Indiana
Charles Roegiers
Belgian-born American soldier who served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was killed in action on 17 December 1944 near Consthum, Luxembourg, during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge.
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This section gathers the American lines connected to the Van Landschoot family story: migrations, settlements, parish life, land records, newspapers, and the people who carried the name (and its variants) into a new continent.
Featured Families
USA overview
Click a marker to jump to the state section.
Indiana — WW II Veteran in Indiana
Iowa — Early settlers in Iowa
Iowa
Thomas McKee & Sylvia Van Landschoot — Douglas Township, Iowa
Railroad engineer Thomas McKee married Sylvia Van Landschoot in Creston in 1884. After years on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, he settled on the farm Sylvia inherited from her parents William Van Landschoot and Sophie Buse.
Iowa
Andrew Van Landschoot — A hidden family story
Iowa farmer Andrew M. Van Landschoot (1883–1962) lived a quiet life in the rural Highview community. Court records later revealed a remarkable paternity case that established his only known son, William Louis Lavender.
Iowa
August Van Lantschoot — From immigrant to industrial pioneer
Belgian-born August Van Lantschoot (1889– ), from Bellem near Aalter, arrived in America in 1906. He rose from unloading coal cars to become a metallurgist, general superintendent, and founder of the Fairfield Aluminum Castings Company, a key figure in Iowa’s foundry industry.
New York — Early settlers
New Netherland
Cornelius Langhevelt — To the New World in 1654
Born in Sint-Laureins (1628), Cornelius appears in New Amsterdam records in the 1650s and is listed as “klein burger” in 1657. One of the earliest documented emigrants from the Meetjesland region to the New World.
WWII
Kathleen Hertzel — the Japanese battle flag
Daughter of WWII veteran William Hertzel and Anna Landschoot. Kathleen returned a Japanese battle flag, taken on Leyte in 1944, to the family of fallen soldier Matsujiro Yonaiyama — a powerful story of remembrance, closure and reconciliation.
New York
Ludovica Sophia Van Landschoot — Newark, NY
Immigrant family from Zeeland. Ludovica Sophia Van Landschoot and Franciscus Van Dura settled in Newark, Wayne County, where the family built a farm and established a new life in upstate New York.
New York — Flemish emigrants
New York
Pieter Timmerman — Letter from America (1903)
In December 1903 Pieter Timmerman, born in Heille near Sluis, wrote a remarkable letter from Clifton Springs, New York describing the life of Flemish immigrants in America. The letter was later published in De Getrouwe van Maldegem and recounts his journey to the Belgian settlement of Ghent, Minnesota.
Illinois — Henry County pioneers
Illinois
Ambrose B. Van Landschoot — Civil War Veteran
Scholar from Maldegem turned Union soldier. Contracted rheumatism during guard duty in Corinth, Mississippi, leaving him disabled for life.
Illinois
Ambrose B. Van Landschoot — Land, Family, and Deeds
Follow Ambrose B. Van Landschoot through his land purchases, mortgages, and property transfers. With special attention to his sister Theresia Van Landschoot, her husband Anthony Bouwhuis, and Ambrose’s wife Mary Jane. A chronological overview with expandable deeds and source notes.
Illinois
Sophie Van Landschoot — A disputed verdict in Rock Island
After being injured in a wagon accident, Sophia C. Van Landschoot sued the city of Rock Island. A jury awarded her $3,675, but the judgment was reversed on appeal and a new trial ordered. Newspaper references date from 1875 and 1876.
Illinois–Belgium
Mary Emma Van Landschoot — A Forgotten Atlantic Journey
A childhood portrait taken by the Bruges photographer De la Marck de Lummen provides a remarkable clue to Mary Emma’s undocumented journey from Illinois to Belgium and back.
Illinois
Bercroft (Berghgracht) — From Sint-Margriete to Illinois
A Flemish origin name, reshaped in America: BERGHGRACHT → BERCROFT. Land in Cornwall Township, parish life, and vivid newspaper notices for Leopold “Poly”, Peter, Charles, and Sophia.
Illinois
Leo Doubler — Early Resident of Atkinson (1857)
Born Leonard De Dobbelaere in Watervliet (Belgium), 1824. Arrived in Atkinson in 1857 when only one house stood there. Landowner of nearly 240 acres in Cornwall Township.
USA
🚢SS Cincinnati Cruise (1911)
A transatlantic pleasure cruise from New York to Naples in 1911. Letters describe life aboard the Hamburg-American liner, passing the Azores, Gibraltar and Algiers before reaching Italy.
Illinois
Leonard Phillips (1837–1914)
Flemish immigrant from St. Laureins, farmer and later restaurateur in Atkinson. Connected to the Bercroft and Vandewaestyne families.
Illinois
Henry Rumler — Atkinson Hardware & Farm Implements
Born in Belgium (1854), raised in Atkinson after the family’s 1857 immigration. Hardware merchant and implement dealer on State Street, married into the Bouwhuis–Van Landschoot line.
Michigan — Port Huron / Macomb County
Michigan
Peter Landschoot of Michigan — Civil War (1864–1865)
Enrolled at age 41 and served with Company G, 12th Michigan Infantry. Garrison duty in Arkansas, illness and hardship, then return to civilian life in 1865.
Missouri — Taos / Cole County
Missouri
Peter J. Dierckx — First Flemish Settler in Taos (1847)
Born in Ecloo (Belgium) in 1828, Peter J. Dierckx became one of the earliest Flemish settlers in Taos, Missouri. Merchant, farmer, Civil War survivor, and leading Catholic citizen of Cole County.
New Orleans, LA → St Louis, MO
Willem Van Landschoot — met de Duc de Brabant naar Amerika
In december 1850 vertrokken Willem Van Landschoot en zijn vrouw Sophia Theresia met de Belgische brik Duc de Brabant vanuit Antwerpen naar New Orleans, Louisiana. De passagierslijst vermeldde hen foutief onder “Germany”, terwijl hun herkomst als België moet worden begrepen.
Opvallend is dat Willem, Sophia Theresia, Eduard De Grendel en Pierre Dirckx als enigen tot de 1st cabin passengers behoorden, wat wijst op een zekere welstand.
Minnesota — Ghent / Lyon County
Minnesota
Engels Family — Ghent, Minnesota
Ludovica H. Engels (van Maer), widow of Vincentius Engels, became one of the largest landowners of her precinct. Migration: Groede (NL) → Atkinson (IL) → Lyon County (MN).
New Jersey — Paterson
NJ
📜Edward Van Lanschoot (1861–1900)
Belgian emigrant Edward Van Lanschoot lived at Alabama Avenue in Paterson, NJ. In December 1900 his life ended tragically on the Erie Railroad line. A later letter sent to the municipality of Maldegem records the event and mentions his widow and two young daughters.
North Dakota — Dakotas settlement Utah — WWII Veteran Australia — Gold rush
WW II
Lloyd F. Landscoot — USAT Dorchester (1943)
Crew member aboard the US Army Transport USAT Dorchester, lost during the tragic sinking of February 3, 1943. Remembered alongside the heroic Four Chaplains.
Utah
Charles Albert “Red” Van Landschoot
American Coast Guard veteran of World War II. Born on 1 August 1920 in Elgin, Illinois, he later settled in the western United States. Known by the nickname “Red,” he served in the U.S. Coast Guard during the war and later worked as a civil service operating engineer.
Australia
Marcus Landschoff — Gold Digger in Australia (1853)
Seized by the gold fever, Markus Joachim Landschoff left wife and children in Bornholm to seek fortune in the Australian goldfields. A journey marked by hardship, broken expectations, and a return home richer only in experience.
United States — External Stories
External
Frans Voongoorn — The Missing Belgian in New York (1879)
A wealthy farmer from Adegem travelled to America under an assumed name: Eduardus De Wever, listed as Frans Voongoorn. Within days of arriving in New York, he vanished — with 48,000 francs at stake. Murder, robbery, or confusion? This story is unrelated to the Van Landschoot family.
USA
Emma (Bassler) Hobaugh — Metea (1924)
Granddaughter of John Bassler × Christina Landschooft. Declared insane after four deaths in the Bassler household.
External
The Empress of Ireland — A Second Titanic (1914)
One of the worst ship disasters of the early twentieth century. The sinking of the Empress of Ireland touched migrant families from Maldegem, Watervliet, Boekhoute and Moerbeke, with survivors such as Victor Braet and Victor Van de Moere. This story is unrelated to the Van Landschoot family.
Oklahoma
Ildephonse Lanslots
Belgian missionary and international traveller whose life connected Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia. His documented trajectory includes Belgium, Oklahoma, Johannesburg and later wider missionary movements, reflected in passport records and travel documents from the early twentieth century.