Would anyone be able to help translate this? It’s a birth record from Belgium, 1969. Building my family tree, I would really appreciate it!

11 comments

  2. It is from 1869, not 1969 ! Maybe just a typo in your title ?

    Here it goes :

    In the year 1869, on the 14th of August at 11 O’clock in the morning, stood before we, Victor Van den Bussche, mayor and civil status officer (rem: not sure if this is the correct translation: in Belgium, it is the function of an elected official in charge of everything related to births, deaths, marriages, etc) of the municipality of Ardooie, in the province of West-Flanders, Petrus Johannes Hoornaert, “dagloner” (rem: not sure this the word, and how to tralsate it: it is a profession, someone who does farming work but not owner of their own farm and paid day by day by the owner), 47 years old and born and domicilied in Ardooie, who has declared to have a child of female gender, born yesterday at 6’o clock in the afternoon in his home, from himself and Barbara Samijn, “dagloonster” (see above, feminine for “dagloner”, same profession), 43 years old, born in Ardooie, his housewife, and to whom he declares he wishes to give the forenames Rosalie Julie.

    This presentation and declaration was done in the presence of Auguste Crombez, writer (? I guess this in the sense of “public writer”, or maybe a civil servant function) , 42 years old, and Vital Declercq, rural police officer (“veldwachter”? not sure if there is an English word for that, I think that was a sort of police agent in rural communities), 36 years old, both domicilied here, and for a simple reading (? not sure about this, a bit hard to decypher) the father has declared he could not sign, the witnesses have signed with us.

    EDIT: corrected the mayor’s name

  4. Barbara Samyn was born in Ardooie 14 Nov 1826, married in Ardooie to Petrus Johannes Hoornaert on 12 Nov 1962. She was the daughter of Johannes Samyn x Rosalia Pattyn. P J Hoornaert was from Ardooie too, and he registered as a worker in the flax industry

  5. In Flanders we have this genealogical/local history organisation called ‘Familiekunde Vlaanderen’. They explain themselves in English here: [Link](https://familiekunde-vlaanderen.be/wat-doen-we#english) . They have a Facebook-group which I find really useful and helpful for doing genealogical research in Flanders. The [group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/141281829226672) is mostly in Dutch but I find you can also ask questions in English and be helped by the group members. Some have lots of expertise in genealogy. I also want to tell you about [BelgicaPress](https://www.belgicapress.be/?lang=EN). It’s a newspaper archive from the national library of Belgium. You can search up to 1950. You do need to register first and agree to only use the data for say research, but it’s free. Sadly the newspapers won’t be in English but maybe this site can turn out useful?

  11. Damn, it’s weird to see Ardooie on reddit while living in the city next to it in the middle of nowhere in West-Flanders

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