nederlands

Research in Belgian archives, reading many publications on local history, interviewing living descendants, form the basis built during some 6 years to produce the following family history.

The oldest ancestor was thought in 1977 to be born about 1495 at the hamlet of Lier called "Donk". It turned out the date was correct but the place was not. We now guess Deurne has a better chance. Since than 14 generations have spread the name SMITS over the towns of the "Land van Rijen". Starting from Boechout, over Vremde, Ranst, Wommelgem, Wijnegem, 'sGravenwezel, Schilde the different branches went over the arrondissement of Antwerp and influenced the local history of these and other towns.

The book is therefore not limited to the simple enumeration of names and dates, but with each generation tells a piece of live history of the period and region they were living in. The national history and its influence on the daily life of our ancestors are reflected on each page.

Starting from the 7^th generation all descendants of the same ancestor up to now (1977) are explicitely treated with special attention to the "living Smits". Summary-tables give a clear insight in the structure of the 9 branches issued from Jan Smits (1710-1761).

In 1995 Lydia Benne-Smits published an addition to our work in the form of a pedigree of her father "Constantinus Gustavus Smits". This book connects her ancestors to the 4^th generation of our book. It treats a branch we had not discovered 20 years earlier.

An index on all names of both publications is available at this site.

There are no longer copies of the book available.

Info: Email j.smits_faes@pandora.be

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