The House of Bethune

In an earlier post, I connected my ancestor, Louis de Waudripont, with a minor noble family called the House of Waudripont. Connecting with one branch of nobility often leads to finding more of them. Digging deeper, I uncovered a few new branches containing half-dozen Crusaders and one family line that goes back to Charlemagne. This post focuses on the lineage of Mahaut de Bethune, an … Continue reading The House of Bethune

Noblesse Oblige

Two intriguing mysteries have finally been solved. For quite some time, I had been fascinated by the ancestry of two of my 18th-century Belgian forebears, Louis De Wadripont and Maria De Backer. They were not ordinary brick walls in genealogical research, and their origins remained a mystery until last night. Louis and Maria, who married in 1794, piqued my curiosity with their elusive lineages. My … Continue reading Noblesse Oblige

My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 4

After publishing last night, I found yet more books at Google Books that hold new information regarding my ancestor, the insurrectionist, Jan Van Coppenolle. Thanks to the (new?) translation feature in Google Books, I could quickly decode the data from Latin and French. According to Nouvelle Collection Des Mémoires Pour Servir À L’histoire de France (1853) Ed. Joseph Fr. Michaud The pension amount paid to … Continue reading My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 4

My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 3

Thanks to the translation feature in Google Books, I was able to learn new information about my ancestor the insurrectionist, Jan Van Coppenolle. He is a 14th great-grandfather on my father’s side who lived and died in the later half of 15th century. Jan is known in some historical accounts as the “Demagogue of Ghent” as he was the bourgeois dictator of that city for … Continue reading My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 3

More on the Montécheroux BMD Records

Montécheroux is a small village in eastern France near the Swiss border. My father’s great-great-grandparents, Jean Baptiste Francois Xavier Gaume and Marie Elise Favier, were born there in the early 19th century. Elise’s mother’s ancestors had lived in the village since at least the late 17th century. Before the French Revolution, the town was part of the seigneury of Clémont and was ruled by the … Continue reading More on the Montécheroux BMD Records