Kempeneers - the name Kempeneers, as written, in several archives before the first we come against, around 1575. There exist, however, sufficient variant spellings of our surname. Thus we come up against the names Kempenaers, Kempener, Kempeners and Kempenaars in our pedigree.

The name Kempeneers......
Where does the name Kempeneers come from? The biggest question before us is who the first ancestor named 'Kempeneers' is - most likely someone from the Kempen. It is a good possibility that this is how our name originated. From Kempenaar to Kempeneers is only one or two mediaeval clerical errors. And since in the region the Kempen (a place in The Netherlands as well as in Belgium ) one hardy family with the name Kempeneers still resides, this is the most plausible origin of our surname. But, there's another explanation for our surname. Acoording to the institut of dutch language en cultur, The Meertens instituut the name Kempeneers means a family from the Kempen.

Our roots......
The Zeeland side of our family, who originate in 1801 in Sint Philipsland, is a part of a Belgium family. Our first known ancestor, Reinier, came from a little place in Belgium, called Halmaal. In this area lived in that time many 'Kempen'. A map with the diffusion of people with the name Kempeneers in Belgium, shows that there are still a bunch of people around there with our name. The map is based on the telephone book in Belgium from 1996.

- an old map of the surroundings of Sint Truiden in Belgium. Roll over the map to enlarge -

The baptismal register from a litlle place nearby Halmaal, with the name Neerlanden, shows that there lived a lot of people with the name Kempeneers. Although there isn't a direct link to Neerlanden, it is plausible that our family comes from that village.
Click here for the website with the baptismal records from Neerlanden. There are also a lot of notes in this church records.

The Zeeland side of Kempeneers......
The Zeeland part of our genealogy, starts with the wedding of a soldier from the dutch area Limburg and a girl from Sint Philipsland in the area of Zeeland. The date of birth of there first son Lourens, shows that they didn't have much time for there mariage. They married on 5 July 1801 and there son was born on 8 July 1801, three days after there marriage. Gillis promised that their children would be baptised in the protestant church. In there marriage certificate is written that Gillis was born in Eindhoven. Thats not true. Gillis was born in Maastricht. There is also written that Gillis didn't have parents or guardians. Thats also not true. His father Laurentius died in 1811, long after this marriage.
The reason for those lies is probably the fact that Gillis was a roman catholic and Margaretha a protestant. Because of his age (19) the father of Gillis had to give his permission for this marriage. And that could have give some troubles because of there different religion.
When Gillis died, his right place of birth was apparently known, because in the death record of Gillis they enter the right place of birth, Maastricht.


- a picture of a soldier around 1800. It's possible Gilles had the same uniform -

The Zeeland side of our family, that is, since Egidius, descends through 10 generations. From Egidius himself, this makes 474 descendants (not including the families of those related by marriage).

The American descendants of Gillis and Margaretha......
Not only in the Netherlands, but also in America are descendants of Gillis and Margaretha. Their daughter Catharina (VI-b) married Cornelis den Houter. They emigrate on 13 april 1867 to Grand Rapids in Michigan, USA. Their great-great-great-grandson Jim Baker searched for his ancestors and he found out that they came from the Netherlands. He put his results on the internet. When I surfed over the internet, I found the names of Gillis and Margaretha and also the emailadress from the person who put them on internet. Thats how I contact my American cousin, who's just like me, a great-great-great-great-grandson of Gillis. He's also translated the site from Dutch into English.