Ed, What you say is true, some of the Martins in the North Country may well be of French Extraction, but the Martin line that settled in South Hero, Vermont and spred to Plattsburgh and other towns in Clinton County, New York were definitely from Baptist stock. This is well documented. On my mother's side of the family, everyone is French - and yes, they all had roots in Quebec first. Many people angilcized their names, as French-Canadians weren't all that popular in those days because they were Roman Catholic. There was, when I was a boy, a very stong presence of French speaking people in Malone - Franklin County, as you no doubt know. My maternal grandparents spoke only French at home and we were "more than encouraged" to answer them in like manner. There is a chance that some of the Martins are French as you state yours are, but the records seem to indicate that the greatest influx of Martins in Vermont and New Hampshire came from Rhode Island - definitely not French or Catholic. It doesn't hurt to keep an open mind, but one should also look at the facts. Mac ----- Original Message ----- From: <hagerdonngenealogy@earthlink.net> To: <martin@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:39 PM Subject: [MARTIN] Martins > Any Martins found in Vermont, or any of the other states or territories > bordering Canada in the 1700s or 1800s are just as likely to be of > French Catholic or French Huguenot ancestry as English. Greater New York > (New Rochelle in Westchester County) to Philadelphia or Virginia and > North Carolina were areas where the French Huguenots(Protestants) > settled. Many prominent French Huguenot families fled France to England > after the Catholics attacked in killed thousands of Protestants in > France and then emigrated to the then English Colonies in America before > the American Revolutionary War and continued to come afterwards. Also > remember the Louisiana Territory was a French Territory before America > bought it and when the British controlled New Orleans, the French > Arcadians were forcibly removed from what is now Nova Scotia and > relocated to New Orleans, otherwise known now as Cajuns. > > So if you hit a brick wall in your genealogy search, it might be you're > not looking in the right direction. What may sound very much like an > English Martin family tree may suddenly turn French. > > Ed Hagerty > Martins - Clinton County, NY USA & Quebec, CA > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MARTIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >