French Last Name Format

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The profile I have linked to in this question married a woman whose first husband is mentioned variously in their will as "Monsieur Poyon D'Lance" and "Monsieur Poyen de Lance." His brother, the guardian of her children from the first marriage, is called in the will, "Monsieur Poyen Bellisle of Guadeloupe."

I found him listed in Geneanet as "Antoine Robert de Poyen de Lance." 

I would like to (eventually) add him, once I've added Samuel Thompson's wife, but having no experience with French naming conventions, I'm not certain how it should be done.
 

Is there an accepted name field format for him?

WikiTree profile: Samuel Thompson
in Genealogy Help by Katrina Lawson G2G6 Mach 4 (49.7k points)

1 Answer

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Best answer
French aristos are a naming headache, that one is no exception. He's called in various sources Antoine Robert Poyen de Lance.

If I'm not mistaken, he was born in Capesterre, Guadeloupe, on 4 Dec 1735. You will find his birth in the Capesterre registry at http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=CAPESTERRE&annee=1735&typeacte=AC_NA (see page 2)

His baptism took place on Dec 15 of the same year. The baptism record says Antoinne (double n quite fancy spelling) son of Jean Poyen, without extra "de" whatever.

He's called "Poyen de Lance" on his death record at http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=CAPESTERRE&annee=1772&typeacte=AC_DE, also page 2. His wife Anne is mentioned in the death record, under the name "Eliger" which I find in other places spelled "Heliger".

So, if I had to create his profile, I would go by LNAB "Poyen" with "de Lance" in OLN.
by Bernard Vatant G2G6 Pilot (176k points)
selected by Katrina Lawson
I don't see the extra first name "Robert" in either birth or death record, but hs godfather was called Robert something.
Thank you so much. That's definitely him.

Anne LNAB is spelled variously "Heliger" and "Heyliger". Also born in Guadeloupe, she was likely Dutch.

Also: thank you so much for the leads on sources. I was frankly at a loss.
My pleasure. ANOM are a very handy source.

I am looking up now in Roglo and found a possible connection to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Metzler-736

A brother of Antoine married a maternal aunt of Peter ...
Because of course.
 

Google translate and I are struggling through his death record at the moment. I'm using that as a distraction from what I ought to be working on.
"The 11th of May 1772 at 8 in the morning have appeared in our presbitery Mr Jean Baptiste Moizard, militia lieutenant, and Mr Lafitte, master surgeon, who both witnessed the death and burial of Mr Poyen de Lance, and prayed and required from us to receive the declaration they made of the death of Mr Antoinne Poyen de Lance, son of Mr Jean Poyen and Lady Anne Gressier, spouse of Lady Anne Eliger, living in this parish, passed away in his home on May 10 at 6 in the evening, of which declaration they required to grant them act (?) and signed with us."

Hoping I'm as good as Google laugh

Far, far better.

So much so, that I think I might be reading something else. laugh
What am I looking at on the bottom of page 1?

And now I see that I was actually looking at the wrong page.

Sheesh
On bottom of page 1 is the birth of his son Antoine Jean Louis.
Oh, excellent! I was looking for that, too.

This is the path I intend to add :

  Jean Jacques Boyer 1686-1764
&1720 Anne Gressier 1700-1794
    Jean Poyen, marquis de Sainte-Marie ca 1683-1775
&1713 Anne Gressier 1696-1769
 
  |     |  
 



   



 
  |     |     |     |  
  Pauline Boyer 1722-1761
&1738 Wilhelm Peter Metzler 1711-1762
    Pauline Boyer 1726-1774     Pierre Claude Poyen, sieur de Sainte-Marie 1718-1773     Antoine Robert Poyen de Lance 1735-1772  
  |     |     |        
  |    



   
  |              
  Peter Heinrich Metzler 1744-1800    

Oh, wonderful! I've added Anne's Profile.

I'll give her a proper bio tomorrow.

Nice. I'm a bit struggling finding sources for the Metzler family, merchants and bankers living between Bordeaux and Frankfurt. Huge rabbit hole, very large and endogamic families ... And those names ... Boyer and Poyen are just there to get you confused.frown

I found his second name Robert on his daughter’s baptism here:

http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=CAPESTERRE&annee=1767&typeacte=AC_NA

(Bottom of page 2)

OK, I've connected all the left part down to Pierre Claude, the brother of Antoine Robert.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Boyer-7835#Descendants

Do you want me to go further and create the profiles of their parents and Antoine himself?
I'm sure it would be more accurate if you did it, since you have better mastery of the primary sources' language.

If we collaborate on Antoine Robert, I'll try to add an English equivalent to his bio, then add his descendants.

It looks like his widow brought enslaved people with her into her second marriage, so I can add that part of the research, as well.

Does that sound like a good plan?
Sounds good to me. Let's do it that way.

And BTW I'm very much impressed by your work on Betty's Hope Plantation. yes

I've found a very interesting study (in French, sorry) about the Poyen, Boyer, Gressier and al. families, with a wealth of genealogical details.

http://www.ghcaraibe.org/articles/2019-art31.pdf

And a lot of explanations about the mandatory inscription of baptism, marriage,and death in catholic records although they were protestants (huguenots), which explain their alliances with the Bordeaux German bankers (Metzler and al.)
Wonderful!

I'm going to have to let you be the one to sift through the details, though. The only Romance language that I've studied is Italian, and that's not much help.

For what it's worth, I haven't found Poyen or Boyer in the Land Tax records.

Thank you for the thumbs up on Betty's Hope. Now, I'm going to have to make profiles for all of the plantation's enslaved.

Thanks to a 1783 Land Tax, it looks like I'll also be making one for Mount Stewart plantation, as well.
It explains between other things the above death record transcription. Those huguenot families buried their dead at home, but the death had to be registered in the catholic registries. Same for baptisms and marriages, all more or less "arranged" but necessary to legitimate identity and filiation.

For example the marriage of Pierre Claude Poyen is supposed to have taken place in a Paris church (Saint-Landry), with a transcription at Capesterres. Moreover, those very inbred marriage needed a special authorization from the catholic church, which was of course always granted to rich and powerful families.

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