DeBacker

DeBacker Cousins

I believe this information will be of great interest to my DeBacker cousins. I recently discovered that there was a much higher frequency of intermarriage among cousins within our Belgian lineage than I had previously realized. Currently, I am working on a video series intended for my grandchildren to watch when they grow older. These videos feature me walking them through our family tree on Ancestry.com. Having already recorded the first installment, I am now moving chronologically downward, beginning with the DeBacker family from East Flanders. Given the complexity, it will likely require multiple videos to fully cover both the DeBacker and DeDonder families of Renaix (Ronse), Belgium.

In preparation for filming, I wanted to re-familiarize myself with the DeBacker line and its allied branches. While reviewing the tree, I noticed clear evidence of pedigree collapse—a concept I have discussed in earlier posts. Essentially, it occurs when relatives of a certain degree are siblings while simultaneously serving as direct ancestors. I encountered some navigation difficulties on Ancestry.com, as it lacks the color-coding features of desktop applications like RootsMagic, which allow researchers to distinguish ancestral lines at a glance. Furthermore, Ancestry does not feature an easily accessible relationship calculator; finding a complete lineage path requires opening each individual profile independently.

To resolve this, I turned back to RootsMagic, only to find that its data did not match what I had on Ancestry. I then realized it had been nearly two years since I last synchronized the two databases. Fortunately, with my current World Access subscription active through the end of the year, I have recently discovered about 20 new ancestors on my father’s Belgian side. Once the databases were fully updated and synced, I was finally able to utilize the RootsMagic relationship calculator.

I decided to begin by analyzing the last two ancestors in our line born in Belgium: Vital Eugene Louis DeBacker (1835–1918) and Hortence DeDonder (1863–1921). Vital immigrated to America with his entire family—including my great-grandfather, August DeBacker—in 1883, following a disagreement with other members of the DeBacker family in Ronse. After settling, Vital became well known for raising Belgian draft horses, gaining recognition from the small town of St. Marys to the larger metropolis of Oklahoma City. The results from the relationship calculator were entirely unexpected, completely shifting my understanding of our family history. It revealed that Vital and Hortence were actually related as cousins through four distinct degrees of consanguinity.

Here’s what it told me:

Relationship Calc Vital Eugene Louis DeBacker

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Vital Eugene Louis DeBacker and Hortence DeDonder

# Relationship Common Ancestor

1. Fourth cousin Joannes Vandendaele and Joanna Cantaert

2. Fifth cousin once removed Joannes Vandendaele and Egidia Pot

3. Seventh cousin Nicolaus Pot and Agnes Vandenberghe

4. Eighth cousin Hermes Van Coppenolle and Pieryne Satyns

NOTE: Hermes Van Coppenolle was the great grandson of Jan Van Coppenolle, the Demagogue of Ghent, the man who was the head of the weaver’s guild and who was executed for leading a rebellion against the Duke of Burgundy of the House of Hapsburg. Jan and his twin brother were arrested on 14 June and after a quick trial were beheaded on June 16, 1492, in the main market square in Ghent known as Vrijdagmarkt or Friday market. Karl Marx referred to the two years of Jan’s rule in Ghent as “the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” (See https://gatheringleaves.blog/2022/07/03/my-ancestor-the-insurrectionist/ )

Then I put Vital’s parents, Arnauld Francois DeBacker and Sophie Françoise Callewaert (my gggGPs) into the relationship calculator, and here is what it said:

Relationship Calc Arnauld Francois DeBacker

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Arnauld Francois DeBacker and Sophie Françoise Callewaert

# Relationship Common Ancestor

1. Seventh cousin Hermes Van Coppenolle and Pieryne Satyns

Here is the relation of my 5X gGF Judocus De Backer (1723-1797) and my 5X gGM Joanna Catharina De Wadripont (1712-1770).

Relationship Calc Judocus De Backer

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Judocus De Backer and Joanna Catharina De Wadripont

# Relationship Common Ancestor

1. Fourth cousin once removed Unknown and Jan De Backere

There is a notable age difference between Judocus and Joanna, with Joanna being ten years older than him. This was undoubtedly her second marriage and his first. During that era, it was a common practice for younger men to marry older, well-to-do widows, allowing the husband to inherit the property upon the wife’s death. As for Judocus, he is known to have owned several windmills in the vicinity of Newkirk and Ronse, and there is no indication that he ever remarried.

Here is the relationship between Daniel Vandendaele (1722-1779) and Anna Theresia Dedonder (1725-1792). She was my 5x grandmother and he was my 5x great-grandfather. They lived in Nukerke, a town near Ronse.

Relationship Calc Daniel Vandendaele

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Daniel Vandendaele and Anna Theresia DeDonder

# Relationship Common Ancestor

1. Fourth cousin Nicolaus Pot and Agnes Vandenberghe

It also goes from the top down where one can be the descendents of two siblings. This is what I saw when looking at the Pot family. Here I can swear that I saw four siblings who were ancestors of mine. It turns out that there was duplication in the record and that once I got everyone in the right place it turns out to have been only two siblings. These were the brothers, Oliver Pot and Peter Pot. They are both 9th great-grandfathers. Here is how we are related.

Relationship between Olivier Pot and David Michael DeBacker

Relationship between Peter Pot and David Michael DeBacker

These relationships will show up in strange ways. Take for example my relationship to my 8X great-grandfather Adrianus De Backer and my other 8X great grandfather Adrianus De Backer who are widely separated in the branches of the tree. One shows up as my second cousin 9X removed , and the second one is my first cousin 11X removed. This means that somewhere in between me and the father and son duo (within approximately 10 generations) a pair of cousins met and married.

This happens to be the marriage of Daniel Vandendaele and Anna Theresia DeDonder who were 4th cousins. This likely required a dispensation from the church allowing cousins within the third degree to marry.

Relationship Calc Adrianus De Backer

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Adrianus De Backer (1623-1694) and David Michael DeBacker

# Relationship Common Ancestor

1. Eighth great-grandfather Adrianus De Backer and Petronella Buyle

2. Second cousin 9 times removed Unknown and Jan De Backere

Relationship Calc Adrianus De Backer

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Adrianus De Backere (1614-1664) and David Michael DeBacker

# Relationship Common Ancestor

1. Eighth great-grandfather Unknown and Adrianus De Backere

2. First cousin 11 times removed Unknown and Jan De Backere

Judocus De Backer (1723-1797)

Judocus De Backer, also known as Joose DeBacker, was born on 14 April 1723 in Sint-Marie-Lierde, the son of Jacobus De Backer (1686-1764) and Petronella De Mulder (1684-1750). He belonged to a large family that included nine known siblings, reflecting the multigenerational households common in eighteenth-century Flanders.

Sometime after 1750, Judocus married Joanna Catharina De Wadripont in Ronse. Their known children were Maria Catharina Bernardina De Backer, Maria Joanna De Backer, Andreas DeBacker, and Joannes Augustinus De Backer.

Judocus was closely associated with the ownership and operation of windmills, an important part of the agricultural economy of eighteenth-century Flanders. In 1749 he was recorded as the owner of a windmill in Ronse. Twenty years later, in 1769, he purchased another windmill in Nukerke. Around 1774, he authored a letter to the Canon Chapter of Ronse concerning repairs to a mill located in the Brul, an area that is today a public park near the town center. The letter documents his direct involvement in the maintenance and management of mill property. In 1782, he also purchased a house in Ronse.

During Judocus’s lifetime, the region formed part of the Austrian Netherlands. Agriculture remained the foundation of the local economy, and windmills played a vital role in grinding grain for surrounding communities. The closing years of his life coincided with a period of major political change. The Brabant Revolution briefly challenged Austrian rule, and French revolutionary armies entered the region in the 1790s. By 1795, the Austrian Netherlands had been annexed into the French Republic, bringing new administrative and legal systems shortly before Judocus’s death.

Judocus De Backer died on 8 december 1797 in Ronse.

Judocus and his wife, Joanna Catharina De Wadripont, were fourth cousins once removed, sharing Jan De Backere (born about 1540) as their most recent common ancestor. Judocus descended from Jan through Merten De Backere (1570-1612), while Joanna descended through Willem De Backere (born 1570). Their son, Andreas DeBacker (1751-1812), became the ancestor through whom these two branches of the De Backere family were reunited. Andreas was the third great-grandfather of David M. DeBacker’s father, making Judocus De Backer one of David’s direct ancestors through both of Jan De Backere’s documented family lines.

(See also Noblesse Oblige – Gathering Leaves)

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