Monday, February 22, 2021

A Somewhat Complex Tale of Two Families


At least, it's somewhat complicated as told through their rouwbord (memorial boards) in St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, to begin, we have these two memorial boards over in one corner:


The one on the right, whose arms are blazoned Azure a chevron ermine between three crosses couped argent, are the canting arms of de la Croix (1861-1924). I have been unable to find any biographical information about this person, not even his given name(s). So we move on.

The rouwbord on the left memorializes Clémentine Maertens (1852-1928). Her parents were Léopold François Ghislain Maertens (1816-1898) and Barbe Léopoldine Thérèse van der Maelen (1823-1881). She married Adolphe de Kemmeter (1849-1927) in 1878. His parents were Frédéric de Kemmeter (1810-1890) and Désirée Hye (1810-1860).

Her arms (on the right side of the shield, and which we will see again momentarily) are blazoned: Or on a fess between two mullets of six points azure and a tower sable three three roses argent. His arms, on the left side of the shield, and which we will see again soon, are blazoned: Quarterly: 1 and 4, Argent a pale gules; 2 and 3, Or a man proper vested gules caped azure collared argent crowned or; on an inescutcheon sable an eagle displayed or charged on the breast and wings with a billet fesswise sable.


In a different part of the Cathedral, we find the memorial board of Léopold François Ghislain Maertens (1816-1898), Clémentine Maertens' father. He was the son of Louis Jean Eugène Maertens and Marie Jeanne Pelckmans. His wife was Barbe Léopoldine Thérèse van der Maelen (1823-1881). His arms are blazoned as are his daughter's: Or on a fess between two mullets of six points azure and a tower sable three three roses argent.

And then we find this rouwbord with the same arms on it:


This is not, as I had originally suspected, the memorial board of Clémentine's brother; the man memorialized here is in fact her 1st cousin, the son of her uncle, her father’s brother. He is Raymond Marie Auguste Léopold Maertens (1848-1914), son of Joseph Jean Corneille Maertens (1808-1866) and Emilie Verhaeghe de Naeyer (1810-1858). The blazon of Raymond's arms remains the same as those of his uncle and his cousin, Or on a fess between two mullets of six points azure and a tower sable three three roses argent.

And now we come to the memorial board of a different member of the other family we are highlighting in today's post:


These are the arms of Frédéric de Kemmeter (1810-1890). He married Désirée Hye (1810-1860), and they were the parents of Adolphe de Kemmeter (1849-1927), whose arms appear in the first rouwbord above.

These arms, too, are blazoned:  Quarterly: 1 and 4, Argent a pale gules; 2 and 3, Or a man proper vested gules caped azure collared argent crowned or; on an inescutcheon sable an eagle displayed or charged on the breast and wings with a billet fesswise sable.

And there you have it! Four memorial boards, with the intertwined relationships of five individuals, graphically displayed on the walls of St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent.

How cool is that?

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