Early documents for the Bouvins (Nicolas 1580, and his sons Antoine 1607, and Jean 1614) suggest that they were born in France, although Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, where we thought they came from, is in Belgium - now. We can't find them, of course, but it is interesting trying, and it shows how one has to bring all knowledge into play when dealing with these archives, otherwise it is easy to spend hours!!! going down blind alleys! A place that features in the scant written history is Sedan, which is the administrative centre for the area that included Haraucourt, mentioned as Antoine and Jean's birthplaces.... Elizabeth Bouvin, my ancestor, came from Jean's line. Sedan is on the Meuse too, a little further down, and in France now... when we asked if it ever was in Belgium at that time, the archivist said 'there wasn't a Belgium then" and it reminded me of reading a book about the history of Belgium, which was Very Complicated! Having previously looked at the archives online, I found there to be book of baptisms for 1607, which is almost unreadable... the natural response to that is to go to see the original if possible.
So we went to Charleville-Mezières, to the archives, and asked for the microfilms... after a little time discussing what we were looking for with the archivist, we explained about the 'going to Sweden' thing. Of course the factor we had left out was that the Bouvins were Calvinist - Protestant - and the online archives were of Catholic baptisms! So we got the right records, 1580-1614, but couldn't find much. Not many Nicolases, hardly any references to Antoines, even if we had had any idea of their surname (if they had one we don't know it) it wasn't appearing from the pages. Yes, there was a history of iron-working in the area, but not much about it... Still, Haraucourt was a nice quiet little place, one Boulanger, an iron foundry still in operation, a Maison de la Presse (closed), an old Lavoir by the stream, a war memorial, the graves of five British airmen from WW2 in the Churchyard. We bought a local cake ("tart au sucre") and went back to Sedan.
So we went to Charleville-Mezières, to the archives, and asked for the microfilms... after a little time discussing what we were looking for with the archivist, we explained about the 'going to Sweden' thing. Of course the factor we had left out was that the Bouvins were Calvinist - Protestant - and the online archives were of Catholic baptisms! So we got the right records, 1580-1614, but couldn't find much. Not many Nicolases, hardly any references to Antoines, even if we had had any idea of their surname (if they had one we don't know it) it wasn't appearing from the pages. Yes, there was a history of iron-working in the area, but not much about it... Still, Haraucourt was a nice quiet little place, one Boulanger, an iron foundry still in operation, a Maison de la Presse (closed), an old Lavoir by the stream, a war memorial, the graves of five British airmen from WW2 in the Churchyard. We bought a local cake ("tart au sucre") and went back to Sedan.