Saturday 28 November 2015

Spelling, not the strongest point of the French

Variant 1 : Marambaud
One day we found an old marble, broken commemorative plaque, which was meant to be used in a church or a graveyard.

Variant 2 : Marembeaud
The name on the plaque was that of the man who, in the 19th century, built this house and started the brick factory. However, there was something strange with that name. The name on the plaque was "Noël Marambaud", while a number of bricks which were made here we founds the name of "Noël Marembeaud".
We drew the conclusion that the stone mason must have made a mistake, the plaque was refused by the family and ended up in two pieces somewhere on the corner of a shed.

Variant 2 : Marembeaud
One could consider the marble plaque to be a sort of printer's proof.
A roof tile made in our tuilerie also carried the name of "Noël Marembeaud"., which made the theory of the marble printer's proof quite likely.
Until we found a floor tile with a third variant: "Noël Marembaud".

Variant 3 : Marembaud
But this was not yet the end. This Mr. Marambaud, Marembaud or Marembeaud had a son who was killed in the first world war. In Chazelle's church a plaque can be found which states that a certain "René Marembeau" was killed February 26, 1916; with this we had a 4th variant on our hands.

Variant 4 : Marembeau
On the war memorial in Cormatin it says that a certain "Noël Marembaud" was killed in 1916. A far relative told us that there was only one son killed during the war, hence it is very likely that "René Marembeau" and "Noël Marembaud" are one and the same person.

Variant 3 : Marembaud
We were taught at school that Napoleon introduced the register office and registrations of births, marriages, etc. If this is true, I must admit that the Dutch made a far more thorough job of it than the French did, and still so after approx. a century!

Variant 3 : Marembaud (family grave Chazelle)
Click here for the website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

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