Grandpa Frans (69) and grandma Maria Waalen (66) were as proud as a peacock in the photo this week. Together with their twelve ‘little acquaintances’ and they all went to the same (Lambertus) school in Netersel. Even grandpa Frans had attended that school. Besides the Waalen family, Brabant has more large families. A small selection from some family albums!
READ ALSO: All 12 grandchildren of Frans and Maria attend the same primary school
A house full
One of the best known, if not the most famous, large family in Brabant is the Nagelkerke family from Oudenbosch. The family participated in the KRO program ‘A house full’. Father Jan and mother Sofie live in that overcrowded house with their eight children: Merel, Eline, Stan, Noud, Floor, Guusje, Madelief and Junior. For a moment, the couple thought about a ninth child, but decided against it.
READ ALSO: Jan and Sofie are going to vlog! Ten-member Nagelkerke family can still be followed after ‘A house full’
“Always someone to play with”
The Bouwdewijns family from Mariahout consisted of no less than 19 children. Jan and Frans Bouwdewijns therefore always had someone to play with. Living in a farm with 21 people is of course a challenge. There was a long table in the kitchen, Jan and Frans still remember. But if everyone came to eat, it didn’t fit. Then his mother took out the sewing machine. It had a pull-out leaf and then a few children could eat there.
READ ALSO: Jan and Frans had 17 brothers and sisters: ‘Always someone to play with’
And that is a thousand together
Together in the picture: Jo, Zus, Harrie, Tinus, Cor, Nellie, Riek, Jan, Bets, Mien, Toos, Annelies, Thea and Ad Kastelijn. The fourteen brothers and sisters, all with roots in Best, celebrate a special party: together they were 1000 years old (in 2017). And so all brothers and sisters, but also friends and family, were in a room in Best to celebrate this special fact.
READ ALSO: Party! Fourteen siblings are 1000 years old together
The oldest family in Brabant
In 2012, Omroep Brabant went looking for the oldest family in Brabant. All kinds of families passed in review, but not a single family was older than the Heijnemans family from Stevensbeek at that time: 1162 years.
READ ALSO: The Heijnemans family from Stevensbeek, after all, the oldest family in Brabant?
Good soil: seven boys and seven girls
The Van der Lee family also made a bid for the oldest family in Brabant in 2012. The family at the time consisted of seven boys and seven girls. After the death of brother Doris, there were still thirteen left. Their combined age was then 949 years. According to Sjaan van der Lee (76), their family’s house was ‘on good ground’.
READ ALSO: Vlijmens family is one of the oldest in Brabant