Wim Verkist

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Wim Verkist [send private message]

NOTE ABOUT SOURCES: the Belgian State Archives changed their databases, many URLs linking to sources stopped working :-(

Hi, I am from Flanders, Belgium, Europe
In 2013, the Belgian state archives went online, and I started using them to create my Wikitree. They are at arch.be (Currently - February 2020 - only available in Dutch, French and German).
Kind regards
Wim

ORIGINS
My ancestors have been living for centuries in Oud-Heverlee, Heverlee and Rotselaar and in the surroundings of Leuven (Louvain), currently part of the Belgian province of Vlaams-Brabant (Flemish Brabant). This province belongs to Vlaanderen (Flanders), the "northern federated state" of Belgium - official site. People there speak Dutch, also called Flemish.
That I know of, most of my relatives still live in Belgium, some in Germany and Spain, and quite a lot of Verkists can be found in the USA, descendants of Felix Verkist - Verkist-40, who emigrated in 1912. He is a first cousin of my grandfather Jan Verkist - Verkist-3.

ABOUT FIRST NAMES
Historical church records in Belgium were all in Latin. So, when parents wanted to give names like Jan, Katrien or Wim, the priest wrote Joannes, Catharina or Guillelmus. Modern time Civil Register records were often in French, at least until the 1920's. So, Jan, Katrien or Wim became Jean, Catherine or Guillaume.

Those foreign names might be on official documents, but rarely used. To emphasize that people born in Flanders used Flemish names, I will write their Flemish name in "Preferred Name", even without proof.

CURRENT STATUS - Last update: February 2023
Still alive and kicking :-)
I made the beginner's mistake of creating my tree without any sources. I have now halted the expansion of my tree and am focussing on the sources of my existing profiles, with priority for my own relatives. Hope to be finished with that somewhere in ... 2023?

CORRECTIONS WELCOME
If you find mistakes I will be more than happy to correct them. Contact

SENSIBLE INFORMATION REMOVAL
If by any chance I have published information that you consider sensible, please contact me and I will hide it from public view. Contact

ABOUT SOURCES
All my source are in the form of PDFs or scans, uploaded under the "Images" tab. Recent additions are marked as "source", older ones as "photo". You will mostly find scans from civil registers and church records, PDF transcripts of civil registers, and a few other materials. Most civil registers currently available are copies, made at the beginning of the 20th century, and also many books with handwritten church registers are copies made by the clergy, at times both the original and the copy are available.
Currently, 95% of the data comes from arch.be, either from transcripts or scans.

I started my tree with lots of material "borrowed" from the following people:

Verkist branch: most information came from jp.vandeput
Thank you, Jean Pierre!

Maes branch: most information from jfsmits
Thank you, Jean!

De Reymaeker branch: Very useful information obtained at korbeek-dijle.blogspot
Thank you Cyriel!

CONTACT
Feel free to contact me, in Dutch, English, German, Spanish, or French. Contact