Florence Dehoux married Leon Befays in Belgium in 1928. I was able to find Leon’s birth record fairly easily but had never managed to locate Florence’s.
It turns out there was a good reason for that… Florence was not born Florence Dehoux after all, but Florence Moreau! An official note next to the birth entry indicates that her parents were not married when she was born. When they married two years later, Florence was ‘legitimised’ as a child of their marriage.
Florence Marie Joseph Ghislaine Moreau was born 6 May 1903 at Wagnelee, Hainaut to 21-year-old Laure Moreau. Laure’s father Joseph registered the birth with the civil registrar the next day. {Note: although the name was recorded as Moreau, Joseph signs his name as Moreaux, as does Laure on her later marriage record.)
Laure would go on to marry Eugene Joseph Dehoux (from the nearby village of Saint-Amand) on 25 February 1905 at Wagnelee.
Transcription:
L’an mil neuf cent trois, le sept du mois de mai à nix heures
du matin, Pardevant NOUS Stanislas Wauthy, Echevine,
par délégation Officier de l’Etat-Civil de la commune de Wagnelée,
province de Hainaut, est comparu Joseph Moreau, âgé de cinquante huit ans,
journalier, domicilié à Wagnelée, lequel a [aniste’d ?] l’accouchement,
qui nous a déclaré que le jour précédent â huit heures et denné ou soir
est né en cette commune de Laure Moreau, ménagere, célibataire âyée
de vingt un ans, née à Wagnelée et y domiciliée
________, un enfant du sexe
feminin qu’ il nous a présenté et auquel il a donné les prénoms
de Florence-Marie-Joseph-Ghislaine
les dites déclaration et présentation faites en présence de Louis Allart, âgé de trente
deux ans, maçon, et de Nestor Stercy, âgé de vingt huit ans,
menuisier, lou deux domiciliés à Wagnelée.
après lecture du présent acte, le déclarant et les témoins l’ ont signé
avec nous.
[In margin:]
L’ENFANT DONT L’ACTE DE NAISSANCE ESI CI-
CONTRE, A ÉTÉ LÉGITIMÉ PAR LE MARIAGE DE SES
PÈRE ET MÈRE Eugéne Joseph Dehoux
ET Laure Moreau
CONTRACTÉ À Wagnelée LE 5 février 1905
Translation:
The year one thousand nine hundred and three, the seventh day of May at six o’clock
in the morning, before US Stanislas Wauthy, Deputy Mayor,
by delegation Civil Registrar of the municipality of Wagnelée,
province of Hainaut, appeared Joseph Moreau, aged fifty eight years,
day labourer, domiciled in Wagnelée, legal [aniste’d ?] childbirth,
who declared to us that on the previous day at eight o’clock in the evening
was born in this commune to Laure Moreau, housewife, single aged
twenty-one years old, born in Wagnélee and domiciled there
________, a child of the female sex
that he presented to us and to whom he gave the first names
Florence-Marie-Joseph-Ghislaine
the said declaration and presentation made in the presence of Louis Allart, aged thirty
two years old, mason, and Nestor Stercy, twenty eight years old,
carpenter, both domiciled in Wagnelée.
After reading the present act, the declarant and the witnesses signed it
with us.
[In margin:]
The child whose birth certificate is shown opposite,
was legitimised by the marriage of his[/her]
father and mother Eugene Joseph Dehoux and Laure Moreau
contracted at Wagnelee on 5 February 1905
(Transcribed to the best of my ability and translated using various translation software – any corrections or suggestions are welcome.)
Astrid of Sweden (1905-1935) – princess of Sweden and queen of Belgium
There was a story told by my Belgian grandmother, that she was named after Queen Astrid, who was also her godmother due to a royal tradition. I remember her telling me that as a child, she was once invited to play with the princess, who was of a similar age, but that they fought over a toy. (My mother recalls that she even got sent home for this.) Her childhood memories of the young princess were not overly positive and it was entertaining to hear.
Unfortunately, the facts don’t quite support the story.
Queen as godmother
This tradition is true and is referred to on the Belgian Monarchy website: “Traditionally, the King and the Queen are the godfather or godmother of the seventh son or seventh daughter in a family, on condition that this succession of sons or daughters is unbroken.” (The Belgian Monarchy, 2020)
However, the honour is only bestowed upon the seventh son or daughter – Astrid Lemmens was the eighth daughter.
I did find a newspaper report that mentioned the queen becoming godmother to a LEMMENS daughter. Only this daughter was not Astrid but her older sister, Elisabeth. And the event had occurred in 1925, before my grandmother was even born (in 1926).
Le Carillon, 1925 Mar 28, p2 c1
A beautiful family
We announced that the Edouard Lemmens-Minne family, living on rue Polder Ste Catherine, had enriched themselves with a seventh daughter, on March 6. The eldest was born on April 12, 1913 in Nieuport. In a letter addressed to the Palace of Brussels, to the Mayor of Ostend, it says:
<The Queen accepts with pleasure to be godmother of the seventh daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lemmens-Minne>. And further: <Our Sovereign entrusts you with the task of having Her represented at the ceremony of the baptism of the child, and asks you to express Her wishes of happiness to the parents of Her new goddaughter>.
Mr. Bourgmestre Moreaux entrusted the care to Ms. Elleboudt-Moulaert, wife of Mr. Elleboudt, our alderman for Public Works.
Une belle familie
Nous avons annonce que la famille Edouard Lemmens-Minne, habitant rue Polder Ste Catherine, s’etait enrichie d’une septieme fille, le 6 mars dernier. L’ainee naquit le 12 avril 1913 a Nieuport. Dans une lettre adressee du Palais de Bruxelles, au Bourgmestre d’Ostende, il est dit:
<La Reine accepte avec plaisir d’etre marraine de la septieme fille de M. et Mme Lemmens-Minne>. Et plus loin : <Notre Souveraine vous confie le soin de La faire representer a la ceremonie du bapteme de Penfant, et vous prie d’exprimer Ses souhaits de bonheur aux parents de Sa nouvelle filleule>.
M. le Bourgmestre Moreaux confia le soin a Mme Elleboudt-Moulaert, femme de M. Elleboudt, notre echevin des Travaux publics.
Le Carillon, 28 Mar 1925, p2 c1
This means the queen did not actually attend her goddaughter’s baptism but instead used a city councilor’s wife as her proxy (Louisa Moulaert, wife of Alphonse Elleboudt). Interestingly, Elisabeth DID meet the queen in 1931, when the royal family visited Ostende and the interaction made the local paper:
De Zeewacht, 1931 July 25, p1 c7 – p2 c1
In the meantime, an endearing act took place. The young Elisabeth Lemmens, the seventh daughter of Mr and Mrs E. Lemmens, of which through mediation of Mrs. Alph. Elleboudt, the Queen is meter, presented herself to the Queen with a flower owl and spoke as follows, while the daughter of H. Schepen Vroome handed over a flower sheaf to Princess Clementine: Dear Meter, How proud and happy I am, your baptized child, to be the little interpreter of the population of Ostend, to tell you how welcome you are here, you see that from side to side, and read in flower and flag and festive green, the sincere love and affection of your people. Yes, everything calls out to you, how welcome you are and how your name is praised and honored here. The beating heart of the People that you were expecting for so long now see You full of joy and offer you thanks and honors with great enthusiasm, Dear Queen. After those words, the Queen took her godchild on her lap and kissed and asked her news of her family. Prince Leopold also took them on his lap and had a conversation with the child.
Intusschen had een aandoenlijk tooneeltje plaats. Het jonge Elisabethje Lemmens, het zevende dochtertje van M. en Mev E. Lemmens, waarvan door bemiddeling van Mev. Alph. Elleboudt, de Koningin meter is, bood zich aan de Koningin met een bloementuil en sprak als volgt, terwijl het dochtertje van H. Schepen Vroome een bloemengarve aan Prinses Clementine overhandige:
Lieve Meter,
Wat ben ik fier en gelukkig, Ik, uw doopkind, de kleine tolk der Oostendsche bevolking te zijn, om U te zeggen hoe welkom gij hier zijt, dat ziet gij t’allen kant, en leest in bloem en vlag en feestelijk groen, de oprechte liefde en verkleefdheid van uw Volk. Ja, alles roept U toe, hoe welkom gij zijt en hoe uw naam hier wordt geprezen en vereerd. Het kloppend hart van ‘t Volk dat U zoolang verbeidde, ziet U nu vol vreugde en bied U, Geachte Koningin, met veel geestdrift zijn dank en hulde aan.
Na die woorden name de Koningin haar petekind op den schoot en kuste en vroeg haar nieuws van hare familie. Prins Leopold nam ze ook op gijnen schoot en voerde een gesprek met het kindje.
The queen referred to in the above articles would have actually been, Elisabeth, queen of King Albert. It makes sense that Elisabeth LEMMENS was named after her royal godmother.
However, my grandmother’s story still has some merit due to being born within a few days of Leopold and Astrid’s marriage. The royal couple married civilly in Stockholm on 4 November 1926 and religiously in Brussels on 10 November 1926 – my grandmother was born 14 November 1926. Considering, the Lemmens family appeared to be strong royal supporters, it is extremely likely that they named her daughter after the princess in honour of this national occasion. So, it appears Astrid LEMMENS was named after ‘the queen’ – she just wasn’t queen at the time.
Argued with a princess
I doubt I’ll ever find out if this part of the story is true. Astrid and Leopold did have a daughter in 1927, Princess Josephine-Charlotte and so would have been around my grandmother’s age. If the story is true, this would be the princess referred to.
But why would she be invited to tea? Especially since she wasn’t even a god child. If there’s any truth to the story, the answer may lie in her father, Eduard Lemmens’ service to the community [to be expanded upon in a future post].
I’m not ready to dismiss the story completely. The memory seemed quite vivid to my grandmother so it’s possible we simply misinterpreted what she said. Unfortunately, Astrid LEMMENS is no longer around to set us straight. If only I’d looked into this sooner.
Mevr. Lemmens & Frederick Lemmens (and a mystery daughter?)
I haven’t written a lot about my mother’s side of the family – in fact, I just checked and I don’t seem to have written at all about them! This saddens me but it’s largely because her family history is centred around Belgium and so the records are not easily accessible to me (physically OR ‘literally’ as I don’t read French or Dutch). Hopefully that will change with a little help from growing records and Google Translate.
This weekend my mother passed on a photo that my grandmother gave my mother of HER mother’s parents – got that? Basically I got a pic of my mother’s maternal great-grandparents (and maybe a great-aunt in the background). So that’s great – an ‘ID’ed family photo… almost. The problem is my grandmother has forgotten their names (!) although she’s pretty sure her grandfather’s given name was Frederick.
So I blow off the digital dust on my Belgian ancestors to check their names to discover I don’t actually have them on there yet. I know that my grandmother was one of nine children born to Eduard LEMMENS and Gabrielle MINNE. Eduard himself was one of seven siblings seen in the photo below:
Children of Frederick LEMMENS
(The youngest girl lying on the floor looks most like the mystery woman in the first photo – could it be her?)
Since I don’t currently have a ‘world’ membership, I wasn’t expecting much from searching a Belgian on ancestry, but I actually may have struck lucky! The very first result was a British 1901 census entry for a Fredrick LEMMENS born in Ostende, Belgium. My grandmother was born in the coastal city of Ostende, Belgium and the man’s age fit (b.1855), so it immediately interested me. This man was on board the S.S. Truro in Hull that night and recorded as a ‘Pilot Dutch’ but it didn’t seem to be a Belgian vessel or crew.
A quick glance at some of the other results didn’t show any other connections but Google threw up a record on the Oostende Archives site of a sea fishing captain who “sailed for shipowners” [G. ASAERT, Analytical inventory of fishing reels (1818-1843 and 1860-1910), Brussels (ARA), 1986]. So could that delightful outfit that looked to me like a milkman’s uniform actually be a captain’s uniform? [update: Another descendant of Frederick Lemmens (RV) informs me that he is not wearing a captain’s uniform but was probably his summer jacket. Frederick apparently always wore the hat because he was bald! :)]
My mother migrated to Australia with her parents and younger sister when she was 9.
As a result, I know little about that side of the family but my mother remembers the time with her grandparents fondly.
In 2001, I was able to make a short trip to Belgium where I met my grandfather’s brother and his wife, who are wonderful people. Amongst many other activities, they took me to the grave of my great grandparents near Charleroi (which as you can see contains VERY little information).
