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Ferdinand de Meeûs

Belgian politician (1798–1861)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 29, 2024
Entity authorityQ2440073 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ferdinand de Meeûs (1798–1861) was a Belgian banker, businessman and politician. He founded the Society for the Enlargement and Embellishment of Belgium in 1838, which attempted to promote Brussels as a capital.

Editorial summary

“Ferdinand de Meeûs” enters the record as belgian politician (1798–1861). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ferdinand, Meeûs and Belgian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1798, 1861, 1838—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1798-05-28. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Ferdinand, Meeûs and Belgian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Ferdinand de Meeûs” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ferdinand, Meeûs and Belgian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q2440073. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1798, 1861 and 1838.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ferdinand de Meeûs”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ferdinand de Meeûs primary sources, Ferdinand de Meeûs archive and Ferdinand research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ferdinand de Meeûs”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ferdinand de Meeûs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.