PIATT-L Archives

From: Sharolynn Pyeatt <>
Subject: [PIATT] re: French resources
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 12:18:05 -0600

I just thought I'd share with the group how I answered a question from
another family researcher about my more recent activities and
discoveries. The initial question was whether I had been able to establish
a link between Rene Piat/LeFleur and the individuals mentioned in the books
on the French Huguenots. The following was part of my response:


>With regards to my research, what I have done has been partly the result
>of curiosity. Also, based upon my experience, I have found that sometimes
>it helps to start at an earlier date and move forward in time when you've
>got something concrete to work with. For example, based upon family Bible
>records, when I was researching my maternal grandmother's maiden name, we
>knew that I descended from a Theophilus Anderson who married Molly Lear,
>some of their children, general information about his descendents & how we
>descended from him, as well the fact that they had children born in
>Kentucky. But we had no real documentation outside of family records and
>pictures. Since his name was so unique, I took a chance and looked for
>him in Kentucky-- and was fortunate enough to locate him in a census,
>which gave me a more specific location. He had ten children-- and they
>each tended to use the same given names as each of them had
>children. They also seemed to stick together as they moved from Kentucky
>into Indiana and from there into Texas and Nebraska. I chose to follow all
>of his descendents as far as I could-- just so that I could keep everyone
>straight. As it turned out, all of the oral tradition that had been passed
>down to our family has turned out to be fairly accurate-- just
>incomplete-- and in a matter of months I was able to find all of the
>documentation I needed.
>
>What happened initially was that when I came home from the conference, I
>decided to glance at some the books in our library on the Huguenots in
>America. I wasn't able to find much other than references to Rene in a
>listing of individuals who had been granted property in New Jersey from
>offices in London. That, in turn, led me to do a quick scan of materials
>on the Huguenots in the British Isles and in France. Since there has been
>some belief that the family may have been from Dauphine Province, I
>started there with the assumption that, if I was unable to find any 16th
>or 17th century reference to the family name at that location, I would
>look for the surname in records for other provinces. I based my time
>estimate on the fact that Rene was already in New Jersey before 1700. The
>books that I found, however, only had references to the 16th century,
>specifically the mid-1500's, which would be about a century before Rene
>was born.
>
>We don't really know anything about Rene prior to his land grant record,
>including when and where he was born. I was pleased to find any reference
>to the surname(s) at all. I don't read French, so I have been dependent
>upon looking for the surname in indexes listed at the backs of the books
>and then taking the book to a friend and co-worker to get a quick summary
>of what the book said in the related paragraphs. It was interesting to me
>to find the reference to the LeFleur family and to find that they were
>Protestant ministers, which may make them easier to follow as they
>migrated. It was particularly interesting to see that at least one
>LeFleur minister went to Scotland/Ireland, in part because the
>(Ravenscroft?) belief that the Pyatt/Piatt/Pyeatt name is somehow linked
>to the Scottish "Pyott." Given that all of this religious migration is
>taking place in the 16th and 17th centuries, it now appears that there is
>at least the possibility of a familial connection between the American,
>Scottish & French families. To me, the gap between France and New Jersey
>is at the very least a curiosity and worthy of research.
>
>My personal link to Rene is fairly well established, it's
>Rene-Jacob-Jacob-John (who marries Jane Blair and goes to North
>Carolina)-James (who marries Catherine Finley and eventually moves to
>Arkansas)-Peter P.-James P.-John Thomas-George Frazier (1st member of his
>family born in Oregon, shortly after they arrived in 1904)-Donald J. and
>finally to me. I've documented my links back to John & Jane Blair
>Pyeatt. This John was born in Path Valley-- but I had not verified the
>links previously established between John & his great-grandfather Rene. I
>knew absolutely nothing about the Path Valley-- which was why I felt so
>strongly about attending the conference this summer-- I wanted to learn
>about the family as it related to Pennsylvania & New Jersey.
>
>Since everyone else seems to be actively working on the family in those
>locations, I decided to work on the links in England and France so as to
>avoid duplication of effort. My decision has also been based, in part, on
>the fact that I work in a large academic, and specifically in a
>"research," library and am located also close to the Family History
>Library in Salt Lake City and to the University of Utah library (another
>academic library)-- which means that I have some phenomenal resources
>available to me that may not be as readily available to other family
>researchers.
>
>So, to succinctly answer your question, no, I have not been able to forge
>a link between Rene and the men whose names I have located in the French
>sources-- but I'm hoping that as I do more research, I will be able to
>find a link somewhere along the way. Hope this explains what I'm doing
>and why.
>
>
>
>Sharolynn

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• [PIATT] re: French resources by Sharolynn Pyeatt <>