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Archiver > ENGLISH-FENS > 2009-05 > 1242669524


From: Kathryn Marsh <>
Subject: Re: [ENG-FENS] Walloons and/or Huguenots at Thorney
Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 18:58:44 +0100
References: <30134502.1242607295355.JavaMail.root@mswamui-cedar.atl.sa.earthlink.net><EF489907-BAE5-4186-945F-92DFACFDFE3C@iol.ie><C596F946DAF545E69881C78B3316ACC6@mom>
In-Reply-To: <C596F946DAF545E69881C78B3316ACC6@mom>


On 18 May 2009, at 15:27, Liane Fenimore wrote:
> The concern is not correct spelling since it varied so much in the
> 1600s. But one might expect a vicar with 3 university degrees [and
> who knew Latin and Greek, and may have familiarity with French] to
> make a better stab at it than perhaps the parish clerk upon whom all
> these foreigners descended. Thus if the person recording the
> marriage heard someone say 'de bo' or 'de boo,' they wouldn't write
> Dubois. Conversely, why would someone hearing Dubois write Deboo?
>
> I believe it was the French speaking, and perhaps French born,
> clergymen who translated Debo/Deboo into Dubois.

I would expect an English born and educated clergyman to hear what he
expected to hear and since, at this date, any educated Englishman
would have been familiar with French but not with Walloon the
likelihood is that he would not hear a Walloon name accurately. I had
an interesting multilingual conversation in a shop in Luxembourg not
long ago about the way that both French and German visitors tend to
hear and answer in their own languages when they hear Lëtzebuergesch
and I've heard the same said about French and Walloon in the past in
Wallonia. And one member of our shop discussion group made exactly
that point in Walloon.

Unless the French church records turn up, or unless someone manages to
track down individuals in Huguenot France I can't imagine the question
will ever be solved

But I wish you all good fortune - and if someone does manage to find
me a mysterious French ancestress in Thorney I will be eternally
grateful. There certainly isn't one in the surviving Lawson records in
Thorney but those Lawsons can't have sprung out of nowhere

kathryn

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