To : CHANNEL-ISLANDS-L@rootsweb.com
Subject : [CI] Re: VAUMOREL and "noms de sieurie" in Normandy
Date : Wed, 15 May 2002 22:31:31 +0200
Tony,
your satisfaction to discover the surname CHOUET has more to do with a bird of pray than with ...cabbage (!) is something I do understand (in spite of a personal taste for sauerkraut, served with some little wine, but let's be serious...) !
I also share, to a certain extent, your opinion about a place called VAUMOREL in the same area as the hamlet LONGTHUIT in Seine-Maritime. Yet, as you know, the fact someone's surname also is a place name doesn't mean the person comes from there.
I managed to find again the pages about the "noms de sieurie" in the Manche (and in St Malo, Brittany). Things were perhaps different in the area of Rouen or Yvetot. I haven't heard of an equivalent job made for the other norman départements.
The author recalls that, contrary to the Middle-ages, when man used to give his name to his land, in the 16th - 18 th c., it is the land that gives its name to the owner.
Nevertheless, according to the société d'archéologie et d'histoire de la Manche that published these 50 pages in 1985, in certain situations, a "nom de sieurie" could have no real link with the place where a family lives, for several reasons :
- certain families deliberately changed their surname. Some of them took the name of a land they possessed, maybe the biggest or the most prestigious one, or another one (for they usually had a main land name, and several others, used if necessary). There was no regulation about these changes, until the "ordonnance" of march 26th, 1556 - special for Normandy. Then, people had to ask the king for the permission to change their name (it ends in the 2nd half of the 17th c.).
If the family moves to another place, the new family name (= the "nom de sieurie") moves too.
- the land name can change : for instance, the new owner "brings" with him the "nom de sieurie" he used in his previous residence and gives it to his new land (he's not obliged to keep the name his new possession had before) ;
normally, when the owner sells the land, he must abandon the "nom de sieurie" to the next landlord. But he sometimes keeps it (by contract or not) until he dies.
On the other hand, certain families sell their estate, except a small piece of ground, in order to keep the "nom de sieurie" they're known with.
The booklet confirms that the land name was, in the 18th c. above all, the usual name for persons of the upper -and middle- classes, the family name being rarely used. At this time, the land names even tend to become a part of the family name : for example, a Mr Guérin sieur du Longpré, can be called Mr.Dulongpré, or Mr. Longpré-Guérin, etc., in official documents.
- the "sieurie" could be fictive : for instance, a person (a surgeon, a law man, for ex.) wanted to imitate the customs of the nobleness and the bourgeoisie, and took a "nom de sieurie"... without having any land.
If someone is interested, the references of my source (in French) are :
"Patronymes et noms de sieuries - Sur quelques usages de la Manche du XVIème au XXème siècles", Société d'archéologie et d'histoire de la Manche, publications multigraphiées, fascicule 62 ; postal adress : BP 600 - 50010
SAINT LO CEDEX (France). Same address is the Archives départementales. I don't know if they still have some for sale (the price was 15 FF = about 1 € ).
Hope these info. can help, for I know these "noms de sieurie" allways arouse a certain curiosity...
Bonne soirée !
Agnès QUIROGA VASSELIN, Versailles (France)
To : CHANNEL-ISLANDS-L@rootsweb.com
Subject : [CI] Re: Origination of French Names
Date : Wed, 15 May 2002 03:12:33 +0200
Encore moi !
Apart what I wrote about the origin of the surnames CHOUET, VAUMOREL and LANGUETUIT, I can underline that, before the Revolution, the use of the family name in Normandy was not as rooted as now.
First of all, the use of a family name becomes general only between the 11th and the 13th c. Before, people were named by a christian name, sometimes followed by a place of origin.
In the Journal written by a norman noble of the 16th c., historians identified up to 12 different ways to call the same person (not a farm servant, of course). As a matter of fact, the author himself is known under the name of his land (Gilles de Gouberville, or "le sire de Gouberville"...) and absolutely unknown as Gilles Picot !
Even in the mid-18th, if a land name sometimes follows the family name, it might replace it too : I found in bapt. certificates a Mr Picquechef, sieur des Crouttes, mentionned as "Mr des Crouttes Pichef " or simply "Mr des Crouttes". The land name, normally, is not transmitted as a family name to the children. But I read somewhere that, when the father dies, the oldest son adds to his surname the name of the main land of the family (used by his father before), the other sons using names of less important lands.
Maybe 10-15 years ago, a technical booklet was published by the archives départementales de la Manche (St Lô, Normandy) about these land names we call "noms de sieurie".
In the norman sales contracts, a piece of land is nearly allways identified with a name. But the owner doesn't allways use a "nom de sieurie". That is to be checked, but MAYBE, it depends on the statute of the land (noble or not).
As far as your ancestors CHOUET de VAUMOREL are concerned, I suppose the family name CHOUET was less used than de VAUMOREL that might be originally a land name, and after a while, was replaced by this one.
Agnès QUIROGA VASSELIN,
Versailles (France)