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Archiver > BELGIUM-ROOTS > 1998-08 > 0901973296


From: Picavet <>
Subject: Re: Lewis DEGRAF Flanders? c.1793 > Philadelphia PA USA
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 13:08:16 +0100


At 04:59 +0100 29-07-1998, AUSTPAT wrote:
>Greetings to Georges and Fellow Researchers!
>
>My gggg-grandfather emigrated to America between 1793 and 1795. He was
>naturalized in Philadelphia PA in 1800. He stated that he had been a
>citizen of France but two hundred years of oral history in all of our
>related DeGrafft lines relates that he was "Belgian French". He moved to
>Baltimore before 1803 and farmed while his son and grandsons became
>blacksmiths in granite quarries and later at some industrial site near the
>Baltimore harbor. In the 1870 Baltimore City census, the grandsons called
>themselves "LeGraft" and separately they declared that their father was
>born in France. Their memories were not perfect, but this leads to the
>possibility that the name may have been LeCompt or LeConte in Europe as
>DeGraff is the Anglicized form of the name.
>
>I assume that a Belgian French citizen in 1793, lived somewhere between
>Nord/Pas-de Calais and Waasland or even in Southern Netherlands.
[snip]

DE GRAEVE, DE GRAVE, DE GRAEF, etc., is a difficult name to research. It is
a very common name, with sufficient spellings to get confused. Belgium did
not exist until 1830 (yes, Belgium is a younger state than the United
States!).

If any reference is made to Belgium later on, it must have been to an area
(part of) which was later to form part of Belgium: the County of Flanders,
the County of Hainaut, the County of Namur, the Duchy of Brabant, the
Prince-Bishopric of Liege, ... I sure did forget some parts. Are you
confused? Join the club.

He may have fled from an area in Belgium that was occupied by the French
around 1795. Are you sure about the year? By 1796 the all of Belgium was
occupied by the French revolutionary armies.

If nothing helps, Patricia, your only approach would be to look at the
larger context. Who else was living in his community? Where did the other
residents come from? What was his trade? Were there others with the same
trade? Where did they come from?

Are any church records kept for that period? I have seen church records in
the US, albeit from a later period, in which the exact places of origin of
the people were mentioned. The pastor was often better informed than the
civil authorities, and knew how to write the names of the places, because
in many case he would have been Belgian as well.

Good luck with this fascinating quest!

Georges PICAVET | Listowner BELGIUM-ROOTS-L
Doorn 9 | Phone & Fax 32-3-774.10.11
BEL-9150 Kruibeke | mailto:
Belgium (Europe) | http://www.ping.be/picave

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