Chapter 8. Sidon Dewulf and Godelieva Deschacht, 1913 to 2004
The last farmer's son
Sidon Gerard Dewulf was born at Torhout on 22 May 1913, the youngest known child of Victor and Flavie (chapter 7).1 His birth act spells his second name Gerard; the family tree has Geraed, a slip of the pen. He was a year old when the German army came, and five when it left.
He married Godelieva Deschacht, born at Zedelgem on 23 August 1916, the daughter of August Deschacht and Paraïlde Allemeersch.2 Zedelgem lies between Torhout and Brugge. The Deschacht family has its own long history in the villages west of Brugge, and it is told in chapter 11. Godelieva's own birth act survives: her father, a man of thirty-three born at Bekegem, registered her birth two days later, on 25 August 1916.
Transcription and translation
Geboorte-akte Nr 69 [margin: Deschacht Godelieva]. Ten jare negentien honderd zestien, den vijf en twintigsten der maand Augusty, om zes ure na middag, voor Ons Hendrik De Muyt, dienstdoende Burgemeester, Ambtenaar van den Burgerlijken Stand der gemeente Zedelghem, Provincie West-Vlaanderen. Is verschenen: August Deschacht, oud drie en dertig jaren, pachter[?] van beroep, geboren te Bekeghem, alhier wonende, die ons verklaard heeft dat eergisteren om twee ure na middag in deze gemeente geboren is een kind van het vrouwelijk geslacht van hem vertooner en van zijne echtgenoote Paraïlde Allemeersch, oud een en dertig jaren, huishoudster, alhier geboren en wonende, welk kind hij ons vertoond en waaraan hij verklaard heeft te willen geven de voornamen van Godelieva. Deze vertooning en verklaring zijn gedaan in de tegenwoordigheid van Hector Steen, oud negen en dertig jaren, werkman van beroep, wonende te Zedelghem, en van August Ryngaert[?], oud vier en zestig jaren, veldwachter van beroep, wonende te Zedelghem. En na gedane voorlezing aan den verklaarder en de getuigen hebben wij onmiddellijk met hen geteekend. [Signed:] De Schacht August; H. Steen; [A.] Ryngaert[?]; H. De Muyt.
Birth act no. 69. On 25 August 1916 at six in the evening, before Hendrik De Muyt, acting mayor and registrar of Zedelgem, West Flanders, appeared August Deschacht, aged 33, tenant farmer[?], born at Bekegem and living here, who declared that the day before yesterday [23 August 1916] at two in the afternoon a child of the female sex was born in this municipality, to him and to his wife Paraïlde Allemeersch, aged 31, housewife, born and living here; he showed us the child and declared that he wished to name her Godelieva. Witnesses: Hector Steen, 39, workman, and August Ryngaert[?], 64, rural constable, both of Zedelgem. The father signed 'De Schacht August'. This act joins Godelieva to her parents (grade A).
The date and place of their marriage, and what Sidon did for a living, are not yet known. Records of the 1930s and later are closed to the public, so the rest of this chapter rests on the family tree.
The war came back when Sidon was in his twenties. On 25 May 1940, at the castle of Wijnendale on the edge of Torhout, King Leopold III held the crucial talks with his ministers that after the war grew into the Royal Question. German bombs damaged the town, and on 7 September 1944 Canadian troops liberated Torhout.4
The end
Sidon died on 22 May 1977, his sixty-fourth birthday, at Faro in the Algarve, in the south of Portugal.3 A death abroad on the very day of a birthday is unusual enough that the date deserves a second look, but it is the date the family tree and the Find a Grave index give.
Godelieva outlived him by twenty-seven years. She died on 22 October 2004 at Jette, in Brussels, aged eighty-eight.2
Epilogue
Sidon and Godelieva's daughter is Ingrid Dewulf. She married Peter Saeij, of the family whose history is told in The Saeijs of Sleidinge and Zeeland. Their son is Jeroen Saeij, and his son is Johan Saeij-Torreiro.
With them the Dewulfs of Torhout, who kept to the same few parishes from the 1660s to the First World War, join the Saeijs of Sleidinge, who crossed the border into Zeeland. Both families were farmers and farmhands in Flanders for as far back as the registers go.
-
Birth act of Sidon Gerard Dewulf, Torhout, 23 May 1913, act 135 [S1] (grade A). ↩
-
Birth act no. 69, Zedelgem, 25 August 1916 [S65] (grade A): August Deschacht, 33, born at Bekegem, and his wife Paraïlde Allemeersch, 31, born at Zedelgem; the child was born on 23 August at two in the afternoon. The yearly table of 1916 lists her as "Deschacht Godelieva, 69". Until September 2026 this rested on the family tree (grade D). ↩↩
-
The 2019 pedigree [S23] and the author's FamilySearch tree, which cites the Find a Grave index [S24] (grade D). ↩
-
Wikipedia (Dutch), "Torhout" [S67]: the meeting at Wijnendale castle on 25 May 1940, the German bombing, and the liberation by Canadian troops on 7 September 1944 (background). ↩