The NOE family from the Meetjesland in East-Flanders, Belgium

Preface to the 1990 book

After years of intensive research in the ups and downs of the Noë family we have amassed quite a lot of information and we consider it would not be very wise to put all this aside to let it gather dust while its pages turn yellow and crumble.

The interest of so many members of our family have urged us to put it all together in a coherent form.

But the work is not finished. And we hope it will never be over. The more we know the more questions beg for an answer. And the more difficult it becomes. Like the proverbial needle in a haystack.

When I started this research into the Noë family, I had something that went back about 300 years and that had been put together by my colleague Prudent Rijckaert from Zomergem, a cousin of my father-in-law.

In his book about the Rijckaert family he devotes a chapter to the ancestors of his mother, Marie-Coralie Noë.

If at first the research was fairly easy, unravelling the different branches proved far more difficult. There is hardly a single village in the Meetjesland where never a Noë lived and there is hardly a single village in the Meetjesland where the parish registers are complete.

And so we sat there more often than we care to admit wondering what archives we would have to search through the find the missing links.

Let's not forget that under the Ancien Régime for instance, no one had to mention emigrations to other towns, which meant we had to practically search the remaining records of every town of our Meetjesland. And on top of that, a decision by the Ministry of Justice made research in and access to the town halls much more difficult. And then under the cloak of economy drives other archives also became less accessible.

Even though I tried to give you the complete picture with this issue of this family history I cannot claim to have succeeded. I am aware of the numerous missing links some of which we hope to find one day, perhaps after many more hours of patient research (in our spare time).

Be that as it may. With this work we have called it a day (for the time being). Even if the catch is not quite so big, fishing is a less attractive game when there is only a few fishes left.

There is also more to tell about one family than another. Not only because there is more information on certain persons than on others but also because voluntarily or not, more light fell on some people than on others even when they attempted to go through life humbly and without attracting attention. Even within a particular family there is obviously more to tell about one than the other.

In any case, up to now the Noë family has been one of the many families that remained less conspicuous. We found only one Noë who before the 20^th Century accepted a government mandate. It was only for a short while and he had no descendants. We find no one in a responsible position, not in politics, not in the church nor in other assocations. We could almost say: "and the farmer, he carried on plowing."

And that is no doubt how it has been in a manner of speaking. Their property was not great to start with. The many wars, the misery they caused and infant mortality were in many families up to the 20^th Century the main reasons why they didn't climb up the social ladder.

We hope this work will be an encouragement for you not to say goodbye forever to the country of your forefathers. May it rekindle in you a small dose of nostalgia for that wide flat country with its fresh and clean air between Bruges and Ghent.

So, what about the structure of this work ?

First we bring you a word or two about the Noë name and about the Meetjesland. Then we tell you something about Hendrik, the first ancestor we found, where we think he lived and something about the history of those days.

Hendrik had 4 sons. That gives us our 4 branches and 4 chapters: the A, B, C and D Branch. These 4 sons receive a letter and a number: A I, B I, C I, D I. I or the Roman numeral for "One" because we are concerned with the first generation. The code for the next generation is A II, B II, C II or D II. The code for the children of A III is A IV. If more than one son continues the line the codes are A IV a, A IV b etc. If you consider this complicated please have a look at the Overview or the Table of Contents.

As a general rule only the male descendants who continued the line are honored with a chapter of their own. If we had also discussed the women in this way we would have had a far too enormous work with the overall picture perhaps completely lost. And perhaps about ready by the year 2000.

Of course this doesn't mean we will forget our mothers and their mothers. Certainly not ! They carried their numerous children under their heart. They are essential and irreplaceable for a happy family life.

My sincere thanks to all those who, with documents, photographs and other information or suggestions helped toward the realisation of this book and to my brother-in-law, Denis Noë, who patiently took care of the editing of this work.

MC, 1990

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