This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: pushyface Surnames: Suffren-Suffern-Fenton Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.garvin/136.269.270.271.288.300.302.303.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hello Carolyn. Lovely to be able to talk to you. Firstly, to get the relationships out of the way; John Suffren in Norway is my second cousin once removed, (I think) being the son of my late father's first cousin. I am in touch with his elder sister who is in Australia, as am I. I am familiar with John's website and also have the documentation his father, uncle and he prepared some years ago after Frank Suffren (his uncle) travelled to Saint Tropez in the hope of finding the family links to The Admiral, whose portrait, for many years, took pride of place on the diningroom wall in the old family home in Ballarat, Victoria. Turned out to be a paper copy from a magazine. It had everyone fooled for a generation or two!! Nevertheless, my late grandmother, a Suffren, apparently knew the connection to the Huguenot Suffrens who fled France. Regrettably, my father either did not listen intently to her stories or she did not know the details because there was never any mention of them going to Ireland before making their way to New Brunswick, prior to their departure to Australia. The research was inconclusive, with our connection to the Irish Suffren's as vague as it still appears today. While undertaking research on my maternal ancestors I engaged a pro researcher in Scotland who became interested in my father's ancestry and undertook some research in his own time. It was only then that the two Suffren brothers in Ireland emerged. He did not indicate any date as to when they may have arrived in Ireland or if they were, in fact, born there. As a result, have not established with which wave of Huguenots they arrived in Ireland, if any.... All of this became quite interesting from my point of view when he suggested that the Fentons (greats&2xgreats), who certainly lived in Ireland, after meeting Suffrens in Ireland, got together in New Brunswick and later married each other. I suspect he had already undertaken quite detailed research but he retired in "Sunny Spain" and that was the last I heard from him. It is also curious in that I have located a Fenton child being born in New York prior to arriving in New Brunswick but am yet to locate a shipping list for absolute confirmation. It may suggest that some of the Suffrens went to New Brunswick via New York also. What initially drew my atttention to your Suffern-Suffren history was the fact that you also have two French Huguenot brothers in your ancestry, along with Jean Andre actually being "de Suffren". Trophime appears to be the link, from what I have here but more recent research suggests that "The Admiral" and his family were pious catholics and would have shuddered at the thought of any Huguenot links. Notwithstanding this detail, I am not overlooking the possibility of a breakaway branch with protestantism sympathies. Interestingly, I did check out some of the Huguenot websites and none had Suffren or Suffern recorded as Huguenot surnames. Perhaps it is all too long ago and we will never find the links but it will remain a topic of interest on this side for some time yet!! Noel did contact me via this message board. I did glean from his message that you were Carolyn Suffern, not Catherine. We exchanged an email or two but had no more contact when I pointed out that John Suffren and I were the same distant relationship to him and our trees would be identical. There are many more of the same generation here, with new interest being shown by the next generation. Many thanks for your message. The alert was sent to my email address. Any comments gratefully invited!! Cheers, Wendy. This message is reading in the preview without para breaks, and will not edit with them inserted so I hope you can follow it. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.