Hi, Folks!
Welcome on my genealogy page! Please, note that I'm not a professional genealogist. One day, while surfing on this site, I found the tree of my French grandpa's ancestry ascending to the mid sixteeenth century... Then, I searched for my French grandma's ancestors and I could easily build up the rest of my tree.
Good reading... we might be cousins...
Take care!
For two third of a century, my only connection with what could become a genealogical tree was:
- the family motto of my grandma Jeanne Renee Rachel FOURNIER, in Old French:
"En Christ est ma Foy, pour Dieu et mon Roy"
which means: "In Christ is my Faith, for God and for my King";
- the stories she told me, about her family and her family in law;
- various handwritten booklets and scrapbooks left by some of my ancestors;
- and, like in all other families, collections of photos, drawings, sayings, etc...
It's only since December 2017, that I have started my Family Tree.
My father's family name is ranking only 3500th in its country of origin, France. With only 3600 births in the last 125 years, one would rarely meet somebody bearing our family name, even in France and in Belgium. There are less than 1,000 Lequeux families in France -the average French family has 3 persons- for a population totaling 66 million in 2018.
In archaic French, LeQueux ("le queux") meant "the cook" (in Latin: Cocuus). However the word was reserved for most excellent professional cooks. Still today, a excellent cook in French could be called "Maître-Queux" (it's only used as a compliment). At the beginning of the second millennium -around year 1000- the French kings and Norman dukes, who were also kings of England had a"Queux" serving them. Their "queux" were "Grand Queux", in charge not only of preparing their meals but also of:
- the good health of the king and the royal family
- the king's security (poisoning was current in those times)
- the protocole of the Royal Dinners and banquets
- and in modern words, the catering and the logistics of the Royal House at peace and at war times.
The "Queux" had to manage a lot of workers. It's why he was called "Chef" (in English: "Chief"). The word chef is still in use internationally.
In old and modern French, there are other words linked to the job of cook that became family names such as: Lecoq, Cuisenier, Marmiton but also Fournier (either the assistant of the chef who pushed the food in the oven -from the verb "enfourner" in old French- or the guy who owned an oven -in French: "four"- and rent it to anybody who wanted to cook food). The equivalent names are:- in English: Cook or Cooke (even LeKew in the medieval times)- in Dutch: De Koek, etc.
All these other family names linked to the trade of cooking are ranking among the most common in their respective countries.
Concerning the Lequeux's branches of my family tree, it was already available on Geneanet for me (Thanks, Cousins!), ranging from the 17th Century to my father's date of birth. I only had to complete it :
- on the one hand (the left one;-) with my knowledge of my own family, which was told me by my paternal grandma and with some updated data from 1925 until now;
- on the other hand (the right one:-), for the period ranging from the end of the 10th Century to the 16th Century, with the results of the quest and researches I made at the French National Archives via Geneanet and at the Archives of the Public Library of San Francisco, CA. However, without all what my grandma had told me, I wouldn't have the necessary understanding... however, some chronicles somehow put things upside down!
The earliest periods (from 1200 to 1300) of our family history was marked by the feudal war between the Plantagenets who had inherited the Crown of England from the late dukes of Normandy and the French Royal Family. My direct ancestors (Guillaume Lequeux and his son Richard) had to choose between their allegiance to the successors of the Dukes of Normandy and their loyalty to the King of France. I've tried to find interactions between all my direct ancestors in the chronicles.
Then, from the 13th to the 16th centuries, my direct ancestors progressively moved South, first to Paris, then to the Province of Burgundy, holding various Royal charges. In the 16th Century, they settled in villages around the main City of Chateau-Chinon. I don't know why... Probably it was because another feudal war had started between the Duke of Burgundy and the French Dynastic Family.
On the contrary, my paternal grandma's family name, Fournier, is most common, both in France and in North America. It's ranking 21st among the French family names in France and the Fourniers are many hundred thousands. My Fournier direct ancestors are from Orleans, France. They dwelt uninterruptedly in the close vicinity of the City of Orleans for half a millennium. My childhood was marked by my granny's stories about Saint Joan of Arc (1400-1432) and the Fournier brothers who were her esquires. Many historical writings about them reported their actions in the villages of Sandilllon, Sully-sur-Loire, Jargeau, etc. All my Fournier direct ancestors were born in these borroughs
My FOURNIER branches rooted in the middle of the 17th Century when a certain Pierre FOURNIER left France for Canada as a captain of the French Royal Marines ("la Compagnie des Franches Marines") and founded Isle d'Orléans, PQ while another Pierre FOURNIER, his half-brother and my direct ancestor remained in his home City of Orleans, France.
I didn't dig deeper than the end of the 16th Century as I don't recognize the history of my family in the chronicles of the many FOURNIERs of these ancient times.
It is commonly accepted that our name derives from the old French "queux" meaning cook in English or Koek in Dutch. However, this word was always used with "Maistre". Still today, a good chef is a "maître queux".
Grand-Queux was also a title of nobility in the medieval times. The first Grand-Queux de France was my ancestor Petrus COQUUS (Peter LEQUEUX in Latin) Grand Queux of King Hugues the Great, founder of the French Capetians Dynasty.
But there could be other possibilities....
As most of the Lequeux live in the North of France, and more precisely at the borders of Germany (the region of Toul), it is interesting to study the ancient history of this region. Before all, let's notice that, at the time of Julius Caesar, in this region of Ardennes -Toul is the main city- the name of the Gallic tribe was: the "Leuques".Ref.: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuques It is still in this area that the the name LEQUEUX is the most common.
The tribe of Leuque, which means light, was "in charge" of the protection of the borders of Gaules against the german tribes. When the Romans invaded Gaule, the Leuques were allied with Caesar because the other gallic tribes were facing non-stop rivalries between them. After the conquest of the Gaules by the Romans, the Leuques were integrated in the Roman Legions and they remained the best warriors protecting the Empire against the barbarian invasions.
This part of our ancient history was discovered only recently, mostly thanks to the Leuques's coins representing, on one side their "mother-wolf" -like the Romans, the tribe said they were founded by a mother-wolf who adopted Leuques's babies- and on the other side, the emperor.
Of course, centuries passing, the Leuques settled in other regions of France.
My ancestors Lequeux are from Burgundy, one of the biggest province of France. More precisely, they lived in the forest sub-region of Mounts Movan.
Although I found my grandpa's tree almost already built up to the mid-seventeeth Century... it was a kind of dead tree. I had to add sap to get it alive again... So I added my family's souvenirs and traditions and stories my grand'ma told me (her family name is Fournier). I also corroborated these infos with the documents I could find, and specially thanks to my "premium" subscription. Here's my methodology:
First Phase:I concentrated my studies in a small area around Château-Chinon, a kind of five-mile-diameter circle, in which my ancestors lived for near 400 years.
I could go up to the mid-15th Century.
Second Phase:The objective of the second phase was to trace the family "migration" from Paris to Sens, The most Northern important city of Burgundy; and then farther South to Nevers, Avallon and Château-Chinon. The total distance is less than 150 miles.
My intention was not to dig deeper in the family roots but only to trace my ancestors and understand what were their jobs, their daily life, etc.
I could reach year 1000 (approximately).
Credits for the maps above: Google Maps
When my grandpa Louis LEQUEUX left his native Morvan and Dun-sur-Grandry (i.e. "the dune above the grand rivlet" in Old French), he moved to Orléans, met and marry my grandma Jeanne Rachel Fournier.
Just like the LEQUEUXs, these FOURNIERs remained for centuries in the surrounding of Orléans. The family tradition says that their ancestors where the brothers Fournier, esquires of Saint Joan of Arc. Effectively, old writings do relate that many FOURNIERs were companions of Joan and that they were from small villages in the vicinity of Orléans: Sully-sur-Loire, Jargeau, Sandillon, etc.
Unlike for the LEQUEUXs, the partial trunks I found on Geneanet stopped in the mid-eighteenth Century. I used the same method for searching ancient documents : I concentrated my studies in the very tiny areas around Orléans including the villages quoted above.
My FOURNIER's branch were poor. They had no armories but an old family motto, in Old French, that my grandma Jeanne transmitted us:
"'En Christ est ma Foy, Pour Dieu et mon Roy".
Of course, the FOURNIERs massively emigrated to the Americas. I could trace the very moment when my family branch split in two: it was with the two sons of Jacques FOURNIER. The elder left for Canada and founded, with his community, the "Isle of Orléans" in Québec Ville while the cadet remained in Orléans, France... It was a moment of tremendous emotion for me: Last time I went to Québec and visited the Montmorency Falls, I didn't imagin that Isle d'Orléans was founded thanks to one of my ancesters.
Of course, it wolud be interesting to search if this Jacques FOURNIER de BELLEVAL belonged to other FOURNIERS branches who were ennobled by the successive Kings of France. Maybe I'll do it sometimes in the future. However it would be a pretty hard task as FOURNIER is among the top twentieth family names in France, compare to LEQUEUX which is ranking beyond the 2500th.
By the way, FOURNIER was the name of a metier in the middle ages ."Four" means oven: the "fournier"'s job was to place the food in the oven. the "fournier" was also the owner of the oven.
I would like to start this paragraph by a funny anecdote.
You know, my last name LEQUEUX is quite unpronounceable in English... The first time I passed the Australian emigration officer, I answered to her question "How do you pronounce your name?":
"You know, you may call me John COOK. And I'm James COOK's son!"... Well my father's first name is Jacques (James) and LEQUEUX means COOK... She said : "Wow, Mr COOK, welcome in Australia!" (as you know, Australia was discovered by Captain James COOK.
Between the 15th and the 17th Centuries, there were three terrible wars:
- The end of the one-hundred-years war between France and England, which was actually a feudal war between the King of France and the Duke of Normandy;
- Followed by another feudal war between the ducal dynasty of Burgundy and the reigning dynasty in Paris;
- The third is the Civil and Religious War between the Catholics and the Protestants.
Of course, the FOURNIERs were at the center of the first two (that explains our FOURNIER's family motto) and my branch of LEQUEUXs was impacted by the third one.
Then, in the 16th Century, the religious war between the Protestants and the Catholics impacted the whole population of France. It may explain, however partially, why many members of my family moved from the main cities of Avallon and Château-Chinon to small villages lost in the forest of Mounts Morvan... Corbigny, just 12 hour-walk from Montigny-en-Morvan was an important Protestant Center in Burgundy.
The protestants lost all their Royal charges, such as: judges, Royal attorneys, Royal provosts, etc. Protestants had to hide for their survival. They became farmers. Then, they accepted to return to Catholicism.
Approximately, from one third to one half of the Lequeuxs we're protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Of course, one of the consequences of the religious wars in Europe was immigration to America... It was the case of the Lequeuxs of Charleston, South Carolina.
There are many chronicles about the protestants of the Lequeux's family in Paris and specially concerning Abraham Lequeux. I've tried to describe this branch in my family tree.
Concerning the FOURNIERs, all those of my branch are Catholic, and so am I, however with special links with Protestantism for me.
Then, by the end of the 18th Century, the French Revolution has brought its shares of perturbances both in the register of familial acts and in the liberalization, ... I would say libertariation... of morals, so that even some individuals became libertarians 🙄
Then came the 19th Century with its adventurers... And these men sailed all over the planet in search of gold or materials for trading, or longing for another way of life. All of them did search for better fortune. Let me tell you that I'm really proud to be one of their offshoots😎!
Further readings in French, on the Burgundese Protestants:
https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/lieux-de-memoire-en-bourgogne/
https://huguenots-france.org/france/bourgogne/bourgogne.htm
TRAM and WYNN are mine and BONNIEL-BOUVIER-NGUYEN are my wife Lynette's.
These two family names concern my maternal grandma. They have been vietnamized to:
- HUYNH for WYNN
- TRAM for... TRAM
Both are considered as Patronymic Names of foreign origin by the Vietnamese.
Both have their roots in the South East of France.
At the end of the 20th Century NGUYEN became... the 50th family name in France!
The rooky genealogist who I am is facing two major difficulties:
- the first one is specific to the NGUYENs: 20% of the Vietnamese patronymic names are NGUYEN! The reason is due to the adoption of the last Dynastic family name by an important part of the population although there could be strictly no connection between most of them. I could get around this issue by adding ở after NGUYEN followed by the home City of the family branch concerned (pronounce "eu" in French, which means "from" in Vietnamese). This personal workaround helps a lot to distinguish the different families of the tree.
- the second problem is general to Vietnam: there were no registers in the old times! Luckily, the habits linked to the Cult of Ancestors, even among the Christian families although they have their acts of baptism, allows the preservation of the souvenirs of people and events in the family's memory... however in a time range completely specific to each family. Anyway, the NGUYEN name concerns mostly contemporaneous individuals in my tree.
For all the other family names of my tree, I use the "Notes" dedicated in the individuals' profile. Remarks on the family names, when necessary, are written in the space of the first ancester bearing the concerned Patronymic name.
A - A living treeWHEN FAMILY STORIES MEET HISTORY
As written above all family stories from my FOURNIER ancesters always focused on Joan of Arc, but those from my LEQUEUX ascendants focused on King Louis 9th, the Saint. It was said one of our ancestors was a crusader but without any precision. I'm sure my dad always had in mind that Saint Louis founded the military corps he had served all his life: the French Corps of Provosts. But he was not talkative and never said much about these stories. It's only when I decided to complete our Family Tree that I realized that my direct ancester Jehan Louÿs LEQUEUX is the very one character of all our family portraits who fits with the stories I was told when I was a kid.
Dad has gone now for 20 years. On Feb 23rd, 2018 my eldest daughter Judy and I visited the baby tree planted for him in the park of the Internationsl Campus of the University of Paris. It's a Sophora Japonica planted for him, at the boundary of the City of Gentilly. The day we visited the baby tree, it was freezing cold. I took off the day after for a long journey in Japan and the Okinawa Islands.
Of course, the souvenir of my dad was in our minds.
I'll come back at spring time when it will have all its leaves. This kind of tree, also called "the Japanese Honey Tree "will grow very high, but it takes dozen of years.
CONSEQUENCES OF WARS IN MY FAMILY
Wars did have impacts and long-lasting consequences on many persons of my family, and me for one🙃.
However, I was the happy exception for my parents meet together in the raging and endless VN war!
The most sorrowful case was during the War of Religion in France between Catholics and Protestants. The family was parted as some protestants of mines had to emigrate in England, Holland and Germany, while those remaining in France had to hide in the forestial mounts such as those of Morvan. Finally, almost the totality of the last had to abjure their faith, just to survive.
I've traced the period when it happened: from the mid-16th Century to the mid-18th Century!
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B - Of sociology and history over the centuries
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C - About my illustrations
I've linked all my sources to each individual, either as a scanned JPEG doc, or as a link to an URL. However, as Web wites and HTML pages are not stable at all, most of the times I linked both the Web page and an electronic doc. Moreover, I'm trying to show some landscapes or representations of the existing monuments of my ancestors' hometowns.
Finally I could trace my Lequeux ancestors back to 975, at the times of Hugues CAPET who was the founder of the French Royal dynasty reigning until 1848. Pierre LEQUEUX was the personal cook of King Hugues the Great, with one of the most high rank of officer in the court because he was in charge of the King's good wealth, care and security (regarding foods). Pierre's successive inheritors had important charges at the service of the kings of France until the mid-sixteenth century, so I could find their traces in historians' writings. But, I could not find any documents dated before the times of King Hugues.
However, reading again the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, after searching thouroughly the abundant literature related to the Kingdom of Avallon, I realized that there was a Knight Queux, in French -called Sir Kay in the Scottish Version, Knight Cai in Welsh and also Keu it Keux by other Gaelic Nations- who was supposed to live in the 5th or 6th Century. In the legend, Knight Queux (or Sir Kay) was King Arthur's foster brother and the King's Seneschal. In the legend, he had a coat of arms, like all the other knights of this medieval tale.
Wikipedia articles in French and in English:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Kay
......
Are King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table a pure myth? Or was it a myth generated by a forgotten reality? Several studies conducted by historians demonstrate that the myth is based on real facts:
I🌳 ...The different ways to build a tree...🌲
Of course, there's the biblical way, like in Saint Matthew I, 1:
John, son of James, son of Peter, son of Richard, son of William, etc.
...and the way we do it now, with tools like Geneanet and Google and the necessary minimum knowledge of the concerned family.
II🧮 ...Mathematics
As we know, the number of direct ancesters that anyone of us has, at N generations before is: 2 power N, i.e.
- for 10 generations (250 years): 1,000... one thousand
- for 20 generations (500 years): 1,000,000.... one million
- for 30 generations (750 years): 1,0000,000,000.... one billion
It means, that mathematically any individual living in 2000 should have one billion direct ancestors in 1250!
III📈...Statistics...📉
In other words anybody having one French parent in the 21st Century is.... a (potentially) direct descendant of Hugues CAPET, the founder of the last French Royal dynasty! It is not wrong. However, as not 0.1% of the French patronymic names are Capet (see the example of the Vietnamese NGUYENs above), it is necessary to think in terms of Statistics.
I mean: France has a little less than 70 millions inhabitants at the beginning of the 21st Century; if your family name concerns 3,500 individuals in 2000.... then, a man or a woman bearing your family name in 1250 IS your direct ancestor because the French population at that time was about 10 millions persons versus the one billion ancestors of yours in 1250 😀.
The issue is not "is he or she my rear-rear...to the power N my grandpa or grandma!?". The real issue is: "which is the way, in our family tree, which leads to him or her?"🤔
In the same way, it is highly probable that more than 75% of French people have King Hugues the Great (founder of the Capetians Dynasties of the kingdom of France and via the Bourbon Family, of the monarchies of Naples and Sicily, Spain, Portugal and Brazil) among their ancestors. The following site is dedicated to those who are concerned:🙄
And once again, the game is to find the ways leading to King Hugues: there could be much more than one possibility like choosing the paths to climb on the summit of a peak from the valley.
References: Demography in France through ages
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_d%C3%A9mographique_de_la_France
But, remember: it's only statistics! As a lot of branches are extinct now... claiming a direct descendancy from whatever the king or emperor remains ... just a claim! And anyway... it really doesn't matter!
IVψ...Psychology...ψ"'
I was really surprised to learn that a new Branch of Psychology, called Psychogenealogy was launched by Professor Anne Ancellin Shutzenberger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Ancelin_Sch%C3%BCtzenberger
I'm writing these lines in mid-May 2018 and have started my genealogical project six months ago, covering 1000 years from the times of King Hugues to today. To be true, I knew quite almost all data I've typed in my tree through my grandmas. I only worked hard on the chronologies and.... on finding the historical writings concerning my ancestors that I could find in the French, Canadian and American Archives.
I must say that the psychological facets of genealogy were not evident for me. However, I realized that the following events have haunted my dreams since I was a kid: the French war of religion in the 16th Century, the slaughter of Saint Bart Day (August 24th 1572) the fate of my Huguenot ancestor Lazare, SOSA#2048 (was he killed or did he take refuge in London and did he found another family; and if he did so, did his descendants emigratedto Charleston, South Carolina around year 1710?).
I reckon that, when choosing King James' Version for my personal Bible 50 years ago (although I'm an active Roman Catholic) was not neutral regarding my psycho traumas
When analyzing the last six months, several other hints of psychogenealogical causes are appearing: it's about the way I do understand my ancesters' acts. But maybe, it is because there are many analogies with my own dad.
V🌍...Geography...🌏
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VI- ...History
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VII📖....Religion
Here's the fifth one of the ten commandments in the Book of Exodus (20-8):
— Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Isn't it honoring one's ancestors to trace their lives and their achievements❓
VIII...Aptonyms...👨🍳!...👩🌾👨🔧👩💼👨💻👩🎨👨✈️👩🚀👨🚒👮♀️🕵️♂️💂♀️👷♂️
In my tree, concerning the Lequeux Branches, aptonymy applied only to the medieval times because my ancestors' patronym was the word that referred to their profession at those times, but their descendants did not continue in this profession.
The last Lequeux who was Chef Cook of the King of France was Guy Lequeux during the reign of Louis 9th King of France
However, time to time I do find, on the Net or in newspapers, a Lequeux practising the job of cook... 😉
For the other branches, I can only dig back to the 15th century for the Fournier Branch and only for the best back to the 17th century for the other branches. I don't find any aptonyms in my tree.
IX🍇...Vinery...🍾🥂🍷
I'll always remember this Business Meeting in Chicago, where my host introduced me as "Mr Gin Liquor" 🤣...
🤔I reckon my family name is difficult to pronounce because it's built on the word "le queux" from the Medieval French (in phonetics: "ləkə:") —even no more in use today in France — ... so difficult that the old Street of Guy Lequeux on Paris, quoted above, was misspelled "rue Gît le Cœur"!
Back to my funny experience in Chicago, I told my partners to simply call me Jack Cook... Years after, I'm wondering how many of my French ancestors were wine growers or vine traders. The answer is: MANY! I marked their profiles with the following emojis: 🍇🍾
X🧬...DNA...🧬
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XI🗄️🗃️📂📚📄...Aministrative Acts
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XII🛡️... Heraldry
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XIII♾ ...Heredity?
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XIV...FOM (Family's Oral Myths):🦜or🕵️♂️?
A close friend of mines told me that, in his country, genealogy is totally oral. The griot of the tribe is in charge of maintaining alive their ancestors' memories. Actually, it was the same in the Eurpean Middleages: the bards had the same social role. Both griots and bards are at the same time story tellers, historians, poets and... counselors of the kings.
Personally, I consider that a genealogical graph without oral heritage is a tree without sap! Yet family oral tradition conveys also familial myths🙄...
But it's up to everyone not to repeat one's grandparents' sayings, like a parrot and to investigate and search for the right papers related to the events 🕵🏻♀️.
XV...How your ancestors looked like?
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XVI...Gene & Art Logics?
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This chapter is really a scrapbook! I'll try to write down all remarks, ideas, "discoveries" I made while searching and digging the past of my family and lives of my ancesters.
1- ...About the spelling of family names
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2- ...Most favorite first names
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Will I ever finish this family book? I don't know But my conclusion will remain the same.
So let me share with you the following words from the Book of Qohelet in my old King James Version of the Bible:
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow
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