National Huguenot Society Bible Records

Description

The National Huguenot Society is one of our most esteemed lineage organizations. Its members, of course, are the descendants of the French Protestants who fled their homeland during the religious wars of the 17th century and, especially, following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685. Many of those Huguenots who ultimately fled to the American colonies would settle in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia, later arrivals dispersing to Pennsylvania and other states.

Mr. Finnell, who has for a number of years served as the Registrar General of the National Huguenot Society, has here extracted all known Bible records from the files of the organization, i.e., “Proof Files” of qualified members of the Society and a second file on applicants whose membership awaits further documentation. As a body, the records are extracted from roughly 750 known Bibles and extend from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries, with the greatest concentration from the mid-19th century. Most of the entries refer to births, marriages, and deaths and in most cases indicate the name(s) of the principals, the date of the event, and, sometimes, such supplementary information as his/her age or address, the maiden name of a parent, etc. Each Bible record is identified by family name and followed by a reference to the Huguenot Society records where the original can be found. In all, the records refer to more than 2,500 main families named in the surname index at the back of the volume and embrace a staggering 25,000 individuals of Huguenot or possible Huguenot ancestry–connections and allied families that would otherwise be lost to us in the unpublished files of this august organization.