My maternal grandfather was born in Ghent, Belgium, at the end of the 1877 and raised in Bruges. Several of his six sisters were beguines in the The Beguinage (Begijnhof) in Bruges where they waited for a gentleman to come and offer them a married life. Another sister went to a convent in Heidelberg, Germany, as a widow. The family of my grandfather consisted of 21 children, 15 boys and 6 girls. My grandfather’s mother had five sets of twins. Several brothers lost their lives in the First World War and some had their hands cut off so they could not fight against the Germans again. Grandfather’s name was: Emile Victor Henri Charles Joseph Peeters Vercnocke.

When he was about 4 years old he escaped his house and went to hide in one of the ships of his uncle who discovered him when it was too late to return back to port. His uncle’s cargo had to be delivered on time in several places so my grandfather remained on board until his uncle returned to Ghent. While the ship was waiting to be loaded again, my grandfather’s uncle would send him to school in the country they were in. So my grandfather did mathematical operations in different languages–addition and subtraction in Dutch, division in German, multiplication in French.

Then he went to High School in Brighton, England, where he also studied 3 years to become a surgeon with the Belgium Army and enlisted in the Congo Campaign. In 1893, he was 16 years old when he went to Congo and stayed there for almost 5 years. Under the administration of Leopold II’s of Belgium, the Congo became a humanitarian disaster. (Leopold II was King of Belgium since 1865, and the owner and absolute ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908). My grandfather saw ruthless exploitation and innumerable deaths due to the lack of immunity to new diseases introduced by contact with European colonists such as the 1889–90 flu pandemic, which caused millions of deaths on the European continent, including Prince Baudouin of Belgium, who died in 1891. In Congo my grandfather learned several African languages that he employed when he got mad with us, his grandchildren, knowing, with great pleasure, that he would amuse us to no end.

Grandfather left Congo, probably illegally, since he was so disgusted with the situation, and went to France to finish his medical studies in La Sorbone, Paris. In France, he met the De Solminihac family who lived in Paris and was thinking of going to Chile.

In 1900, my grandfather went to China and participated in the Boxers Revolution. By late 1899, bands of Boxers were massacring Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians. By May 1900, the Boxer Rebellion had come out of the countryside and was being waged in the capital of Peking (now Beijing). To protect their interests in China, and also to help their fellow countrymen, an international force of 2,100 American, British, Russian, French, Italian, and Japanese soldiers were sent to subdue the “rebellion.” I guess my grandfather went with the French division.

From China, my grandfather traveled to Argentina to visit his sister Maria Beatriz Du Bois (Minou). Her husband was a French commander of the Navy and was hired to be an instructor at the Navy School in Argentina. In Argentina, my grandfather became a medical doctor at the Hospital Melchor Romero in 1902. Then he was hired to work as the doctor in the Borax mines in Bolivia by a Belgium company, at 5000 meters altitude in the Andes mountains. He did not last long there. He went down through Jujuy in Argentina and returned to his sister’s house. In 1905, he was hired by Dr. Ugarte, from Chile, to fight against the smallpox epidemic in the South of Chile. The first time he passed to Chile through the Andes mountains. In other occasions, he came by ship from Buenos Aires, navigating around Cape Horn.

According to my mother, when my grandfather came to Chile on a ship through Cape Horn, the ship arrived in Calbuco Island. There my grandfather saw my grandmother at the pier and she saw him. They feel in love immediately at a distance. She said “with this gringo I will get married” and he said “I will stay here and marry her.”

Later, at the port of Puerto Montt, my grandfather was invited to the house of the Countess De Solminihac, who he had met in France. At her house, he officially met my grandmother Maria Carlota Haydee Andrade Moss (Haydee).

The family in Belgium had a fit when they learned that my grandfather was going to get married with a “native” of Chile. I guess they imagined my grandmother dressed in feathers and having, God forbid, a very dark skin.

So between my grandfather’s relatives in Argentina and friends in Chile, and the family of my grandmother, they did a long and painful genealogy research through letters and information from different sources.

Also, my grandmother was related to the De Solminihacs. Emile Auguste Marie de Solminihac d’Amphernet and his wife Laurencia Collongues Baragnes came from France to Calbuco, Chile in 1887. In the book “The Solminihac Family” written by Hernán de Solminihac, he comments: “Those from Solminihac who emigrated to Chile made their way, excelling first, in oyster farming and its canning industry of seafood products, then in colonization, livestock, coastal shipping and the commercialization of their products.” One of their sons, Juan de Solminihac, was married to Gabriela Andrade Flores relative of my grandmother’s father.

Grandmother’s father was Jose Andrade Huidobro, son of Fernando Andrade Sanchez the Mayor of Calbuco in 1861, and owner of several properties in the Calbuco Island. Her mother was Albina Moss Douglas, daughter of William Moss and Charlotte Douglas Ferguson who was the sister of Charles D. Douglas from Scotland. William Moss was also from Scotland.

Finally, the family in Belgium became at ease when they learned my grandmother and grandfather had common ancestors in Scotland and officially, they were very, very, distant cousins. The research determined that both my grandfather and my grandmother had common ancestors in Scotland. Apparently the origin of the Clan Douglas was Flemish, therfore Belgium! Pictures of my grandmother showed she was civilized and very light and pale skin with beautiful black hair.

Her grandfather Charles Douglas was a resident in Chiloé who acted as pilot and interpreter to Captain FitzRoy of the H.M.S Beagle, and provided him and Charles Darwin with information about the country, earthquakes, and its inhabitants.

The Beagle sailed from Plymouth Sound on 27 December 1831 under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy and did not return until 2 October 1836. Originally, the trip was planned only for 2 years. Charles Darwin was on board of the Beagle as a scientific observer. After visiting the Falkland Islands, in 1834, Darwin left the Beagle, in Valparaiso, to study inland Chile. He spent over a year exploring a broad area including the Island of Chiloe. In his letters, Darwin referred to my great grandfather as “Douglas, a very intelligent man, with whom I had become acquainted in the island of Chiloe.” Fortunately, Charles D. Douglas seems to have informed Darwin only about traditions, people and earthquakes (specially the one in 1835) and not “evolution” of animals.

My granparents were married on July 30, 1905.

Slowly but surely my grandfather Emilio became “the doctor” in Chiloe. He proudly refused to travel to the capital and take the exams necessary to be certified as a Doctor in Chile. “What do they know about medicine here”, he used to say. “Have they ever treated and healed a child from a poisoned arrow shot?” He knew all about it since he has been shot while in Congo and he had a horrible scar on the left side of his chest that turned to different colors according to the season, beautiful pastel colors. He had also had malaria and suffered its consequences.

Emilio and Haydee had 4 children. First, my aunt Fanny, named after one sister of my grandfather in Belgim. Then my aunt Laura (Lala) and then my mother Maria Beatriz Antonieta, named after the cousin of my grandfather in Argentina (Minou) but the nickname of my mother was Coca. Finally, the desired boy came. My uncle Emilio, who my grandmother adored for the rest of her life, and even broke a hip because of him when she was more that 70 years old.

My aunts Fanny and Laura married lieutenants from the army that were stationed at Ancud. They promptly left Ancud and were transfered to other cities in Chile.

My grandmother then decided they needed to move to the capital to be near her daughters and other members of her family who had also already moved to Santiago.

My grandfather Emilio was not too enthusiastic about this, but he finally agreed to move. They first moved to a house in the area of Bellavista to be near aunt Maria who was a cloistered contemplative nun in a monastery. She had fallen and suffered enormously, but because of her vows, she could not be treated and she died soon. Mother remembered going to visit her behind a thick curtain that allowed them to see only her silhouette.

Then my grandparents moved to a property in a neighborhood to the south of Santiago, probably Puente Alto, where my grandfather felt very happy. It had several fruit trees, chicken coops, and enough space for a garden. He could not work as a medical doctor in Santiago so he became an editor and translator for several magazines in French, Dutch, German and other languages.

After a while, it became more difficult to maintain the property with a small salary, and my grandfather became very fragile.

My aunt Fanny found a property with some gardens in Carrascal, and my grandparents ended up there.

Grandfather kept working on his wonderful stamp collection carefully and meticulously classified. That and the chickens kept him busy until he decided he was tired and refused to eat. He survived for 6 month taking only a couple of Belgium beers a day. His African scar, as he called it, bothered him very much.

One night around midnight, mother and I heard a sound like a window glass breaking, and we both woke up. Mother came to my room and we knew that was a signal. My father did not hear it at all, and he did not wake up until about 5 minutes later when we received a phone call from aunt Fanny telling us to hurry over because my grandfather was dying.

My grandfather died in Santiago, Chile in 1957.