Chapter 9. The other Dewulf families of Hooglede, Gits and Kortemark

Several family trees on the internet give Joos Dewulf a father and grandfather at Hooglede: Jan, son of Joris Dewulf and Antonia Van Hoorne. Chapter 1 shows that this cannot be right. To find that out, the registers of Hooglede were read page by page from 1617 to 1641, together with the banns and burials to 1643, and every Dewulf in them was noted, 81 entries in all. They turned out to belong to at least eight households, living within a few kilometres of each other in Hooglede, Gits and Kortemark. This chapter sets them out family by family, with a tree for each, so that the many Jans, Jooses and Tannekens can be told apart. None of them is proven kin to our Joos. They are here because anyone who looks for his father will meet them, and because the work should not have to be done twice.¹

A word on reading the entries. The clerks named a man by his father: Jan de Wulf f.s Jooris is Jan, son of Joris; f.a means daughter. Anna was the same name as Tanneken, Tanneghijn and Janneken; Joos is Judocus in Latin, Joris is Georgius, Pauwels is Paulus. Between 1627 and 1631 Hooglede kept two baptism books side by side, one in Dutch and one in Latin, so some baptisms are written twice. In the trees, ° means baptised, † buried, x married; a dashed box is a link or a person that is not proven, and green is our own line. The full register of these families, with the image of every entry, is in the project's network folder.¹

Joris de Wulf and Antonia Van Hoorne

The best-documented of the families began with Joris de Wulf, who was buried at Hooglede in June 1619, and his wife Antonia Van Hoorne, a daughter of Matheus Van Hoorne. In 1622 she stood godmother twice as Anthonine van Hoorne w[edu]e Joorys de Wulf, the widow of Joris.²

Five children are called son or daughter of Joris in the registers: Jan, Maria, Joris, Marinus and Antonius. Antonia lived to see many grandchildren, and stood godmother to several of them: to Jan's son in 1623, to a son of Marinus and a son of Antonius at Gits in 1636, and very probably to a son of Joris in 1635. She was buried at Hooglede on 29 September 1646.²

Maria stood godmother to two of her brother Jan's daughters, in 1629 as Maria de Wulf f.a Georgij and in 1630 as Mayken de Wulf f.a Joorys. In August 1630 she was betrothed to Loonis Hemeryck, and their children were baptised at Kortemark from 1634 to 1648.³

Jan, son of Joris, and Margriete van Overschelde

Jan married Margriete van Overschelde at Hooglede in August 1622 and had children baptised there from 1623 to 1632, and probably in 1636. This is the Jan whom the online trees make the father of Joos; chapter 1 tells why he is not. One entry of 1638 remains puzzling. It is the baptism of a Georgius, son of Georgius de Wulf and Margareta van Overschelde: the clerk first wrote the father as Jois, Jan, then struck it through and wrote Georgij. Jan's wife was Margareta, but Joris's wife was Martina, so the entry is confused whichever way it is read.⁴

Joris the younger and Martina van Overschelde

Joris, the second son of that name, married a second Van Overschelde, Martina, daughter of Joos, on 24 June 1632. Their children were baptised from 1633 to 1641, among them twin boys in February 1637, Oliverius and Stephanus. Each twin had his own godparents, and Stephanus's godfather was a Stephanus de Wulf. In 1639 Martina herself stood godmother as Martinne van Overschelde huusvr. Jooris de Wulf. A Georges Dewulf was buried at Hooglede in November 1647.⁵

Marinus and Antonius

Two more sons of Joris moved between Hooglede, Gits and Kortemark. Marinus had his banns called at Hooglede in the autumn of 1633 and married Judoca Heemerickx at Kortemark on 16 October. Antonius married Catharina De Grijse, written Cathelinne de Geyse by the Hooglede clerk, on 7 October 1635. In 1636 their mother, Antonia Van Hoorne, stood godmother at Gits to a son of each of them. Antonius was buried at Kortemark in April 1644.⁶

A Stephanus or Steven de Wulf appears as a godfather in 1625 and 1637, and a Stephanus Dewulf was buried at Hooglede in May 1647. The online trees make him another son of Joris, but no record read so far gives his father.⁶

The children of an older Jan

A second household is known almost only through its children, who are called son or daughter of Jan: Charle, Joos, Pauwels, Anna (also called Janneken and Tanneken), Jan, Wautthier and Passchier. They were marrying from the early 1620s, so their father was not the Jan who married in 1622. Whether he was the Jan de Wulf buried at Hooglede in January 1634, and how he was related to Joris, is not known. One baptism of August 1635 names three of these children together: the mother, Tanneken de Wulf f.a Jans, her brother Jan de Wulf f.s Jans as godfather, and Elizabeth van Acke huusvr. Pauwels de Wulf, the wife of another brother, as godmother.⁷

Joos, son of Jan, married Catharina Joye in 1624; the clerk of 1626 wrote her name Toye.⁸

Pauwels, son of Jan, had a wife Elisabeth whose surname the clerks never agreed on. Their daughter Catheline had a son of her own in July 1640, fathered, the entry says, by Christiaen Befort.⁹

Anna, daughter of Jan, married Simon Tanghe in June 1627. Her children were baptised as Tanghes, and her brothers stood godfather to them. Two of the entries cannot both be right. The Dutch book has a daughter Anna on 22 August 1627; the Latin book has a son Joannes of the same parents on 18 December 1627, on a page headed 1627. Two children of one mother four months apart are impossible, and the register does not say which entry is wrong.¹⁰

Jan, son of Jan, was betrothed to Marthe Speels in September 1635, before his brother-in-law Simon Tanghe, Passchasius de Wulf and a nephew, Joannes son of Pauwels. Passchier, son of Jan, had two daughters with Elizabeth Borbers (or Korbers) in 1636 and 1638.¹¹

Joos, Franchoys and Joos

A third line shows three generations in a handful of entries. Franchoys, son of Joos, was betrothed in June 1623 to Janneghijn Vereecke, daughter of Jan. In 1641 a Mayken Sporte huusvr. van Franchoys de Wulf stood godmother, probably his second wife. The same year his son Joos, son of Francoys, had a boy baptised Francoys, with the grandfather as godfather.¹²

Louis de Wulf and Agnes van Parker

The Louis family shows how a clerk could mislead. In March 1636 the Latin clerk entered the betrothal of a Jodocus de Wulf f. Ludovici and Agnes van Parkere, daughter of Willem, and then struck the whole entry through. In April the Dutch clerk entered the same couple again as Louis de Wulf, son of Louis, and Agnees van Parker, daughter of Willem; they married on the last day of April 1636. They had a daughter Judoca in 1637 and a son Jan in 1639, whose baptism was copied again into the register in 1642. In April 1643 Louis married again, to Jorinne (Georgia) Casier.¹³

Guilielmus Dewulf of Gits

At Gits, Guilielmus Dewulf and Marie Vanclooster had six children baptised between 1621 and 1632. They are known so far only from the index of the Gits registers. A Guilliame or Guillaume de Wulf had children at Hooglede in 1638 and 1640, and a Guilielmus Dewulf married twice there, in 1648 and 1659; whether any of them is the Gits man is not known.¹⁴

Others at Hooglede

A few Dewulfs cannot yet be placed. Janneken de Wulf was betrothed to Jan Hurselé in 1620. A Thomas de Wulf is known only because his wife stood godmother in 1622. Pieter de Wulf had banns called in 1634. Matthys de Wulf had a son in 1640. And Magdaleene de Wulf had a daughter out of wedlock in 1637. Several more Dewulf women appear only as godmothers.¹⁵

What the orphan registers of the Brugse Vrije add

The Brugse Vrije kept orphan registers (wezenregisters) for its free tenants, and the abstracts of the Westkwartier for 1614-1699 are online. Kortemark's Dewulfs are absent from them - Kortemark was a lordship with an orphan court of its own (chapter 1) - but four neighbouring families appear with the filiation that parish registers never give.

Esen. In August 1632 the orphans of Jaspar De Clercq and Adrianeken De Wulf, daughter of Jan, both just dead, got as guardian Jan De Wulf, their maternal grandfather, living at Esen. In December 1649 the orphans of Jan De Wulf, son of Jan, free tenant of Esen, died at Woumen on 2 November 1647, and Franchynken De Vos got as guardians Mattheus De Wulf and Joos De Vos. So the Joannes Dewulf whose sons Nicolaus and Mathias were baptised at Esen in 1611 and 1613, the Joannes who married Francisca Devos at Woumen in 1632 and baptised children there until 1646, and the Matheus who married Maria Hamers at Esen in 1641 and went on to Klerken, are one family: a father Jan alive at Esen in 1632, and his children Adrianeken, Jan and Mattheus. This is the one Jan De Wulf of the generation before ours within five kilometres of Kortemark; that the Jan of Kortemark was another son of his is very unlikely, because the Esen family already had a living son Jan (chapter 1).¹⁷

The children of Louis de Wulf at Eernegem and Handzame. The Louis de Wulf and Agnes van Parker of Hooglede above had a son Joos, whose small son Joosken lost his mother Elisabeth Van Houtte at Eernegem in 1642 and whose guardian was Jan Baete of Handzame, "married to a paternal aunt" - the Joanna Dewulf who married Jan Baten at Zarren in 1637; Joos married twice more and died at Eernegem on 2 January 1659. A second son, Pieter, lived at Eernegem: his daughter Perynken married Hubrecht Strubbe, his son Jan was eighteen in 1674. The Eernegem Joos died six years before our Joos married Maria Bygodt, so the two are not the same man - which needed saying, since our Joos gave a son the name Loonis.¹⁷

Hermannus's children at Koekelare. Catheline De Wulf, daughter of Herman, wife of Jan Mollet († 1673) and then of Pieter De Keisere, died on 23 January 1696 - the estate inventory 7737 of chapter 1 is hers; her sister Petronelle, baptised at Gistel in 1644 and wife of Joos Cabotere, died in 1693; their brother Michiel lived at Diksmuide. So the Hermannus who baptised a daughter at Kortemark in 1627 ended, through his children, at Koekelare.¹⁷

Ichtegem. Two lines: Lieven De Wulf, son of Niclaeys (children Andries, Godelieve, Aernoudyne, Anna and Jan; his brother Joos lived in Bruges), and Loonis De Wulf, son of Jooris, husband of Maria Versyck, who died about 1687 (his sister Martine died at Aartrijke in 1676, his daughter Janneken in 1695; his son Jacob lived at Aartrijke). He is the only other bearer of our Loonis's name in the district, and no tie to Kortemark appears.¹⁷

Our own line at Kortemark

Against this crowd, our own line stands almost alone. At Kortemark the 1861 table gives two children of Jan Dewulf and Joanna Verhelst, Judocus in 1628 and Joanna in 1642, and nothing else about them; the Kortemark registers themselves are lost. Jan's parents are not known. He is not Jan, son of Joris, and no record read so far links him to the older Jan's children, to Franchoys, or to Louis. The Dewulfs of Zarren, next to Kortemark, are no nearer: an Adriana de Wulf stood godmother there in 1626, a Joannes de Wulf and his wife Margaretha had a daughter baptised in 1640, and a Stephanus Wulfs was godfather in 1644.¹⁶

What is still open

• Anna Tanghe or Joannes Tanghe in 1627: which entry is wrong.
• The Georgius of 1638: son of Jan or of Joris.
• Who Steven (Stephanus) was, and who the older Jan was.
• The father of Louis, and whether Anna, daughter of Joos, godmother in 1631, belongs to the Franchoys family.
• The Hooglede baptisms of 1641-1647 and the Gits originals have not been read; they may answer some of these.
• Above all, where Jan Dewulf, husband of Joanna Verhelst, came from.