other types of kitchen sieves and vegetable mils were patented. Simon & Denis should have seen, among other things, how their passe-vite was shamelessly copied just before the war by a Mr. Mantelet who would later operate under the name Moulinex. The identical passe vite conquered the American market. in 1978, 50 fifty years after the invention, Simon & Denis ingloriously went bankrupt.

16/06/2022

The Battle of Waterloo: robbing Bones and Teeth

The Battle of Waterloo, some 20km south of Brussels, was fought on Sunday, 18th of June 1815. The region was at time part of the newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: a British-led allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, a Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal Blücher, Dutch/Belgian troops.

Napoleon chose to attack his opponents separately in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of the coalition. On 16 June, he successfully attacked the bulk of the Prussian army at the Battle of Ligny with his main force, while a portion of the French army simultaneously attacked an Anglo-allied army at the Battle of Quatre Bras. Despite holding his ground at Quatre Bras, the defeat of the Prussians forced Wellington to withdraw north to Waterloo on the 17th. Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, who had withdrawn parallel to Wellington in good order. This resulted in the separate and simultaneous Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard. Upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon of the 18th, aided by the progressively arriving Prussians. In the evening, Napoleon committed his last reserves, the senior battalions of the French Imperial Guard infantry. The desperate final attack of the Guard was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellington's Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, and the French army was defeated.

What was left on the terrifying battlefield were thousands of dead soldiers and officers (estimated at 50,000), thousands of dead horses, thousands of wounded and maimed soldiers. The night after the battle and the following days, not all of the wounded had been evacuated. Looters moved about. They emptied the pockets of the fallen and stripped them of their clothes - and teeth. The naked dead were quickly placed in graves that were too shallow.

The site of the Waterloo battlefield is nowadays dominated by the monument of the Lion's Mound, surrounded by museums. But there are no soldier's graves, no memorial cemetery.

The remains of one soldier were discovered in 2012 during archaeological excavations. The discovery is unique, as no other skeletons have been found on the battlefield site so far. The one skeleton is kept at the Memorial of Waterloo 1815.

The reason, if true, is gruesome: after Waterloo, the bones of the dead were removed and freighted en masse to Hull to be grinded and used as fertiliser: a military mulch from the 1815 battlefield. The young soldier's also yielded fresh teeth to be reused as dentures for the living.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the reputation of dentistry was challenged by the demand for dental prosthesis and the practice of recycling teeth became popular. It hit its highest level of prominence after the Battle at Waterloo.

When artificial materials (dentures carved out of ivory or bone) proved to be ineffective for chewing, people would use teeth extracted from animals, executed criminals and unearthed bodies. Dentists would buy those teeth to create dentures. The dentures that were made with the teeth of the soldiers that died in the Battle of Waterloo came to be known as “Waterloo teeth.”

Looking for your ancestors in Belgium? Hit a brick wall in the Belgian records? Need translation? We'll try to help you at low cost.

17/01/2022

Ancient Belgian Giants - the Colossus Giganteus Antverpianus
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The first Belgian giants can be found in parades from the 14th century, with a first mention in Antwerp in 1324. The parades had a religious character. The earliest giants often referred to figures or events from the Bible, such as Saint George and the dragon, and David defeating Goliath.

The 16th century was a golden age for the giants. The oldest Antwerp giant we still know today is Druoon Antigoon. He has a large head with a black beard, and a helmet with a bird figure on it. The head was designed by a famous artist called Pieter Coecke van Aalst in 1535. According to the city legend of Antwerp, the giant Druoon Antigoon levied a toll on the river Scheldt in Antwerp. The Roman warrior Brabo overcame him, cutting off his hand and throwing it into the Scheldt. (Hence the name Antwerpen, or Hand-Werpen: "throwing the hand"). Antwerp then flourished thanks to free trade. Druoon Antigoon became a symbol of evil.

From the 17th century onwards, the giants gradually separated from religious processions. The giants were part of a larger giant train, which depicted animal giants in addition to human beings, such as a whale, an elephant and a huge camel. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that Druoon Antigoon had a wife: Pallas Athena. The ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution ensured that many giants in our regions were banned or destroyed, because they did not fit into the laicized picture of the enlightened revolutionaries.

In 1872 the giants went around with the authentic heads for the last time. The old heads have been restored and can be viewed in the MAS-Museum. A more recent version of the giant head of Antigoon and Athena are used for the current annual celebrations in August.

https://belgianancestry.weebly.com

27/07/2021

The Largest Sea Horse...
The tradition of shrimp-fishing on horseback goes back five hundred years. In the past, this method of fishing was common on the beaches of the North Sea. Originally, poor farmers went into the sea with their animals, dragging a net in order to earn something extra. The catch are small caridean shrimp, about 3-5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) long, commonly called grey shrimp. Once cooked, they become pink. A delicacy. Horse-fishing along the Belgian coast was at first performed using mules, but over the years, catches became smaller and larger nets were used, so it was decided to use stronger horses. Nowadays Belgian "Brabander" draft horses are still used in Oostduinkerke, and this may be the only place in the world where fishing is still done that way. The number of horse fishermen has always fluctuated greatly. In 1940 there were still forty, in 1968 only seven. Since 2013, "Shrimp fishing on horseback" is on the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

https://belgianancestry.weebly.com

21/06/2021

How falling into a pond changed history.

Prince Leopold of Belgium was the second child and only son of King Leopold II of Belgium and Marie Henriette of Austria. He was the heir apparent to the Belgian throne.

His father was worried about his poor health, but Leopold was considered a happy child and spent much of his time with his Shetland pony. In the summer of 1868 he fell into a pond near the castle of Laken and contracted pneumonia. The 9-year-old crown prince died on January 22, 1869. This loss hit his father badly. Leopold's funeral was the only occasion on which the king wept in public.

Due to the death of Leopold, the monarchy no longer had a male successor in a straight line, as women were excluded from the throne. The king and queen did have another child, and expectations for a male heir to the throne were high but were not met with the birth of Princess Clementine.

As a result, the succession remained with Philip, Count of Flanders, the younger brother of King Leopold II. But Leopold did not see his brother Philip as the suitable heir to the throne: Philip was deaf and had no ambition to rule. That is why King Leopold set his hopes on Prince Baudouin, the eldest son of Philip born 1869. Early 1891 Baudouin's sister Henriette became seriously ill with pneumonia. However, Baudouin insisted to stay with her and prayed for her recovery in the cold corridors of the palace, becoming ill himself. Henriette recovered but Prince Baudouin died of pulmonary edema on January 23. His father Philip died in 1905, so it was his brother who in 1909 took the throne as Albert I.

https://belgianancestry.weebly.com/

30/08/2019

400 years of Piety

A Mount of Piety is a kind of low-interest loan bank, in fact an institutional pawnbroker run as an organized charity. It originated in Europe in the fifteenth century and still exists today. Originally, the public office was organized and operated by the Catholic Church and offered financial loans at a moderate interest to those in need. The organizing principle, based on the benefit of the borrower and not the profit of the lender, was viewed as a benevolent alternative to the loans provided by moneylenders.

In Belgium, this form of pledging is only permitted to the Mount of Piety and is forbidden for other persons or institutions since 1848. Mounts were founded as early as 1543 (in Ypres) and 1572 (in Bruges). The Brussels Mont de Piété (in French) or Berg van Barmhartigheid (in Dutch) was founded 28 September 1618, and is the only one left: it is still an active institution. The founder was Wenceslas Cobergher, who established fifteen such institutions in different towns in the Spanish Southern Netherlands, like Antwerp and Ghent. You can still bring a property, mostly juwellery or silverware, to the Mount of Piety to get a minimum loan of 30 Euros and lend 50%-70% of the estimated value in public sale. No questions are asked, although of course you have to prove that the item you are pawning is yours. After 400 years, the Brussels Mount still offers an alternative to questionable commercial credit practices, and you can repay at your own pace.

https://belgianancestry.weebly.com/

18/08/2019

Mapping the Austrian Netherlands

Joseph Jean François Count de Ferraris was an Austrian general and cartographer commissioned by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and emperor Joseph II to create a detailed map of the Austrian Netherlands. The detailed maps, created between 1771 and 1778, were made on a scale 1:11520 and formed a collection of 275 hand-colored and hand-drawn maps. These were accompanied by twelve volumes of handwritten commentaries relating to topics of economic and military interest (rivers, bridges, forests, mills, buildings, etc).

Three originals of the maps remain. One is in the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna, one is in the Rijksarchief in The Hague and the third one is in the Royal Library in Brussels. That means that in our time we can still consult these old maps, as they were scanned and put online for everyone to see!

The Ferraris maps were used to great extent during the military operations of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. When the French invaded in 1792–1793 they took 400 copies of the map from a Brussels printer and seller. In 1794 they took the engraving plates to France so they could produce more maps for their own use and prevent any enemy from acquiring copies. But the original drawings remained.

31/05/2019

France bombs Brussels (327 years ago)

The French were surprised at the success of their operation which was well beyond what they had anticipated. Marchal Villeroi wrote: "The disorder that we have caused in Brussels is incredible, and although the people menace us with many threats of reprisal, and I don't even doubt they have the will to do so, but I don't see how they have the means." The Duke of Berwick, a future Marshal of France who was present, disapproved, and stated that "a more appalling spectacle has never been seen".

The bombardment of Brussels by troops of Louis XIV of France took place in August 1695, and the resulting fire was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels. Incendiary bombs were destroying the Grand Place and a third of the buildings in the city. The reconstruction of the city centre profoundly changed its appearance and left numerous traces still visible today. Even the bombing during World War II was not nearly as extensive as that of 1695...

The bombardment was part of the Nine Years' War (1688-1697). France began its policy of territorial expansion in 1695. This expansion resulted in the gradual annexation of parts of the Spanish (Southern) Netherlands. Wars were fought, alliances made and broken, and fortresses continuously changed hands. Opposing France was a large European coalition, the Grand Alliance, with William III of Orange, leader of the (Northern) Netherlands, and soon to be king of England. Alongside William stood Spain, Sweden, and the Holy Roman Empire.

In July 1695 the city of Namur, then occupied for three long years by the French, was besieged by William III at the head of an allied army. The French king, irritated at the turn of events, urged his generals to do something and destroy Brugge or Ghent in a surprise attack. They instead suggested that bombarding Brussels would have more of an effect in drawing the enemy to a place in which the French could attack them strategically. But that strategy proved to be unsuccessful, and no military gain whatsoever came of the bombardment. However, Louis XIV's reputation suffered heavily for such a barbarous act.
https://belgianancestry.weebly.com

07/05/2019

The Belgians are the Bravest

At the time of his conquests in 58-51 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar wrote a firsthand account of the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Germanic and Celtic peoples in Gaul who opposed Roman conquest. The result a was book split in eight sections, called "Commentarii de Bello Gallico" (Commentaries on the Gallic War). The reason for writing this was that he needed the support of the Roman plebeians, particularly the Tribunes of the Plebs, on whom he chiefly relied for help in carrying out his agenda. His victories in Gaul had increased the alarm and hostility of his aristocratic enemies in Rome who were spreading rumors about Caesar's intentions once he returned from Gaul with his army. The Commentaries were an effort by Caesar to directly communicate with the plebeians by circumventing the usual channels of communication that passed through the Senate. Of course his vivid account of the battles is of great importance to historians. In the Commentaries Caesar mentioned several leaders of the Gallic tribes, including Ambiorix, Diviciacus and Vercingetorix. He also provided his audience with a picture of Germanic lifestyle and culture. The Germans were seen as primitive hunter-gatherers with a diet mostly consisting of meat and dairy products, and who worshipped earthly gods such as the sun and the moon. Caesar also wrote about the importance of Druids and the superstitions of the Gallic nations. Among them were the Belgae, a large Gallic-Germanic confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and northern bank of the river Seine. Caesar noted "horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae" (of them all, the Belgae are the bravest). A citation in our days cherished by the Belgians. But if we read the whole sentence their strength is less flattering: "Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt": of them all, the Belgians are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of our [Roman] Province, and merchants least frequently travel to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war". Caesar's books were reproduced and printed throughout the centuries.
https://belgianancestry.weebly.com/