![[Henri Xavier Kaye - Birth Certificate 1899/24]](TH-1971-26979-12703-97 - 01.jpg)
The stories about my grandfather were told to me almost entirely by my father. We lived in the United States and my grandparents retired to Brussels, Belgium. Air travel was expensive and there were few opportunities to vist. Luckily, we visited in 1977 shortly before he died, and I was old enough to remember meeting him.
The story was related to him while he was in Belgium visiting his father and probably included additonal information from other relatives that he was close to. The Kayes in Belgium (we only knew about our branch) all originate from Hamme-Mille which is not far from Waterloo where Napolean lost his last battle. The oldest Kaye known was an adult at about the time of the battle. This Kaye was supposedly named "Mac" or "McKaye". So the theory was that we could be descended from an English or Scottish line that had settled in Belgium after the Battle of Waterloo.
[We later learned that there are others branches of Kayes in Belgium and that our line pre-dates the Battle of Waterloo.]
My father's grandfather lived in Hamme-Mille and worked in Leuven during World WarI lighting the gas street lanterns. In retribution for an attack on German soldiers, 10 civilians were executed. My great grandfather was lighting the lanterns when he was selected among the next 10 civilians to pass by. His wife moved as a widow to live in a Beguinage in Leuven. The children used money provided by Belgium for victims of the war to emigrate to Canada.
The first to leave was Florence Kaye that married a Gerard, followed by her brothers: Joseph Kaye, Vital Kaye, and Henri Kaye. There was no mention of other Kayes that had emigrated.
[Vital Kaye volunteered to serve in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in World War I and must have emigrated before his father's death.]
[Based on border crossing records, Joe and Henri visited Saskechewan. It seems to much of a conincidence that they would not have known about the Kayes living there.]
My grandfather emigrated to Canada and worked in the company of his brother-in-law as a plasterer. It was easier to emigrate to Canada, but he later moved to the United States settling in Detroit, Michigan. He returned to Belgium to fulfil his military service, met and married his wife, and returned to Michigan. In Detroit, he worked for Morgan & Wright and learned about conveyor belt systems. (4)
His experience with conveyor belts played a role during the rest of his working life (Englebert and Belgian Congo).
My grandparents travelled in their own car to Florida for a vacation prior to 1927. (3)
My father was born in 1927. Due to the onset of the Great Depression, my grandparents and father returned to Belgium.
After bringing his family back to Belgium, my grandfather returned one more time to Detroit. (5)
For a time, they lived in Leuven in a house with my grandmother's parents that they had bought while in the US.
Finding no work, my grandfather took a job in the Belgium Congo as a technician for conveyor belts leaving his wife and child in Belgium. Due to the occupation of Belgium by the Germans, they remained separated throughout the war. My grandfather sent money and food (for example canned sardines) with the Red Cross. (2) After the war, my father was drafted by the US Army and my grandmother joined my grandfather in Africa. During his work in Africa, my grandfather would work 30 months and then have 6 months leave. He would spend this time in Belgium in a rented apartment. In one case, he and my grandmother spent 3 months visiting my father in Linz, Austria. Once my father met and picked them up in Venice where that had arrived by ship. (1) He retired in 1958 and built a house in Stokkel where they lived the rest of their lives.
(1)(2)(3)(4)(5) Taken from a conversation with my father on June 29, 2015.![[E-Mail]](02_10_t.gif)
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Michael Kaye