Klerken Woumen Zarren

Contact: mikell @ rogers.com updated 2018-04-23

The charts referred to below have been transferred to:

• https://sites.google.com/site/woumengenealogy/

This web site contains over 200 charts showing the ancestors of my grandfather, Achille Wybou, and their many descendants and spouses. In each case I have indicated links between the charts -- it is not much of an exaggeration to say that everyone in the data set is related to everyone else!

The charts are grouped around 18 families, most of them headed by a direct ancestor. A few others are included because of the many cousins they hold. There is an index listing all of the charts.

The corresponding database of more than 40,000 names also includes many extended in-laws who are not otherwise related and are not included in the charts. It can be found on the following sites -

wc.rootsweb.com under database mikell5 (earlier version)

ancestry.com

geneanet.org

genealogie.com

familysearch.org

genealogieonline.nl

Most of the records are for Klerken, Woumen, and Zarren but there are many entries for other towns throughout West Flanders as well as scattered other locations.

The main sources are the church and civil records (approximately pre- and post-1796 respectively) filmed by the Mormon Church (the civil records are available online at familysearch.org under Belgium, West Flanders, Civil Registration). An index is being compiled by volunteers and is available at vriwilligersrab.be. Its only disadvantage is that it requires an exact spelling of a surname, a laborious task when searching variants of such names as Wybou or Hendrycks.

These records generally only go up to the early 20th century. I have supplemented them with other postings on the internet. The main sources are the databases of Ignace Debruyne (ignacedebruyne.be) and Roger Clauw (users.telenet.be/rogerclauw). I have cited all sources in the database, usually under the marriage record which provides the most detail.

Also included is a census of Klerken taken around 1814-1815 which then had a population of 2,125. The records were transcribed by Ignace Debruyne. I have annotated about 90 per cent of them with the years of their birth, marriages, and/or death, including the surnames of prior and subsequent spouses.

Finally there is a family tree showing all the identified direct ancestors of Achille.

I would welcome additions (if they are related to names in the database) or corrections.

A note on spelling

There is no standard way to spell the names in these records. A single individual may appear in different records with various versions of his surname and even given names can vary. Given names were most often in their Latin form, except during the period of French annexation. The presumably Flemish equivalent by which people were normally known appears rarely except in the later years. I have used whatever variant I encountered first, sometimes with an English equivalent, and used slashes to indicate when alternative given names appeared. The variations in surnames within the same family may provide a guide as to where to search. I have never left a space within a surname to make it more convenient to search - variations in handwriting make such distinctions somewhat arbitrary in any event.

Modern spellings are used for locations.

Michael Kelly

Ottawa, Canada