Finding my first French family line!

If you follow my genealogy Instagram account, you might know that last fall I finally broke down one of my more persistent brick walls and found my first French family line! To make a long story short, newly digitized Belgian records revealed a marriage record for my 4x great grandparents Jacques (Jacobus) Verfaille and Sophie Hutinet which included information about Sophie's parentage which led me to her father's death record which was also part of this treasure trove of Belgian records that has recently become available online.

Simon Hutinet's death record in the Tournai municipal record books, 10 April 1801.

Simon Hutinet's death record noted his birth place as being Dampierre "ci-devant diocese de Langres (above the Diocese of Langres)" and that he was the son of Claude Hutinet and Anne Testevuide. This was incredibly useful information which was able to lead my research trail into France! After joining a few French genealogy groups on Facebook and taking a crash course in what kind of records are available, I was pleasantly surprised by how detailed the French records are and how much is digitized online for free! It wasn't long before I had found the parish records for the little village of Dampierre, and using Simon's parents names and his age at death, was able to locate a baptismal record for him.

Simon Hutinet's baptism record, Parish of Dampierre record books, 29 September 1755.

Being new to researching in both French records and Catholic records, it took me hours to come up with a transcription of this baptismal record as follows:

Le vingt neuf Septembre mil sept cent cinquante cinq a été baptise Simon né dujour preceedent, fils en ligitime mariage de Claude Hutinet meunier en Previard et d'Anne Testevuide ses pere et mere et aux pour parrain Simon Dapremont pretre frere de Dampierre represente par Dominique Testevuide son oncle maternel et pour marraine Denise Testevuide aussi sa tante maternelle fille de Nicolas Testevuide fermier de notre dame duchênes qui a declare ne savoir signee. le parrain font soussigné avec nous le pere absent.

In a rough English translation this reads: "The 29 September 1755 was baptized Simon, born the day before, son of the legitimate marriage of Claude Hutinet, miller at Previard and of Anne Testevuide, his father and mother. And for godfather Simon Dapremont Priest of Dampierre represented by Dominique Testevuide his maternal uncle, and for godmother Denise Testevuide also his maternal aunt, daughter of Nicolas Testevuide, farmer at Notre Dame du Chenes, who said she does not know how to sign. The godfather are the undersigned with the father absent." The diocesan history for Langres indicates that Simon Dapremont, born in 1725, was the parish priest in Dampierre from 1753 to 1793. The Hutinet family must have had an affinity for their young priest to both name their son Simon (presumably in his honour) and to ask him to act as young Simon's godfather.

Église Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul, photo from the Langres Tourism website.

At left is an old postcard showing Dampierre's village centre and church, Église Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul, where Simon was baptized. My research has indicated that only the nave (centre portion of the building between the steeple and chancel) would date back to the 1700s, as there were extensive renovations in 1844 which restored the steeple and enlarged the chancel area.

For someone used to researching 18th century ancestors in Canada for whom almost no records remain or 18th century ancestors in the UK for whom parish records record the bare minimum, this level of detail was so exciting! Not only does the baptismal record make note of Simon's parents' full details including his mother's maiden name, father's profession, and family residence; the record also lists the relationship between the godparents and Simon which allowed me to piece together his maternal side, the Testevuide family. Evidently Anne had both a brother and sister and was also the daughter of Nicolas who was a farmer living at the Notre Dame du Chênes farm.

With this information, the helpful Facebook genealogy community pointed me in the direction of a series of maps that Napoleon had commissioned in 1807 to create a nation-wide geographical survey with the aim of using this information to establish taxation rates. Haute-Marne, the geographic department wherein Dampierre lies, has put their maps online, so I was quickly able to find a map of what Dampierre looked like in the early 1800s and find the locations of Pré Viard (in green box) and Notre Dame du Chênes (in blue box).

Map of Dampierre with village in the centre labelled F,  Pré Viard Farm to the south west labelled and enlarged in green,
and Du Chêne Farm to the north of the village labelled and enlarged in blue.

Old post-card showing a view of Dampierre. 

The Haute-Marne area is in a rural part of France "with 40% of the [region being] either river or forest" and a low population density ranking in the bottom 10% for the whole country. The village of Dampierre was primarily centred around an agrarian economy with many small family farms. A description of a typical home in the area at the time includes a simple dwelling structure with a door, two windows and a tiled roof, a stable and barn, and an outdoor bread oven. According to "La diocèse de Langres: histoire et statistique", in 1750 Dampierre had about 420 inhabitants and was still rebuilding after suffering damage during military conflicts, an earthquake, and a plague outbreak all of which occurred in the 1600s.


Next, I wanted to find out more about what it meant for Claude Hutinet to be a miller at Previard. A Google search brought up a local dictionary/directory book published in 1858, "La Haute-Marne ancienne et moderne: dictionnaire géographique, statistique, historique et biographique de ce département". In describing the village of Dampierre, they list one of the main features being "plusieurs moulins dont l'un est appelé Pré-Viard (many mills including one called Pré-Viard)." An English-language tourism brochure for the area gives a little more information about what this mill would have been like, stating: "At the south west of the village, at the foot of the road leading to Charmoilles, at the place name 'Pré Viard', existed a water-mill until the last XIX century." These two sources indicate that the Pré Viard mill was something of a landmark in Dampierre (perhaps the most substantial mill in the village?), a waterwheel not a windmill, and that the structure is no longer standing. Simon's baptismal record gives another hint about the Pré Viard mill... his father Claude was not present at his baptism in September, a fact that is somewhat unusual but perhaps makes more sense if the assumption is made that the mill was used for cereal/grain crops in which case September was probably when Claude was at his busiest grinding the village's fall harvest.

Engraving of a waterwheel published in "L'encyclopedie, ou Dictionnarie Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers" (Diderot, Paris, 1751).

Cross-section of waterwheel published in "L'encyclopedie, ou Dictionnarie
Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers" (Diderot, Paris, 1751).

An online French travel magazine, when describing a similar watermill that is still in existence in another village in Haute Marne just thirty kilometres from Dampierre, states: "People have been working the water here since the Romans and this was once one of the pivotal businesses of the community. During the revolution, the mill was considered so important that the miller was charged an extra pig by way of taxation. . . . The mill has a rhythm and a musicality to it. It must have been hot, dusty and noisy back in the day. It must have been a wonder in technology but still back breaking work. And today, you can enjoy . . . a little glimpse of what made the heart of this community tick!" Further research into the effects of the French Revolution on millers indicates that many mills were seized and turned into cooperatives during this time, perhaps a hint towards why Simon did not follow in his father's footsteps to become the local miller and instead ended up in living in Belgium after the revolution (I am still hoping to uncover exactly when and why he made the move).

Both of these watermill engravings come from "L'encyclopedie, ou Dictionnarie Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers" edited by the famous enlightenment writer Denis Diderot and published in 1751. What makes this particularly interesting for me from a genealogical standpoint is that Diderot was born and raised in Langres, the main metropolitan centre just fifteen kilometres from Dampierre, situating these illustrations in both the right time and place to be relevant for understanding the Pré Viard mill and what it may have looked like.

Turning my attention to the Testevuide family, I started looking into the significance of the farm name "Notre Dame du Chênes (Our Lady of the Oaks)".  Research showed that "such customs as that of fixing plaques or statues of our Lady on oak-trees, or of giving these shrines titles of 'Our Lady of the Oak', were both widespread and ancient." (H.M. Gillett, "Our Lady of the Oak Tree", Life of the Spirit, 1948)

Shrine to Notre Dame du Chêne, photo from Langres Tourism website.

The Langres Tourism website gives an excellent description of the history and significance of the site: "On the territory of the old ruined Du Chêne Farm, there remains the chapel and the source of the farm's name. Tradition says that a statue of the Virgin was found in [the trunk of] an oak tree [by a bull grazing in the field]. Following this miracle, hermits settled in this place and the first chapel was built in the 12th century. Hermits lived there until the 17th century, when the chapel was bequeathed to the Discalced Carmelites. Later neglected, the chapel ended up in very bad condition and was demolished by 1788. The statue of Our Lady of the Oak was however saved. It is said that after being brought into the village and placed in the Church of Dampierre, she returned to the chapel by herself on several occasions. In 1844, the chapel was replaced by a small oratory. In its gable wall, a stone from the old chapel was encrusted. It carries this dedication: 'Here the love of Our Lady of the Oak is in your big heart, passer-by don't forget it'. The rebuilt chapel is the site of a pilgrimage every year in September."

While the image at right shows the 19th century oratory, rather than the chapel that would have been located on the farm when the Testevuide family lived there and worked the land, it gives an idea of the sort of sacred space that would have been part of their daily life. I like to imagine Simon's mother Anne growing up on this farm and perhaps taking a few minutes when her chores were finished to go pray in this little woodland chapel.



There is so much more information out there on this little village and the Hutinet and Testevuide families! The parish record books have been digitized back into the 1600s at least, and I have found a website that has a wealth of legal documents digitized from the 1700s including property sales, petty complaints about stray cattle, and minor children guardianships which will provide greater insight into my Hutinet and Testevuide ancestors' stories. I am looking forward to diving into more French records over the years ahead, but first I need to brush up on 18thC French script and Church Latin to be able to decipher them!