this week's favorite...

As a regular feature I will choose an ancestor and this week's favorite is Gerardus!
Gerardus is the son of Petrus Johannes de Bilde and Maria Pieters. Petrus Johannes was my grandfather's 2nd brother just mentioned for perspective. Back to Gerardus, he was born in Vlissingen on May 20, 1913.

       As I was looking for the distribution of the name de Bilde in the world I came across the National Archives of Australia and there were 4 that emigrated from the Netherlands. Well, one was de Bilde, Gerard born 1913; nationality: Dutch, arrived Jan 19, 1962 in Sydney. I double-checked with archieven.nl and there was only (1) Gerard or Gerardus born in that year!!  So, it had to be ours... unfortunately this was all the information I could find. He was 49 years old when he left Europe. He may have been married in 1934 but I couldn't find any birth records for children or a marriage record for that matter. It would be interesting to know why he left and how his life went in Australia?!

notes:  do you have any information about this person?? by all means contact me or leave word in the comment section...

origin of proper names

Onomastics is the study of the history and the origin of proper names. It also becomes part of studies in other fields like linguistics, history, geography and many more. There are two branches/types of proper names, 1. place names or toponyms and 2. personal names or anthroponyms. I am interested in both as I am actively investigating where the name 'de Bilde' comes from.

The oldest entry with the exact spelling I have is for a birth record in Beveren-Waas, Oost Vlaanderen, Belgium for Catareena de Bilde born April 18, 1664 (copy received via email).

Also I found the name 'de Blide' hoping this to be a misspelling under Flemish Names from Bruges, 1400-1600;  the year for the census: 1468!!

ref.: Histoire de la Guilde des Archers de Saint Sebastien de la Ville de Bruges by Henri Godar.

Yet all of the above does not help much with the origin of the name but it places it historically in what is today Belgium... so the 'deBilde'-Zeelanders were/are actually from East Flanders aka Oost Vlaanderen!!

That explains the spread of the name in Belgium today:

                             217   in Belgium                            ref.: familienaam.be

                               73   in  the Netherlands               ref.: meertens.knaw.nl

One of my clan members was born in Beveren (1708) and married in Hulst (1736). The question is what were the borders in those days?

Back to the investigation of origins, many theories exist, for a while I believed that the town of the ‘De Bilt’ might or could have been the birthplace of the name but... there is another blog entry for De Bilt. So I followed my ancestors across the "border" to Waasland.... one fellow researcher suggested that the name de Bilde is more a Belgian-Flemish name than Dutch-Flemish. ok. and yet another fellow from Belgium presumably gave me this reference: "Woordenboek van de familienamen in Belgie en Noord-Frankrijk" door Dr Frans Debrabandere

 ISBN 90 204 0207 2, pg 310 - the old French name for tree stump is "bille" and spoken in Flemish becomes “bilde” (ll becomes ld). Makes sense to me and perhaps reading a bit more about the History of Holland or Flanders will give me more insight as to who the first "tree stump" was?!

     Could there be a Danish connection?? Here are the records I found with the name 'Bilde" sans de...

“Histoire de Danemark depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'a nos jours: avec une bibliographie et des tables généaloques »  par C.F.Allen;

troisième période: 1596-1660   guerre avec la suède

page 74:  Le maréchal danois André Bilde...

page 78:  André Bilde

page 409:  Bilde, commandant à Kronberg

“Annual report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records”

Great Britain Public Record Office

page 21: 1548, July 22  mention of Andrew Bilde, consul @ Helsignor

« memoirs de la société des antiquaires de l’Ouest »

page 11 :  1556  mention of Jean Bilde, governor of the island of Gothland

     Isn’t it fascinating to find “famous” commandants, a governor even and a consul with our name? What really started my creative juices aka fantasy was this entry from 1548!!

”records of Scandinavian students at the University of Orleans, France”

1601    Andreas Bilde, danus (Dane)

1548    Henricus Bilde, danus nobilis dominus (Danish noble Lord)

We all know how much fun students have away from home… Henricus was no exception and he might have produced some offspring while studying in France. Who knows?! I couldn’t help but picturing this scenario at the dinner table:

Papa: “qui pater est?”  or in French:  “qui est le père?”

Girl whispering:  « danorum nobilis Bilde »  or in French :  « Bilde, le noble danois »

Papa:  “o nobilis in Bilde”  or in French:  “oui, le prix de la noblesse de Bilde”  (the price of the nobility Bilde)

or something like that. In French it would explain where the ‘de’ comes from. So that’s my story!!  Hahaha. Farfetched? Certainly, but I could use a little humor in my often frustrating and fruitless research.

for fun a dictionary of Flemish First names with translation in Latin and French:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~northing/placenames/europe/names/ffn_aa.html

notes: do you have corrections or more information for this blog?  please leave a comment so I may contact you...
thanks to all who have contributed to my quest especially Bernard Krijbolder and Ludo Hemelaer. thanks.

a town named De Bilt

De Bilt is a municipality and a town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands.


I blatantly copied this article from the archives of the 'De Biltse Grift'...
interesting to learn about the origins of a name but likely no connection


http://www.historischekringdebilt.nl/dbg/archief/jaar-1-(1992)/meijer-1992.pdf
translation in progress

Graauw en Langendam

Graauw is a town in the Dutch province of Zeeland - part of the municipality of Hulst -
22 km SW of Bergen op Zoom...
in 2001 the town had 513 inhabitants and in 2010 956.

according to the 1796 census Pieter de Bilde (my 5th grandfather) was the only de Bilde,
not counting wife and 4 children in Stoppeldijk...

location: Zeeland, Netherlands
coordinates: 51d20'0 North, 4d6'0 East.

Adrianus de Bilde

my 2nd grandfather was born March 1, 1856 Graauw, Zeeland
he passed Dec 2, 1938 Graauw
Adrianus married Rosalia Bracke May 9, 1879
this marriage produced (12) children:
1. Aloisius, my grandfather b Sep 5, 1878...
2. Petrus Josephus  b Feb 27, 1880...
3. Petrus Johannes  b Feb 9, 1881...
4. Rosalia Theresia  b Jul 27, 1882...
5. Alphonsus Aloisius  b Aug 2, 1883...
6. Paulina  b Dec 6, 1886; p Mar 17, 1887 - she was 3 mths
7. Maria Louisa  b Dec 31, 1887; p Jun 19, 1908 - she was 21
8. Andries  b Jan 4, 1889...
9. Victor  b Jun 18, 1891; p Aug 1, 1891 - he was 6 wks
10. Desiderius  b Dec 25, 1892; p Feb 27, 1894 - he was 14 mths
11. Adrianus Aloisius  b Jan 13, 1894...
12. Desire Petrus  b Jan 7, 1901; d Feb 7, 1922 - he was 21
more details about marriages and offspring to be added at a later date

Pieter Francies de Bilde

my 3rd grandfather was born Sep 20, 1823 in Graauw, Zeeland, NL
he passed on Jun 1, 1911 in Hontenisse, NL - he was 87.
Pieter (or Petrus) Francies married Isabella Theresia de Smit June 9, 1851 in Graauw
this marriage produced (8) children unfortunately (5) passed very young in age.
1. Anna Maria  b Mar 3, 1852; p Jul 1, 1857 - she was 5
2. Cornelis  b Jul 25, 1853; p Dec 24, 1888 in Boom, Belgium - he was 35; see marriages below
3. Cornelia  b Nov 24, 1854;  see marriages below
4. Adrianus  b Mar 1, 1856;  see marriages below
5. Josephus Theodorus  b Dec 23, 1857; p Jun 4, 1868 - he was 10
6. Maria  b Mar 31, 1861; p Aug 17, 1861 - she was 5 mths
7. Apolonia  b Apr 19, 1862; p Jan 28, 1864 - she was 21 mths
9. Petrus Francies  b Dec 27, 1864; p Aug 29, 1865 - he was 8 mths
marriages:
May 25, 1877  Cornelis at age 23 marries Apolonia Spiessens age 25
Jul 27, 1877  Cornelia at age 22 marries Francies Bogaert age 25
May 9, 1879  Adrianus [my 2nd grandfather] at age 23 marries Rosalia Bracke age 24

Adriaan de Bilde

my 4th grandfather was born Feb 6, 1794  Graauw, Zeeland
he passed May 25, 1830 Graauw, he was only 36.
Adriaan married Elisabeth Neve on May 22, 1822 
they had only 1 child:
Pieter Francies, my 3rd grandfather

Pieter de Bilde

my 5th grandfather was born June 10, 1742 Wilhelmuspolder, Zeeland (can't find this place on modern maps); he was baptized June 11, 1742 in Hontenisse (also a familiar name but not to be found on any map, I presume these places are near Hulst or Graauw, probably incorporated); deceased in Stoppeldijk July 25, 1797.
Pieter or Petrus, there are different spellings in various documents was married twice:
his first wife was Barbara (Barbarina) Teerbroodt widow of Nicolaas Willems.
they, Pieter and Barbara married June 3, 1770 in Hulst, Zeeland 
their children:
Petrus born Oct 24, 1771 Lamswaarde... 
Petrus (Pieter) born Aug 30, 1774 in L; deceased Jun 8, 1814.
Franciscus (Francies) born Sep 30, 1775 Lamswaarde...
Jacobus Franciscus born Jan 1777 Lamswaarde...
Jacobus born Jun 17, 1778 Lamswaarde...
Cornelius born Aug 28, 1781 Lamswaarde...
****************************************
Pieter's 2nd wife was Jacoba de Korte,
they married June 9, 1782 in Hengstdijk
their children:
Elisabeth born Jul 18, 1783; deceased 1857 (she was 73); married Gerard Hanskens on Apr 24, 1805 [Floreal XIII - this is the year according to the French Republican calendar which was used from 1793-1806].
Joanna (Jeanne) born Aug 4, 1785 Lamswaarde; deceased 1824 (she was 38); married Guillaume Francies Hamelink ~1813 (exact date unknown)
Andreas (Andries) born Nov 4, 1787 Lamswaarde; deceased Feb 2, 1817 (he was 29)
Joannes born Nov 14, 1789 Lamswaarde...
Joannes born Nov 5, 1791 Lamswaarde...
Adrianus (my 4th grandfather) born Feb 7, 1794 Lamswaarde;  
deceased May 25, 1830; married May 22, 1822 Elisabeth Neve widow of Pieter de Beule not to be confused with Pieter de Bilde.
according to these records from "Zeeuwen Gezocht" Pieter fathered 12 children yet the 1796 census mentioned only 4. perhaps Barbarina's children lived somewhere else?


this is Pieter's timeline, historical events that occured during his life time (1742-1797):
1742:  Celsius invents the centigrade thermometer
1745:  the electrical capacitor (Leyden Jar) was invented
1752:  Britain and its colonies adopt Gregorian calendar
1754-1763:  the French-Indian war rages
1755:  Lisbon earthquake
1756-1763:  the Seven year war rages
1760-1820:  reign of King George III
1769:  San Francisco bay discovered
1772-1775:  Antarctica circumnavigated by James Cook
1775-1783:  American Revolutionary War against Britain
1775-1782:  British War in India
1778:  France joins war against Britain
1786:  first attempts at indoor lighting w gas (UK, Germany)
1789-1796:  George Washington elected 1st president of the US
1792-1815:  Napoleonic War
1792:  Denmark 1st to forbid trade in slaves
1793:  Marie Antoinette beheaded
1794:  slavery abolished in French colonies
1796:  France's press get right of free speach
1796:  vaccination against smallpox

here are pictures of the area:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5302470

all this info is by no means complete.. this is an ongoing project