curiosity about this young couple - what did they look like how did they meet - possibly at church, I thought. It was a wonderful experience. Saturday was a day for last minute sightseeing and saying farewell to a beautiful week in my lifea wonderful spiritual experience. I will never forget Amsterdam! After my return from Amsterdam in 1986, I wrote to the Protestant Society in Paris and found a researcher, Pasteur Denis Vantil of Poiters, France. He knew the MAUPIN family was from Normandie but could find no information on Gabriel. This is his answer on Marie, "I think I can identify your ancestor, Marie Hersent. She is said to have been from Rouen at the time of her marriage in Amsterdam in 1691. However, there was not a single baptism, marriage or death in the name of Hersent found in the Protestant state register in Rouen. The indication "from Rouen" signified that she came from the church of Rouen and not necessarily that she was born there. I have found a Marie Hersent who was born in Guevres near Dieppe and baptized at the temple of Luneray on Sept. 15, 1664. She was the eldest daughter of Louis Hersent and Marie Pillon. What led me to her identity was finding the marriage of her cousin, Francois Marie, witness to her marriage. Francois Marie was born in 1641 and married in Rouen December 3, 1682 to Marguerite Chapperon who was the daughter of Pierre Chapperon and Marguerite LARCHEVASQUE. Louis Hersent, Marie's father, was the son of David Hersent (1600-1671) and Anne LARCHEVASQUE. Marguerite and Anne were therefore closely related, sisters or cousins. The Hersent family of the region of Dieppe were craftsmen, shoemakers, rope makers, cloth makers and weavers. The mother of Marie Hersent, Marie Pillion, belongs to a family of rather wealthy laborers. Her father, Pierre Pillon, was as well as a laborer, a manager of the workers of Marfauville and of Coudry. That is to say he received taxes from the peasants for his employers. In 1681 the Protestants being excluded from all offices Pillon had to resign". Then Pasteur suggested that I inquire at the Central Genealogy Bureau at Le Hague. This I did with no new results. I then wrote to the Archives of Abbeville and Rouen and they each answered in the same way that Protestant records were very few and those available were not indexed making them very difficult to locate. Neither of these Archives could identify the town or village of "GARGAU" that Gabriel had said he was from on the records in Amsterdam. The answer to that puzzle was still in the future. PARIS - April 1988 In April 1988, I went to Paris for 8 days to research or to find someone to do it for me. Before going I had written to the Protestant Society in Paris, giving them the name of my hotel and asking to employ a researcher or someone to act as my guide and spokesperson while there. I asked at the hotel if there were messages for me and being none, called the phone
46
number of the Society and getting no answer, went to their address. The door was locked - no response. This was very disappointing. So, I went out on my own. Before going further, this explanation needs to be given in credit to the Society. After I returned from Paris, they sent me a letter making an apology for what had happened. Their Society, like many here, is staffed by volunteers. Somehow, my letter had been picked up by someone and got put aside not being opened until I had left Paris. Also during the days I was there, they had been closed for a I ittle renovation. I understood the situation and want to explain what happened and to say that I have the highest praise for the Society -they have been most helpful a number of times with suggestions and researchers. Even though I had been to Paris in 1985 it was with the Huguenot Tour so this was different! Armed with a city map and using the METRO, I found getting around Paris quite easy and fun - even alone! The National Library was a challenge. As a foreign visitor you are limited to two days at the library. It took about 2 hours to be admitted. First there is a vtait for a personal interview as to the reason and purpose of the visit. Then you are photographed and given a card that looks like a driver's license. It is all for security reasons. I found nothing there on the Maupins that I did not already have. On my visit to their National Archives I found the Archivist to be helpful. She could speak English. I showed her the information I had with me - they had both histories written by de Gorgue and de Belleval. I explained that the purpose of my trip was to document the tradition of Gabriel Maupin's parentage. Dr. Socrates Maupin, the earliest historian gave no hint whatsoever of the parentage of Gabriel in his writings from 1837 to his death in 1871. The article in the Virginia Magazine in 1901 and in William Harris Miller's "Histories and Genealogies" in 1907 also did not give a clue. It appears for the first time in the writing of Eugene Maupin in the late 1920's. This is what Eugene wrote under the title "TRADITIONS" -Quote "The first written records concerning the family are those dealing with Firmin le Maupin, Squire of Bouvacque in Navarre. His wife was Jean d'Aibisse and he was a member of Parliament about the middle of the 16th century. He had a son, Ambrose, and a daughter, Genevieve le Maupin. There is a record of the marriage of this daughter to John de Poussemothe, the marriage taking place in Paris, September 30, 1549. Tradition takes over this written record and says that Ambrose de Maupin, son of Firmin le Maupin, had a son, Amos, who is supposed to have been the father of Gabriel Maupin". End of quote. I had carried with me to the Archives a copy of this French genealogy of the de POUSSEMOTHE family which gives the marriage of Genevieve le Maupin, daughter of Firmin le Maupin, Sieur (owner) of Bouvacque (which is in Ponthieu and not Navarre) and his wife Jeanne d'Aibisse. The Archivist had this
47
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