HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L Archives

From: "Carol J. Markillie" <>
Subject: [HWE] How I Got Here - MARQUILLIER to MARKILLIE
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 08:31:31 -0700

Hello All:
I asked my aunt in the 1960s to tell me something of the family - she was
very reticent but said "Oh, I believe they may have been Huguenots" and she
wouldn't tell me anything further. I started collecting old Bleu Guides and
found I was interested in the older ones before the two World Wars where
there is more historical information than the later ones which hold all the
sites of battles and graveyards.
I started looking for some name that looked like ours. Strangely, I was
fascinated by the name Romilly, so looked in northern France instead of
Normandy and in an early addition found the village of Marquillies. From
there, I went looking for Huguenots with that name and finally came to the
Huguenot Society and their Proceedings editions of the Quarto series,
wherein I found the name at Thorney in Cambridgeshire. Knowing my
grandfather Thomas Walter MARKILLIE was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire I
began, in 1977, to search for the English part of the family history. We
have completed the line from the early Walloon MARQUILLIES at Thorney about
1630 down to the MARKILLIE family in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, but to
date, I have not found the parents of my Cambridgeshire 2xgreat grandfather
Thomas MARKILLIE who sometimes went by the surname MACKARELL, born about
1774 in Cambridgeshire and died 1871 aged 96 according to his death
certificate. I am collecting all the MARQUILLIE-MARKILLIE-MARKLEY names I
can find and have started finding the ones in the USA who came to America
just before the Civil War. The ones in Australia were very kindly sent to
me by Keith PADGETT.
Many people have helped me through the years, both with my MARKILLIE and LE
PLA families and now turnabout comes because people are finding me through
the internet and I am able to say, Oh, yes, how many generations do you
want right now - I have them. However, there are still lots of names
missing, spouses and children of the original offspring, siblings, etc.
etc. in each family I dare say.
Another strange thing I have to relate - my Grandmother MARKILLIE demanded
that my sister and I attend a French Roman Catholic school in San
Francisco, Notre Dame des Victoires, where French was spoken the minute you
walked in the door until the afternoon dismissal. Many many years later I
realized that the nuns were of an order I believe was established when
Philippe Augustus won the victory in the Battle of Bouvines [and Eustache
de MARQUILLIES was killed fighting his troops] and built the cathedral of
Notre Dame des Victories in honor of his victory.Many of the nuns, Sister
Amand, Sister Genevieve, and others, having fled during the Battle of
Armentieres to San Francisco were from the same area of northern France
that my ancestors had lived in but none of us realized that fact during the
time the old nuns were shuffling down the halls in their carpet slippers -
I can't tell you how much I regret that oversight.
Now the webpage markillies.com is linked to the village at the mayor's
approval.
Carol Markillie

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• [HWE] How I Got Here - MARQUILLIER to MARKILLIE by "Carol J. Markillie" <>