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Re: "Huguenot" clarification, please.
Posted by: Jan (ID *****6180) Date: August 16, 2003 at 11:52:58
In Reply to: "Huguenot" clarification, please. by Helga (Schneider )Ziegler of 147

Tracing Huguenots is almost impossible to do if you approach them as a unique, cohesive group. One of the reasons is that one generation may be Calvinist, but their children may have returned to Catholicism or converted to Anglicanism. A prime example is that of Pierre Laverdure, b 1608. He was expelled in the 17th century and moved to England where he met and married a Scottish woman named Priscilla Mellanson. In order to fit into English society, he took her family name and used it for himself and his three sons. One of his sons returned to France where he converted to Catholicism and married a noble woman.

The parents and their sons went to Acadia in the mid-1600s and settled. Their progeny were all raised Catholic and most used the French spelling of Priscilla's name, Melancon. But the parents were expelled from Acadia and settled in Boston. During the great expulsion in the 1740s, all of the Melancon's were expelled. One line eventually returned, and some even went back to France. But others are all over the Caribbean and Louisiana. So looking for this family would be horrendous if you tried to label them as Scots or Brits, Huguenots, Catholics or Anglicans. They were all over the board--as were most Huguenots--and the family name changed frequently. You also won't find them on any official list of Huguenots because they weren't Huguenots for more than one generation.

There are a couple of resources, though, that may help some. The first is the Wuerttemburg Index. Most major libraries have a copy and there are some circulating through Interlibrary loan. There is also a book on the Huguenots who settled near Detroit. I don't remember its name, but it was pretty thorough.

Good luck on your search--and remember to search by nationality before religion because they might have changed their religion much more than changing their nationality.


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