Sunday, September 28, 2008

Thomas de Mouilpied and Marie Blondel

Finally I have loaded the pictures of Thomas de Mouilpied and his wife, Marie Blondel that you can see to the left. They are fantastic photos for the age. A few cousins have several photos all from the same time frame, copies etc. We are guessing since Marie died in 1849, that the photos must have started to be taken prior to that. Also, Joseph, Thomas's son, left Guernsey around 1853. Photography was so new then, it must have been the grand thing to do because there are so many photos these cousins have. I am curious if the photo galleries that took these still have the originals back on the Island.

Thomas de Mouilpied, from the photo, was born in 1780, lived to the ripe old age of 92, and was the eighth generation from the original Nicolas de Mouilpied (approx late 1500's, as far as we now know). Thomas de Mouilpied's parents were Thomas de Mouilpied 1749-1843 and Caroline Le Lacheur. Acording to my records, Thomas had 2 brothers, Nicolas 1785-1821 and Pierre 1792-1827, and a sister Caroline 1788-1841.

Thomas married Marie Blondel ( a well known Guernsey name) and they had 7 children: Marie 1810-1891; Thomas b.1812, married Elizabeth Torode (another well known Guernsey name); Rachel 1814-1873; Jean (John) b.1816; Sophie 1818-1852; Charlotte 1821-1909, married Francis de la Mare; and Joseph 1824-1905, married Sophie Ogier (my great great grand parents). Thomas, Charlotte and Joseph were the only ones we know that had children.

Anyone else have photos to share? Can you add information to the people mentioned? Please share!
I will upload a slide show with some more photos...stay tuned

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

de Mouilpied in the Guernsey History Books

I came across this very good and old book about the History of Guernsey (click). What is interesting is the reference concludes that de Mouilpieds were not on the Island in the 1300's (we knew that) but later as a well know name in the 1700's. Of the names listed in the paragraph, half of them connect in our genealogy charts. When you get right down to it, an Island such as Guernsey probably has a high percentage of everyone being related.

The fifth name on the list is Blondel, a very old and famous name on the island. My GGGreat Grand Mother was Marie Blondel who lived with Thomas de Mouilpied in Des Vaurioufs (homes were often named in Guernsey). The Blondel name goes back to a 1204 document preserved on Guernsey with the name Blondel clearly written. More will unfold about the connection with Blondel. Any one out there descendant from Marie Blondel hearing about the famous story? Please let us know what story has passed to you.

Getting back to the History of Guernsey, it is a very interesting book and wonderful that google has it on line.

Monday, September 22, 2008

To Capitalize or Not - That Is the Question

It has been...shall we say...interesting having a name that begins with a small "de". Luckily we have a large French influence here so people aren't too weirded out by it. But go outside the safety of New Hampshire and most people don't know what to do... cross out the big "D" they just wrote even though you said "small" "de"...they hesitate, look at you for assurance and wait for more instruction. Or how about trying to figure out where to alphabetize it. Does de Moulpied go under "d" or "m"?

I can see the temptation of changing the small "d" to capital as in Demouilpied. And then there is the decision to make the "m" small. For me, I am glad I kept my name original, at least how it came to me.

Now comes the other problem. Do you put a space in between the "de" and "M" as in de Mouilpied? Or not? I can tell you the original, way back on the Mother island, is with the space separating the "de" from the "M". This list of names from a book about island life in the late 1800's has many "de" names, http://history.foote-family.com/hugo/hugod.htm This should not be confused with Victor Hugo who was actually exiled on Guernsey around the same time.

I haven't made that big of a deal about the space. I suppose I do use the space, but I don't make an issue out of it. (the small "d" on the other hand I do fuss a bit about) As you can see in the blog, there are inconsistencies about the space - it's my way of making everyone feel welcomed!

So do you capitalize the "d"? Do you have "the space"?

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Pronunciation from a Guernseyman

I received a lovely quick note from a Guernseyman named de Mouilpied. He confirmed the name translation to "of wet foot". He also said that he, and assuming most de Mouilpieds still on the Mother Island, pronounces the name "du mul pee-ay".

So there you have it, live from a Guernseyman on how to pronounce de Mouilpied. Sounds romantic, doesn't it?

Monday, September 15, 2008

How Do You Pronounce deMouilpied?

In all my some many years, I can remember only 3 teachers ever pronouncing my name correctly on the first go around. My guess is that you are in the same boat.

So how about it, how do you pronounce deMouilpied/deMoulpied? My pronunciation is sort of close to the French way. "de", I pronounce as "duh". I suppose the real french way should be pronounced "do"or "dew". (This is a great challenge doing phonetics without those little extra thingies) I definitely do not say "dee".

"Mouil/Moul" I pronounce "Moe" with the "l" being silent. If I want to have fun, I might say "Moo"

For "pied", I say the French way without the "d", "pee-ay", accent on the end. I always chuckled when a teacher would say "peed", like duh mole peed.

So here we go with acceptable close to french pronunciations: "duh moe peeay" "due moo peeay" "do mool peeay". But never "dee mole pide" or "dee mole peed".

Having fun yet?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

What Does de Moulpied Mean?

Starting with the shortest version which is prevalent in the U.S., the name maintains the beginning and the end translations. The "de" means "of" or "from" which is how the French hundreds of years ago created their last names/surnames. In my neck of the woods in New Hampshire we have a lot of French last names so I am very used to names beginning with "de".

The ending "pied" means "foot". I always thought that was kind of nice since I like to dance and took ballet which uses a lot of "pied".

Now the "Moul" takes its origins from "Mouil". I am not sure how or why that first "i" was dropped but in the East Coast deMoulpieds, it was dropped the generation after Joseph, a little over 100 years ago. The Mid West de Moulpieds also had the "i" dropped within one or two generations based on records. On one reference it's there, on the next reference it's gone.

"Mouil" is alive and well in Guernsey and other places like England and Australia as well. "Mouil" survived, according to records, from the early 1600's. Even on the island, the records get loose in their writing once you go back to the 1600's, sometimes phonetic but closer to original. The early records do show some transitioning from Mouillepied to Mouilpied.(thank goodness, imagine the length). This is also verified by cousin Deborah from Maine, who has copies of the Coats of Arms and was told by her insisting mother that the original name was spelled de Mouillepied. Personally I am fascinated how Deborah's mother knew this - had she seen the Coats before? Was it such strong pride that this information was sure to be passed down the generations? Cousin Kathy has also been to Guernsey and has copied records showing very early genealogy entrances "Mouillepied" then switching to "Mouilpied". In Addition, "Mouil" is tough to translate. Typing it in does not offer anything but other suggestions, one of which is "mouille". So I am confident that to derive meaning from the name, we need to go back to the original spelling, so "mouille" it is.

Mouille does translate into "wet", also closely associated with anchor, port, water damage, river, and spring fed. My Dad used to say moldy which prompted a yuck. But he would quickly switch to liking the thought that it meant athlete's foot (another yuck). Since he was a runner (qualified for the 1934 Olympics, but so did 6 other people) that made sense. I always thought we were on the low end of Guernsey, perhaps surrounded by swamps but luckily that is not the case. If we take the original name "Mouillepied", assume its origins are as they say on the description of the Coats of Arms, this takes us back to the area in France called Mouillepied. And voila, the area, including a lovely Chateau named de Mouillepied, is spring fed with bubbling fresh water coming out of the ground, some even feeding fountains. (by the way, I hear the Chateau is up for sale!)

So there you have it "of wet foot" relatives. Any thoughts?

Friday, September 12, 2008

de Mouilpieds in Guernsey

There is no doubt that the de Mouilpieds are from Guernsey. The Island has many birth, death and marriage records in addition to land documentation and historical reference. Though it might seem logical to research French genealogical resources, France produces absolutely nothing for the surname de Mouilpied, except the land Mouillepied as in the Chateau. The early, pre 1800's genealogical data on de Mouilpieds world wide all come from Guernsey. The White Pages has about 16 de Moulpieds listed.

The majority of de Mouilpied births occurred in St. Martins Parish, a section of Guernsey. This is where a street is name Les Mouilpied, a small section is Mouilpied (click on this and Google Map shows the section if you zoom in-cool) and 2 old homesteads are labeled deMouilpied, one dating back to 1623. St. Martins is clearly the deMouilpied Parish. A grand home stead called The Vaurioufs, owned by Thomas deMoulpied, (my great great great grandfather) is also located in St. Martins. (photos coming soon) The St. Martin's Parish church is where many deMouilpieds are buried prominently in gracious tombs. As I recall, the birth records from St. Martins Parish date back to the early 1600's and perhaps includes the 1596 reference. The records are now all kept at the Priaulx Library. There is an entire file devoted to the deMouilpied Family.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

What's In a Motto?

The de Mouilpied Coat of Arms that was passed down the family had the traditional ribbon spanning across the bottom. On the ribbon it says: Cingit Et Obstat. In addition, on the several copies obtained, there is in French the explanation: "Du Port, Seigneur de Mouillepie et de Boismasson". Remember we are surmising this Marquis, Lord of Mouillepie, but with the name Du Port, is the one who fled to Guernsey to set up shop and changed his name to deMouilpied. Actually very early birth and genealogy records on Guernsey show the early spelling of de Mouillepie often before the spelling was solidified. In addition, a cousin in Maine, Deborah deMoulpied (yes same name, but more distinguished than I) was told early in her child hood that the original spelling was Mouillepied. So interesting.

The Motto seems to not be from modern typical French, perhaps from old Occitan French or partially Latin. It certainly is several hundred years old which would fit in with the time frame of the late 1500's.

After much researching, obstat comes up more frequently to mean "obstacle, one to interfere". That makes pretty good sense if you were a knight or Marquis defending an area.

Cingit on the other hand has been very difficult to find. The only translation I can come up with is the word "scathing". I suppose this also makes sense if you were in the business of being a Marquis.

The colors of the shield also might mean something, they had to have chosen them for a reason. Blue typically means strength and loyalty and silver means peace - interesting combination.

If anyone can find out more, please let us all know!

Friday, September 5, 2008

deMouilpieds Go to England

Guernsey is a hop , skip and a jump to Britain. Guernsey has always considered England the Mother land despite its fierce independence and close location to France. So it seems obvious that there should be a lot of de Mouilpieds in England, but there really are not that many-at least the actual name.

There is a chance however that there are many deMouilpied descendants from the Mother's side in which case the surname is lost but not forgotten. My logic goes like this:

In 1939 the Germans began what would be a 5 year occupation of the Island of Guernsey. Prior to the beginning of the occupation, Britain sent ships to Guernsey to evacuate the islanders. The population was about 40,000 and it is estimated that 17,000, mostly children and women, were evacuated to England. It is logical to assume that out of 17,000, mostly women and children, that many women stayed in England, married and had offspring. Were any deMouilpieds? We would love to know!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

de Mouilpied Coat of Arms

In the left column there is a small Coat of Arms that is said to be the deMoulpied/deMouilpied Family Coat of Arms. Not to be confused with a shield, which is just the shield, or the Crest which is the top of the Coat of Arms.

Several cousins had the same exact Coat of Arms, even though the cousins had not known each other and were from distant branches. So we can assume that this Coat of Arms must be authentic.

The words that come with the Coats are in French. The owner of the Coats was Lord of Mouillepied et Boismasson. The other explanation that came with the Coats is that the name was actually Du Port, Marquis of Poncherra, when the family was in France.

Now, Lords in France were land owners. Marquis were an additional title given by the King through Letter Patents. (tracking down historical documents of the Letters Patent might confirm this. Anyone going to Paris?) A Marquis is like a Duke or Governor, usually also protecting the area. France in the 1500's had a very well established feudal system. Guernsey on the other hand, always had a semi-feudal system - No Dukes , Counts, Marquis or Knights, just Lords who were land owners.

So we have concluded that this Coat of Arms originated near the La Rochelle area since that is where there still exists the land area Bois Masson and Mouillepied. What is very interesting is the name says Du Port (of Port) which perhaps has to do with being the Marquis of La Rochelle which is a city on the water. As I had said in the first blog, we also concluded that this original Du Port fled France in the late 1500's to Guernsey ( a lot of Huguenots fled to Guernsey) and took on the name de Mouilpied in honor of from where he came.

So back to the Coat of Arms. These were often held by an individual family. Sometimes the Coats would change through marriage or through each generation. For instance, another family on Guernsey, the Blondels, have several Coats because of changing over the times. It appears that the deMouilpied Coat of Arms remained the same as far as we know. ( I think because of the cool story) Unless of course someone out there tells us all other wise. There is also somewhere "out there" a large genealogy chart, printed by hand, around 200 years old with the family Coats on the very top. More later about the motto on the Coats...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Ausie Connections

There are several deMoulpied/deMouilpied families in Australia. I know of the origins of at least one of them.

According to the lineage chart that I have (I tried like crazy to get it on line today but couldn't, hopefully tomorrw) Jean (John) deMouilpied was first to go to Australia (and had a twin, Thomas). His birth year was 1822 and I have a death year of 1886. Jean' s parents were Nicolas deMouilpied, b. 1791, and Rachel Martin. Jean's older brother was the Nicolas who went to South Dakota and Wisconsin and became the Mid-West deMoulpied branch. Pretty adventuresome brothers.

According to my records, John (Jean) married Emma Sterling and both are buried in Minyip. They had one son (maybe more) Henry William deMouilpied b. 1859, married Mary Jane Bennett b.1869. Both buried in Nhill.
They had a son Henry John deMouilpied b.1888 who married Eva Olive Harris b 1891.

It gets a little fuzzy around here. Perhaps someone can help me out. Looks like Henry John had a son John de Mouilpied b. 1912 in Warracknabeal, in addition to maybe Gladys Eva deMouilpied. That would make sense having the Eva carry on. Gladys Eva married Raymond Geirge Allen b. July 7, 1913. and had lots of Allens.

John had a daughter Evie whom I visited in Australia. So we were related going way back to the common grandparent of the Nicolas (1721) mentioned in the second paragraph. This is just a start. Let me know if you fit in somewhere here. Cheers!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Mystery in Maine

Four weeks ago I joined cousin Kathy and Deborah, who's from Maine, to go to Gaspe, Canada to finalize information about Joseph and his early life. While in Maine, I revisited my notes about a lineage there that I would like to clarify.

Starting with Joseph, he had 6 children - Emily Sophia, Sophia Hamelin, Francis Arthur, Charles, Walter and Alfred. I come from Charles, who settled in Manchester, NH.

Charles had six children - Clara, Walter (my grandfather), Maybelle, Elizabeth, Maude and Charles Kenneth. Charles Kenneth went to Maine.

Looks like Charles married an Elizabeth Pinkham and had only one daughter- Sandra. A Maine obit reads: daughter of Charles K. and Elizabeth
M.
(Pinkham) deMoulpied. Sandra was employed by Sears for
several years before retiring in 1990. She is survived
by her
three daughters, Julie A. Perkins and her husband, Kevin
of
Bucksport, Suzanne E. Brown and her husband, Bruce of
Veazie and Carol A. Hanscom and her husband, Ronald of
Brewer; six grandsons, William "BJ" Mooney, Matthew
Perkins, Daniel Hanscom, Jared and Justin Brown and
Samuel Hanscom.

What's fuzzy is it looks like Kenneth married again to an Eleanor and there is a Virgie name floating around too that I would like information on.

Any Maine cousins out there? I would love to hear from you: demoulpied@gmail.com

More later