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Archiver > LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS > 1997-01 > 0853000516


From: Shari Handley< >
Subject: MEZICK/MESSICK - ? >Accomack > Somerset
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 11:35:16 EST


* MEZICK/MESSICK/MESSIX/MESICK or similar - any and all
*********************************************************
* I am a descendant of Julian MEZICK, who was trans-
* ported by John TILNEY to Accomack Co. (Northampton Co)
* Virginia in 1664/5. In 1674, Julian moved up to
* Nanticoke Hundred in Maryland's Somerset County. He
* m. Sarah COVINGTON, daughter of Quaker Nehemiah
* COVINGTON in APR 1674. It is not known where Julian
* came from originally, but several possibilities exist.
* 1. The most popular theory is that he was a French
* Huguenot who went to the Netherlands, to England, and
* then to Virginia. He had named his land in Maryland
* "Nantes", possibly after the Edict of Nantes which
* granted Huguenots certain freedoms in France. This
* edict was revoked in 1685, but the rights outlined in
* the edict were progressively undermined throughout the
* 17th century. Julian may be one of the many Huguenots
* who fled.
* 2. He could have been part of the MESICK family that
* fled the Palatinate in the early 1700s when the
* Spanish overran that part of southern Germany. These
* MESICKs ended up in Claverack, Columbia Co., NY.
* Perhaps Julian was related to these people's grand-parents?
* 3. A man named Isaac MAZICQ was a refugee who disem-
* barked in Charleston, SC in 1686, becoming the progen-
* itor of one of that city's first families. Could this
* be the original spelling of the MESSICK/MEZICK name?
* Another Prodigy member told me that this spelling rang
* a bell in her mind regarding the Languedoc language
* of southern France. She said it was neck-and-neck
* with French in the middle ages, and that its speakers
* were persecuted and many scattered north into Germany
* and Belgium and Holland.
* 4. According to an etymological dictionary, the name
* MESICK is given as Dutch from a town on the river Maes
* in Liege, Netherlands.
*
* If anyone is researching this surname and has any
* input or comments, I'd love to hear from you!

*********************************************************
Thanks,

Shari Handley

Hosting USGenWeb pages for the Maryland counties of:
Somerset (http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdsomers/somerset.htm)
Wicomico (http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdwicomi/wicomico.htm)

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