Huguenot-L Archives

Archiver > Huguenot > 1998-09 > 0904732764


From: Rosemary de Fremery <>
Subject: [Huguenot-L] French Americans / de FREMERY / etc.
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 19:39:24 +0900 (JST)


Hello everyone! I joined the list a little while ago
and it's amazing to see how much information you have
been able to find on your ancestors. I was very interested
in that recent post about people with French surnames
living in Connecticut. I grew up in Western Massachusetts,
where there were tons of people of French-Canadian descent
(I was an exception - my family never lived in Canada),
but I don't remember ever hearing of significant prejudice
being directed towards them. Nor did many of them speak
French, although some of us did study it in high school.
(And I'm happy to say that I went on studying it ;)
I read some articles in a book edited by Claire Quintal
("Ecrivains Franco-Americains", I think...) which talked
about Petits Canadas, or French neighborhoods in Connecticut,
Rhode Island, and that area. It's very interesting reading,
although Huguenots don't figure into it very much because
it's slanted towards the Catholic French-American experience.
Still, I recommend it, and I'm hoping to sometime read
another book she worked on, "Femme Franco-Americaine: Franco-
American Woman." Would anyone happen to know of books
about Franco-American subjects (what it's like to grow
up Franco-American, etc...) that aren't so heavily oriented
towards Catholic Franco-Americans? I like to study up on
it, but I find I have to divide my studies between Huguenot
topics and Franco-American (Catholic) topics.

Also, I am wondering if anyone has run across the name
DE FREMERY in their research so far. I haven't found
much about it on the Web except for links to my relatives'
web pages. We are originally from the town of FREMERY
(surprise) in Lorraine, close to Metz, and we left France
at some point for Holland. In the mid-19th-century,
James de Fremery (and, I think, a William Cornelius
Bastiaan de Fremery) left Holland for California, where
most of the American de Fremery family lives today.
I was in Lorraine last summer and didn't make it to
Fremery (I got sick - long story), but I was (and am)
dying to know if there are other de Fremeries still
around there or in France, because I would love to
get in touch with them. I hear that some have
dropped the 'de' particle and a few others might
have shortened their names to Emery. Anyway, I would
love to hear from anyone who has even heard mention of
this name. Thanks!

- Rosie de Fremery

(P.S. -> I was friends with a du Bois in high school,
as a matter of fact, although I'm pretty sure
she was not a Huguenot since she went to mass :)

This thread: