Belgian Laces https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Postcard_- _Bruges_Cranenburg_%28Excelsior_Series_11%2C_No._51%2C_Albert_Sugg_a_Gand%3B_ca._1905%29.jpg Volume 38 - #149 September 2016 BELGIAN LACES: Official Quarterly Bulletin of Our principal THE BELGIAN RESEARCHERS objective is: Belgian American Heritage Association Keep the Belgian Heritage alive Dear Members, in our hearts and in Late again you will say. I seem to be making a the hearts of our habit of that this past few years. posterity I always work on several editions at the same time but always seem to get caught up with THE BELGIAN other things and then find myself at the last RESEARCHERS minute realizing I had done less than I thought I had. This was the case again. Life brings Belgian American unexpected things and I keep having to relearn Heritage Association that it is not healthy to put off until tomorrow. Our organization was founded in 1976 and Thank You to Guy for always being ready with Cranenburg House (also Craenenburg) is a historic building located in the marketplace great research and articles. Thank You to welcomes as members (Markt) of Bruges, Belgium. Any person of Belgian Chuck for all the work he has done and descent interested in continues to do to upload more Belgian names George W. T. Omond's Bruges and West Flanders to our census page. I know how hard they are (1906), illustrated by Amédée Forestier, refers to Genealogy, History, to read sometimes. Thank You to Elaine for the building: Cranenburg, from the windows of Biography or Heraldry, continuing to send Canadian obituaries. Thank which, in olden times, the Counts of Flanders, either amateur or You for the questions that always lead to with the lords and ladies of their Court, used to professional. research we can add to Belgian Laces, like the watch the tournaments and pageants for which LaViolette Memoir and this issue’s article on Bruges was celebrated, and in which Maximilian You are invited to Civil illnesses. was imprisoned by the burghers in 1488. But the become a member and Cranenburg, once the 'most magnificent private to participate actively residence in the Market-Place,' many years ago Thank You for your patience and continued in the work of the lost every trace of its original splendor, and is support! Always enjoy hearing from you and now an unattractive hostelry, the headquarters of a society. looking forward to new queries. smoking club; while the Hôtel de Bouchoute, The annual Fall weather will be bringing more people turned into a clothier's shop, has little to membership fee indoors. Consider helping index with us or distinguish it from its commonplace neighbors. includes a subscription another organization! The building is now apparently a cafe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranenburg_House to the quarterly Regine BELGIAN LACES Table of Contents Books in Review: “Barber Gus of Cranenburg” p91 The Archivist of Rumors p92 President-Editor: Belgian families in the Sandusky River Valley, northern Ohio, Seneca, Hancock, Wyandot, Régine Brindle Crawford, Huron, Erie and Sandusky Counties p94 Treasurer/Secretary: Belgians in Haumont, Nord, France in 1906 p100 Melanie Reynolds Memoir – Part 4 p102 Past Presidents: Wisconsin Shorts: Excerpts from the Algoma Record Herald p107 Micheline Gaudette Belgians on the WWI Draft Cards: Michigan p108 Pierre Inghels Illness an enemy for Civil War soldiers p111 Belgians on the 1910 Census: Indiana p115 Co-Founders: French Settlements in Floyd County p118 Micheline Gaudette & Pennsylvania and West Virginia Obituaries p121 Ardiena Stegen Belgians in 1911 British Columbia p123 Canadian Obituaries p125 Belgian Passengers to America: 1892 p127 Deadline for Index p130 submission of Articles to Belgian Laces: Feb 15 – May 15 Contact Information: THE BELGIAN RESEARCHERS - 495 East 5th Street - Peru IN 46970 August 15 - November 15 Tel/Fax:765-473-5667 OR e-mail [email protected] All subscriptions are for the calendar year-*New subscribers receive the four issues of the current year, regardless when paid Electronic ONLY: $15 Content of the articles is the sole responsibility of their authors - All Rights Reserved ISSN: 1554-2432 Content Can Not Be Reproduced or Redistributed without Prior Authorization (anywhere) from The Belgian Researchers, Inc BELGIAN LACES #149 “Barber Gus of Cranenburg. A Tale from the Occupation of Belgium 1940- 1945” – A time capsule – By Jozef Goethals On the first day of September 1939, barber Gus Boncol was having breakfast with his wife Elsken and his two children, Anneken and Justin. A monotone voice suddenly interrupted the beautiful sounds of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony drifting from the old Philips radio, “This morning, Führer Adolf Hitler and his Wehrmacht invaded Poland.” Hushing the children to hear the rest of the broadcast, Elsken anxiously glanced at Gus, “Oh, my God, Gus, . could Belgium be next?” Thus begins my just published historical novel about WWII “Barber Gus of Cranenburg. A Tale from the Occupation of Belgium 1940-1945” My personal war memories and the many stories told by my father, barber August, about the German occupation and the repression after the liberation in my hometown Torhout in West-Flanders, prompted me to research what regular folks went through during that occupation. It became a tale in which the characters are my own family members and the clients my father shaved during the war. The novel provides a time capsule on the fears, uncertainties, struggles for survival, love and hatred, and the curtailing of freedom the “winds of war” created in a small city. What happened in my fictional Cranenburg happened all over occupied Europe in 1940-1945. A Dutch version of the book is in preparation under the titel “Barbier Gus van Torhout”. What happens in Cranenburg leads you into the small town under occupation: the quartered German soldiers in private homes, the shortness of food and the rationing, the continued presence of German uniforms, the work camps and concentration camps, the forced labor, the air alerts and bombings, the pressing struggle of survival, the threat of collaborators, the suspicion and distrust among friends and even family members, the young Flemish East Front soldiers, etc. Bavo Dhooge, a well-known Ghent mystery writer in Belgium, said about the book, “Most of the content in this novel probably has been told in books and films, but the personal character and the lived experience approach make this novel unique, and this is quite an achievement. Through this tale, future generations (also as a required reading for schools) can gain insight in how it was to live, to grow up, and to survive in that period. It is a gripping reading experience.” And Peter Vandermeersch, Chief Editor NRC Handelsblad, Amsterdam, writes, “This novel gives a wonderful insight into what World War II in Belgium must have been like for ordinary people in a small city. As far as I know, this is an exceptional portrait. The author is excellent when it comes to details about concrete challenges, survival situations, and social interactions Barber Gus and his family encounter during the occupation and the repression after the liberation. A great time capsule!” I am sure that among the Belgian Laces readers there are still many who either went through the occupation themselves or who had relatives in Belgium who were alive during that period. Barber Gus of Craneburg might encourage them to inquire and search for recollections of the war and its aftermath within their own families and give them a chance to begin a conversation about the war years. The novel is available at www.amazon.com 91 BELGIAN LACES #149 « L’archiviste des rumeurs », le témoignage d’un ouvrier de Vottem entre 1850 et 1914 “The Archivist of Rumors”, the testimony of a worker from Vottem between 1850 and 1914 Translated from Les Cahiers Nouveaux #83 (96-97), September 2012 http://docum1.wallonie.be/DOCUMENTS/CAHIERS/CN83/C2A23_Leboutte.pdf And were the « little people » who fought to survive, not also great figures in Wallonie? Before 1914, one fifth of the population was just plain poor and the crushing majority lived precariously. It took courage and great effort not to sink into misery and anonymity… Yet these voiceless people of History found someone who witnessed and recounted their daily life: Gaspard MARNETTE, gun maker in Vottem. Between 1857 and 1903 he kept a remarkable journal in which he recorded everything he saw, heard and experienced in his village filled with miners, gun makers and peasants1. Evoking his mother’s life, who was « without any education», he insists on the great moral quality of the ‘little people’: «during all her youth my poor mother had to work the hardest jobs to procure her sustenance […] My mother married: she once again fell into misery». To work hard or to sink… The world of the mass poverty was one of ingenuity: the poor man survives “by resorting to solutions he only holds the secret to» (César de Paepe, 1863). Taking advantage of everything, doing all sorts of work. About his father, Marnette reports « he knew how to pull the most from our small land by planting trees and maintaining hedges; he knew how to keep a pig sty at little cost, repairing the woodwork at home, reusing any old nail and small pieces of wood». In this survival economic system, women played a crucial part. Lucie DEJARDIN, socialist militant from Liege, remembered her mother collected potato peelings all across town so she could sell them to pig farmers in the Bois de Breux2. Work had real value and permitted pride. MARNETTE constantly uses words such as honor, honesty, hard work. «The man was small in stature and of ordinary body size, a man of means, diligent, loyal, helpful, just and well intentioned.