Eduard van Landeghem en Jansje Foks en Elodie Liem

Eduard Joseph van Landeghem & Jansje Foks & Elodie Marie Therese Liem

theoretical assumptions (under construction)

Eduard Joseph van Landeghem & Jansje Foks emigrated to the United States of America around February / March 1893, they married in Manhattan New York on March 26, 1893.
This emigration had the intention to stay in America forever, unfortunately for a reason that is unknown, Eduard and Jansje with their son Eduard Phidias, who was barely a year old, returned to Europe, Belgium.
Exact date is not known, at least before 25-01-1896 since their second son Henricus was born in Ghent, Belgium.
Eduard and Jansje already had a daughter Jacoba Henriette van Landeghem (see a birth and death certificate) who was born in Utrecht on January 30, 1893, Eduard made a declaration in Utrecht, Jacoba Henriette was on April 26, 1894 died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 13 months.
Their son Eduard Phidias was also born in Philadelphia in 1894, Eduard Phidias died in The Hague on 18-12-1898 (see images below,).
Jansje or sometimes sometimes called Jantje on? 1896 registered in Utrecht, in the same year Jansje leaves for Haarlem, further details are still missing. (is being worked on)

The biological father is not mentioned on the deed (Eduard Joseph van Landeghem), in itself not strange of course since Jansje and Eduard married on Sunday March 26, 1893 in Manhattan, New York City, United States.
The fact is that Jacoba Henriette was born on January 30, 1893 and that was for the legal marriage of Jansje and Eduard, hence also only Jansje is mentioned in the deed.

Marriage & Divorce

Eduard and Elodie were indeed married on Wednesday, July 27, 1898 in Schaerbeek, Belgium (see deed below) According to the deed, Eduard would still stay/live in The Hague with Jansje in December 1898 and were still regarded as spouses, Eduard Joseph and Jansje were both mentioned as spouses in the death certificate of their son Eduard Phidias van Landeghem, this deed was drawn up on December 20, 1898 in The Hague.
The above deed reads that both spouses are living in The Hague, personally I think that the civil servant of BS (Civil Registry) has assumed that both "spouses" were still living in The Hague but according to the deed both were not present in person, it is also apparent from the fact that neither of them has signed the deed.
There is no divorce certificate to be found in The Hague since the building in the Bezuidenhout district in The Hague on 3 March 1945 was completely destroyed including the total content, see here inter alia: Bombardment on Bezuidenhout March 3, 1945 (a Dutch webpage) it turned out to have been a catastrophic error, here a webpage in English: Bombing of the Bezuidenhout
Neither has any document been found in Belgium that an official divorce has taken place between Eduard and Jansje.

Below the slightly adapted translation from French to Flemish / Dutch concerning the above deed.
Van Landeghem Eduard Joseph, sculptor, born in Sint-Niklaas Waas November 20, 1865, domiciled in Schaarbeek EdouardOlivierstraat nr 69 son of Petrus Josephus Van Landeghem , deceased and of Maria Celina Roels widow without profession domiciled in Schaarbeek, present and consenting in marriage with Liem Elodie Maria Theresia, cuisiniere (or cook), born in Ledegem, Belgium on October 12, 1866 domiciled in Schaerbeek Liedtsstraat nr 27 daughter of Carolus Ludovicus Liem, watchmaker and his wife Ursula Buyse without profession and domiciled in Ledegem, present here and consenting to the marriage on their part.
The married people have stated that they have past their marital conditions for Meester Van Zeebroek, civil-law notary of Schaarbeek on the 15th of this month.
Present here, Charles Van Landeghem 30 years of woodworker and brother of the groom, Léonard Leys 22 years of painter living in Ghent, Achille Liem 27 years of Packer and brother of the bride and Joseph Beroggi 27 years of cast gypsum and brother-in-law (brother-in-law) of the groom domiciled in Schaarbeek.

Family card The Hague.

According to family card (see image elsewhere on this page) from The Hague, Jansje Foks was registered on 9 February 1897 as a resident of The Hague, she came from Ghent in Belgium.
Eduard was present at the municipal hospital in The Hague when Jansje gave birth to Jacobus Johannes on 19-01-1897, but the question remains: how long was Edward's stay in The Hague?
It may be that Eduard returned to Belgium on a day or even after a few weeks basis and that may be to Ghent or Brussels.
It is stated on the birth certificate of Jacobus Johannes that both spouses were living in The Hague or in other words, as was often used in municipalities "here".
The declaration of Jacobus Johannes was made by the female ""caretaker" and that is odd in itself, because normally the father makes the declaration provided that, due to certain circumstances, he was unable to make a declaration himself, or was Eduard already rushed back to Belgium?
Was that the reason why the "caretaker" made the declaration? The complainant was Helena Maria van der Linde living in The Hague.

The surname of Jansje is incorrectly displayed here Voks instead of Foks, the surname of Jacobus Johannes was registered with the surname "van Landighem" and that was corrected in 1949 at the court in The Hague to "van Landeghem".

Emigration

The assumption that Eduard secretly got to know his new love Elodie Marie Therese Liem at the time of his still legal marriage with Jansje Foks is plausible, but the correct time frame for these encounters will remain hidden forever.
Each case both migrated to America as a couple in May 1899, this date comes from a naturalization application (see image below) from Eduard in America, but a passenger list of these was not found.
The question also arises whether Elodie knew about Jansje's existence and that Eduard had already conceived a total of 4 children at Jansje, there is a suspicion that Elodie was totally ignorant of this and probably also remained, and that Elodie had strongly rejected this in view of the then applicable morality, but this is also an assumption.
Both were nationalized as US citizens on March 19, 1917, they both applied on June 22, 1916. (see also naturalization application here below)

Jansje & the children

The children of Eduard and Jansje, Henricus but also his older brother Eduard Phidias, were registered on July 14, 1897 in The Hague.
According to the family card (see below) from The Hague, both children, Henricus and Eduard Phidias (1894-1898) ± 4 months later credited to Jansje's family card on July 14, 1897, Jansje was registered on February 9, 1897, but that may have been a municipal formality, it is more likely that the two children are at the same time came to live with Jansje in The Hague around 1896,
Jacobus Johannes van Landeghem was born in The Hague on January 19, 1897, which may also have been the reason why a later date of registration was stated on the family card.

Family card of Jansje Foks & children 1897

Eduard & Elodie

Eduard Joseph van Landeghem again emigrated to America on May 1, 1899 from Antwerp with the S.S.Kensington (see images below).
Arrival at New York, Hoboken haven van New Jersey on May 13, 1899, which class they have both traveled is not known, if it concerned Third class or "steerage" then they must have traveled via Ellis Island, if they were traveling in Second Class then other rules applied, both were allowed to disembark after a brief examination by a Doctor in the port of New Jersey to continue their journey to Philadelphia wherever they went to live.
First and Second class travelers were not classified as "immigrants" at the time.
By the way, nothing is known about the fact that Eduard or even Elodie have traveled to Europe for a family visit or something similar, to dispel all confusion there is another Elodie van Landeghem, in full Marie Elodie, maiden name Moerman, but who was married to Carolus Ludovicus "Charles" van Landeghem, a found passenger list brought more information about "Charles and Marie Elodie", this "Charles" van Landeghem is by the way a brother of Eduard Joseph van Landeghem, Charles and his Marie Elodie did return to Belgium from America, further investigation showed that both died in Ghent in Belgium, date of return to Belgium is unknown.
Eduard Joseph Van Landeghem died in 1955 in Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States, buried in Worcester, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, just like Elodie Van Landegehm born Liem, see images below.

Jansje Foks (1866-1949)

and her further life in hospitals for the mentally ill (1914-1949)

Jansje Foks was included for the first time on 1 September 1914 in the Medical Foundation for the Insane or the Willem Arntsz foundation Agnietenstraat 2 in Utrecht.
Jansje was deregistered there on December 31, 1915 and transferred to Endegeest te Oegstgeest, (see here The castle Endegeest where it all started, sorry no english translation available on the website) she would stay there until her death in 1949.

Both parents were not present on the two marriage certificates of Henricus (1922) and Jacobus Johannes (1925) van Landeghem, this was literally described, with one slightly different text but amounts to the same: "Eduard Joseph van Landeghem profession of sculptor, whose place of residence is unknown and Jansje Foks without profession, living in Endegeest in Oegstgeest for whose permission the Cantonal Court was invoked" end quote, this was described on the marriage certificate of Henricus "unable to obtain her permission to be granted" see also paragraph above.

How this insanity is originated (hopefully there will be news about that in the future, haven't had time for it yet, sorry) but is probably related to the involuntary divorce or deliberate abandonment by Eduard, an official divorce certificate has not been found, not here in the Netherlands and not in Belgium either, and only much later discovered that her official husband, Eduard, had in all likelihood left secretly to America and that Jansje knew nothing about his secret marriage? ( that "secretly" has not been established anywhere else, since there is an original marriage certificate of Eduard and Elodie) etc.
Jansje must have lived for years in uncertainty and wonder every day why Eduard no longer came to The Hague, but all these are assumptions, I hope to find out more about this soon, but that will take some time.

But also with the death of her two children Jacoba Henriette in Phiadelphia and Eduard Phidias in The Hague and not forgetting the likely sudden abandonment / disappearance of Eduard, Jansje may have been troubled as she grew older with regard to her mental state.
Jansje has probably never been able to handle this mentally well, that this may not have been established until 1914, probably due to the fact that she was too busy working, perhaps as a single mother, and taking care of her two children once became older and she could put the care of both sons at a lower level, these negative thoughts may have prevailed.

The question remains when Jansje was deregistered on 31 August 1914 in The Hague after an authorization from the Public Prosecutor, where both her sons were housed at the time, they were already 18 and 17 years old at the time, so according to the law they were both not yet of age.
Not with their biological father, who had been in America since May 1899 with his legal wife Elodie Marie Therese Liem who had a son named Conrad Pericles Acipes (see details of this person below) and he was born on July 2, 1903 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Assuming that Eduard van Landeghem no longer had contact or sought contact with his two sons from the first marriage with Jansje Foks, this fact is also an assumption, this assumption is reinforced since there is nowhere evidence that Eduard or his two sons Henricus and Jacobus Johannes had once attempted to do so, it must have been that both sons did not even know who their father was since they were barely 3 and 2 years old when Eduard disappeared from the scene in 1898/1899.
It reinforces this assumption since he was also not present at both marriages of the aforementioned sons Henricus and Jacobus Johannes in 1922 and 1925 respectively.
Would Conrad ever know that he had two stepbrothers in the Netherlands? of course this also applies to Henricus and Jacobus Johannes, unfortunately nothing is known about that.

If you have relevant additions, you can go through the contactpagina describe your findings there, thank you in advance.