WHAT'S IN A NAME?

For the third time now, beginning just after Covid receded enough to allow for international travel to resume safely, we are partnering with a bright, energetic genealogist and author who specializes in the histories of many of the French families found in Central Louisiana.

It's always interesting to encounter someone who knows more about you - than you do! I'll never forget the story a brother of mine from the Marine Corps shared with me:

His parents are of Irish descent, and he told me about his first visit to the village where his father was from. As he walked around, people kept stopping him, recognizing him as one from a local family line. Indeed, they knew more about his family history than he did!

*

It has been an incredible experience to travel with Cathy Sturgell through France, Belgium, and Germany and have her tell the stories of families - and the events that caused them to immigrate to the United States.

For example, I gained a much deeper appreciation for the people of the Rhineland- Palatinate through her explanations of the incessant warring between princes and kings, especially on the heels of the Reformation.

This series of clashes (and there were obviously many other) are known as the Thirty Years War - and were terribly bloody and brutal. Europe began to fracture as people demanded more independence through Protestantism - fighting against Catholic empires which did not want to lose power. For most peasants, craftsmen, farmers, smiths, etc., they had to follow the leanings of their ruler. And thus they and their lands and livestock became prey for invading armies.

Map from Wikipedia on the Thirty Years War - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War

It is why I hold major reservations regarding the term "white privilege" - not because I don't know about or care of the plight of slaves - but because many people today know absolutely nothing about the terrible conditions that would make so very many families leave their homes, their language, their customs, their church - and board a ship for the New World... No phones. No return flights. No Zoom calls.

This wasn't remotely the equivalent of Americans heading west during the Gold Rush or any other part of the Westward expansion, either. This was the fleeing from decades of destruction, starvation, forced conscription, and in some cases wholesale slaughter.

But as well as being horrific in terms of the sheer numbers of casualties inflicted and lives destroyed, the Thirty Years’ War was also horrific for the manner in which it was conducted. As the large number of surviving eyewitness accounts attest, this was a war of attrition, in which civilians often found themselves on the front line. Massacres such as that during the Sack of Magdeburg – the conflict’s worst atrocity, which left up to 20,000 of the city’s 25,000 Protestant inhabitants dead – were conducted without mercy. Huge numbers of refugees were also created, as neighbours were pitched against each other, and entire areas of the country were laid waste.

• an excerpt from the following article on the conflict.

I dwell on that every single time I encounter the beauty of Europe - or sit in the sweltering, wretched heat of a Louisiana summer, even with the benefit of air conditioning and the eradication of malaria and yellow fever, which killed so many who immigrated to these United States.

*

So yes, we are returning to France again...

And Cathy has made numerous connections with historians and genealogists in Europe. Our travelers have made memories of a lifetime, standing at the very baptismal font where their ancestor was christened after birth or walking down cobblestoned streets where their ancestors once did.

Thanks to that practice of infant baptism by the Roman Catholics, family records can be traced far back in time - and Cathy continues to arrange for our ability to view those very entries into old church records...

Cathy, with her finger on the records, flanked by three of our group members - and a French gentleman on the far left (who she arranged our visit with)

In fact, many of the smaller towns/churches that we have visited in the past have greeted us with a welcome committee of church staff, historians, and town residents - often with coffee, cake, and yes, wine! And Cathy penned the following email, which I'll share part of with you. It's a great bit of writing on the tour - and the both of us:

My name is Cathy (Lemoine) Sturgell. I'm attaching a brochure advertising a 2-week trip to France (Journeys in Genealogy 2026) that's scheduled for September of this year on which I'll serve as the genealogist - a passion I've pursued for 40 years. This is our third tour of this type since 2021; Randy Décuir traveled with us on the first two tours as a genealogical contributor and other Avoyelles residents traveled with us also. The tour is being administered/managed by former Avoyelles resident David Campbell, proprietor of GBC Tours, who also lived part of his youth with his parents and siblings in Belgium; his Mom still lives in Moncla. His company also administered the first two tours which took us to France, Germany, Belgium and even a short jaunt into Luxembourg. David will be on the tour with us serving as guide/historian/culinary expert - three skills which he's wonderfully mastered.

Like the first two tours, this tour will also focus primarily on the French ancestral towns of Avoyelles ancestors (including some of the churches in which they were baptized and worshiped) and will include an incredible mixture of historical sites including the WWII sites in Normandy. (David was an assistant to Stephen Ambrose who wrote "Band of Brothers" and also worked with Tom Hanks researching WWII in prep for the TV mini-series on the book).  Here are some of the Avoyelles surnames whose ancestors will be covered on our tour stops: Normand, Brouillette, Moreau, Lemoine, Roy, Couvillion, Marcotte, Desselles, Gauthier, Brou, Charrier, Juneau, Désautels, Goudeau, Nus dit Laventure, Fontenot, Joffrion, Bordelon/Rolland, Roy dit Châtellerault, Rabalais, Guillory, Saucier, Rachal, Acadian ancestor towns, and towns of some of our medieval ancestors (via the Bordelon line).

This is an incredible opportunity for those who have a yearning to walk in the footsteps of our French ancestors who did so much to shape the remarkable culture that can only be found in Louisiana. We have just started advertising the tour this week and hope to fill it up quickly. However, this tour is much smaller than the previous ones so space is very limited. As of this moment, we only have 9 available spaces left. Therefore, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd pass this on to anyone who might be want to us.

So there you have it. And for those who want to take a break from genealogy at any point, there will be plenty of options to stay back and explore and enjoy numerous French villages, towns, and cities on your own - or with friends on the tour - along the way...

A plaque placed by American descendants in memory of their French ancestor who set sail for New France in 1656.

I'd like to close with a poem I found on Goodreads.com on the matter of genealogy. I'm always leery of online quotes, because so many are incorrectly attributed - and even written. But this one nails the importance of what Cathy does in a brilliant, touching way:

We are the chosen ones.

In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors, to put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow, they know and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one.

We have been called as it were by our genes,

Those who have gone before crying out to us: Tell our story! So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family? You would be proud of us! How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, they’re never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.

Excerpt from the poem The Story Tellers attributed to Della Joann McGinnis Johnson