In a message dated 8/16/99 11:12:32 PM EST, javan@paonline.com writes: << Subj: [DELOACH-L] Interesting Letter Date: 8/16/99 11:12:32 PM EST From: javan@paonline.com (Javan Michael DeLoach) Reply-to: DELOACH-L@rootsweb.com To: DELOACH-L@rootsweb.com Hi Everyone, Here is an interesting letter from a LOACH researcher: From: Lynn Loach <lfw@interlog.com> To: "'javan@paonlinecom'" <javan@paonline.com> Subject: surnames Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 12:28:38 +0100 Dear Mike, Several months ago I received a copy of your letter dated April 27 to Wullie concerning derivation of surnames. There are several points to make in an attempt to further our mutual understanding. There are few if any maps of the west of France from the 11th and 12th centuries. I have been in contact with academic cartographers who have given me this disappointing info. However one need not feel stumped. Maps from the 14th and 15th centuries show five different areas in north-west France which bear a name that includes the name de Loges. I think that for historical research it does not matter whether the preposition is capitalized or not; nor that it has or doesn't have an "s". The Protestants in France were labelled Huguenots starting in the 16th century. There were as you know a series of religious civil wars in the next 100 years, including the horrendous Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572. Thereafter there began a continuous emigration of Huguenots to many countries mainly to those related to England who fostered Protestantism. It is my understanding that it is at this time that the de Loges name began to travel, one might say. Some years ago I was told that a university professor at a university in the south-east U.S. had done a great deal of research and confirmed this hypothesis and had compiled a great amount of info on those with the name de Loach (the modernized spelling) in the area. My informant did not recall the name of the professor but said that he would find it. Unfortunately he died and I never received the info. In your letter you give a chronology and itinerary for Michel DesLoges along with his language features. I can see no conflict between what I have said so far and what you recount. Michel's family leaves France and goes to England; they stay there a variable period; Michel may have been born there; then they emigrate as you have described From Domesday Book and legal records we know that two DeLoges families held land in the central and west parts of England in the 11th and 12th centuries. It is our assumption that they came into possession of these lands by being part of William the Conqueror's original army or those whom he encouraged to come over to share the spoils wrested from the Saxons. We also assume that they came from one of the five areas that bore the name de Loges; and that they were part of the gentry since William would not encourage people of too low a station to become land owners and thus power mongers. The name in records dies out. Our working hypothesis is that the people who lived on the lands took their names from the name of the original land owners e.g. John who was a crofter on the land of Hugh de Loges slowly evolved to be John de Loges---Loach. We know from the history of the development of names in the U.K. that geographical location was one of about four sources of surnames. So this assumption is not too far fetched. There is a hamlet in Herfordshire that today bears the name Edvin Loach. This is the residual land as it were from much larger tracts that comprised the lands of one of the Norman De Loges, and the church in the hamlet was orinally underwritten by the De Loges.We have about 60 families of Loaches under study in England, Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. We struggle to inter-connect them. In every case where the information is known, the family originates in the Midlands of England. In your work on the DeLoach's do you have a contact in the family of vintners in California? One might as well reap some practical benefit out of one's hobby shouldn't one? I would be pleased to learn what you think the name De(s) Loges means. We have discounted Loach as being related to the species of fish known as loaches. I have written a short treatise on them in one of my newsletters. I assume without too much mental effort that you live in the US. I live in Toronto, Canada and Wullie lives in Scotland. Best Regards---Lynn Loach. >> Thanks so much for sharing this insightful, interesting letter, Mike. Jean DeLoach Myrick Gober