Feburary 4, 1777 - Bans of Marriage

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The Archives of Haut-Marne contain recordings of baptisms, births, and marriage for citizens of the villages in the province of  Lorraine. Go to the listing for Graffigny-Chemin and click. There are 11 sets of books of parish and civil records. Prior to Napoleon, the records are religious. Napoleon made the responsibility for civil records secular.

Start with the parish records for 1767 - 1792.Click on the book and it will take you to page one of 87 pages.

On page 7 the date February 4, 1777 records the publication of the bans of marriage for Claude Chevallier and Marie Jeanne Barbay. The post is the right-hand page. Claude is the son of Nicholas Chevallier and Anne Jaroin (sp). Marie is the daughter of Francois Barbay and Cecile Quentin (sp).

On the preceding same screen, lower left is a post for, it appears, the 18th of January of the same year. The announcement appears to be the engagement of the two.

For Jean-Marie:

On the following page 8, the same date, records the marriage of Nicolas Quentin and Barb Marchal.The name Marchal appears on many of the following pages.

I am stopping at page 15. Page 16 starts an entry for 1779 and the name Chevallier reappears. I will work on this later.

Who was first?

An O'Farrell Family History gives an extensive listing of relatives including many Pearsons.

There is another Pearson line, but it is uncertain how these Pearsons connect up to our family. One can also do a research of Pearsons in England.




Bishop John Pearson (February 28, 1612 – July 16, 1686) bishop of Chester. Was he the father of Bishop John Pearson (1636 - 1716)? Who knows?

My grandfather was James Madison Pearson of Tallapoosa, Alabama. His family came from Georgia. His family tree goes like this:

Bishop John Pearson – great x 6 grandfather (1636? – 1716?)


Edward Pearson – great x 5 grandfather (1661? – 1746?)


Enoch Pearson – great x 4 grandfather (1682/3 - 1758)


John Pearson – great x 3 grandfather (1728 - 1815)


Enoch Pearson - great great grandfather (1757 - 1831)

William Head Pearson - great grandfather (1780 - 1841)

James Madison Pearson - grandfather (1817 - 1909)

Benjamin Rush Pearson - father of James Madison Pearson

Qui est cette - Who is this?

Here is a one of the few family photos that I have from my grandmother Marguerite.

She was French and her family name was Chevallier. She grew up with her mother and sister in the village of Graffigny-Chemin, near Bourmont. Her father died when she was still young. She married my grandfather shortly after the First World War and left Graffigny. Her mother lived in Graffigny until her death.

Who is this? What are the medals? Can someone determine the unit he was from and rank?




Qui est le soldat sur la photo?

Ma grand-mère était française. Le nom de famille était Chevallier. Elle a habité à Graffigny-Chemin, près de Bourmont, France. Je crois que son père est mort avant la Première Guerre mondiale. Ma grand-mère Marguerite a épousé mon grand-père, un officier américain, après la guerre. Mon arrière grand-mère a vivre dans Graffigny jusqu'à sa mort.

secret gardens of the past

When my grandfather retired from the Army, he and his wife settled down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Their house in Chapel Hill was the only house that I knew them in. And even though I only visited twice that I can remember, the memories are still strong.

It was my sister Kathy who observed that Marguerite, our grandmother, brought with her to Chapel Hill her childhood garden in Graffigny-Chemin. The remants of the garden in Grafigny are still there - the walls that enclose the gardens, an old fig tree, the flower beds lined by paths of crushed stone, the places where the arbors once stood with grape vines, and a basin to catch the rain.

Although I was just fifteen the last time I visited my grandparents' home in Chapel Hill, I still vividly remember my grandmother's garden and the stone wall that she and my grandfather built to give the house and gardens a sense of privacy. The wall was too tall for a child to see over, and even years later going back, I am struck by its size and the work that must have gone into building it. There is a shorter wall as one drives into the yard toward the house. Lining the wall are Granny's irises; in spring their stately blooms announce the season and guests alike.


In Graffigny-Chemin the wall is the first thing one notices about the house. The wall surrounds the house and its gardens. Tall and protective, it is designed to shield the people within from the prying eyes of a small village where everyone knows your business.

Granny's garden in Chapel Hill lay in the back of my grandparents' home. Behind the garden was a gravel and dirt road, which served as the hill we took turns riding down in the wagon. But, for the most part, the garden was big enough to keep or attention. A tall fig tree grew; its succulent fruit reminded me of the fig newton cookie I loved then as now. There was an arbor on which grape vines stretched. A deserted chicken coup served as the grandchildren's play house. The paths between the flower beds like the driveway were of crushed stone. Running along the path gave almost the same sound and feel of a rocky beach. There were certainly many flowers, but the only ones I remember were the irises and the tall and stately hollyhocks so common to France.

The garden in Graffigny is also still there, but without full time care, it appears neglected. Forty years have passed since my grandmother died and her sister Paula sold the house in Graffigny. Still, the house is there and the outlines of the garden they once had remain. Flower beds are now separated by boxwood, but laid out along paths that old photographs revealed once were lined with crushed stone. The outlines of two arbors, one overgrown by a tree, the other has long since fallen down and been removed are visible A fig tree stands silently along the wall. And a basin collect the rain water in the garden. The irises which must have one graced the gardens are all gone.

Listen to Judy Collins, Secret Gardens.

What my grandmother would now think? Both in Graffigny and Chapel Hill, the gardens and houses have fallen into disrepair. Time passing is a subject that I think about often.

Judy Collins said it best in Secret Gardens:

"My grandmother's house is still there, but it isn't the same. ...
I drive by the strangers,
And wish that they could see what I see. ...
I still the ghosts of the people I knew long ago. ...
Secret gardens of the heart,
Where the old stay young forever. ...
But, most of all, it is me that has changed. .."

c.l. pearson

Let me see if I have this right - C. L. Pearson is Charles Lafayette Pearson, 1854 -1940. His older brother, our great grandfather, is Benjamin Rush Pearson, 1849 -1906.

Their father (pictured) was James Madison Pearson, 1817 -1891. The family history relates that this James Madison Pearson was a Harvard educated lawyer.

Great great grandfather James along with his first wife Elizabeth Ann Brown, 1843 -1861, had eleven children including Benjamin and Charles. James had two additional children by a subsequent marriage. Benjamin was a doctor and Charles a farmer in addition to his military career.

General Charles Lafayette Pearson is buried along with his father, James Madison Pearson in the Pearson family cemetery in Talapoosa County Alabama.

finding names

My cousin George Campbell emailed to me a list of the ancestors of Marguerite Tony Lilly Meine. She is my grandmother, who was born and raised in the village of Graffingy-Chemin, France.

The compilation of names comes from multiple sources. These include:

1. MyFamily.com.
2. Ancestry.com.

These websites in turn accessed information from:

1. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York.
2. U.S. Census 1910.
3. and other records.

James Madison Pearson

My family history relates that my grandfather James Madison Pearson saw action in World War I with the 2rd Infantry Division and with the 3nd Infantry Division.

In the spring of 1918, with close to 50 divisions freed by Russia's withdrawal from the war, the German Army launched a series of attacks on the Western Front, hoping to defeat the Allies before United States forces could be fully deployed.

The 2nd Infantry Division was organized in October of 1917 and headquartered at Bourmont, Haute Marne, France. In June of 1918, the 2nd Infantry Division stopped a German advance at Belleau Wood. At Belleau Woods, the 2nd Infantry Division was three times awarded the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry under fire. The 2nd Infantry Division was next committed to the battle at Chateau-Thierry.

The 3rd Infantry Division was posted to a position protecting Paris on the banks of the Marne River. In July of 1918, the 7th Machine Gun Battalion of the 3rd Division rushed to Chateau-Thierry amid retreating French troops and held back the Germans. While other units retreated, the 3rd Infantry Division remained rock solid and earned its reputation as the "Rock of the Marne".

My grandfather received numerous medals, including the Silver Star, Croix de Guerre, and Purple Heart during his service with the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions. He was wounded in action and treated at a hospital in Graffigny-Chemin, near Bourmont. It was here that he met and wed my grandmother, Marguerite Chevalier (Chevallier) Meine.

all who wander are not lost

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

There is within all of us, I suppose, a desire to wander. The desire is an existential need - thus, not only must we stare into that dark well, but with blind faith jump in and see where it takes us. Were this desire not present, the human species would have remained quite content in the savannahs of Africa where the weather is fair and the food plentiful. But something stirring within all of us has driven us to the most remote corners of the world - to the coldest climes of Tierra del Fuego in South America and the frozen northern polar cap, as well as to the driest sands of the Sahara and the Gobi deserts.

What spurs us on to leave our homes is an existential need to know. Whether it was Alexander the Great marching with his army to the ends of the world, Marco Polo traveling to distant Cathay, or Christopher Columbus sailing west to go east, each of us desires to experience the unknown and unseen.

The need is weaker in some families than others. Were it not so, civilization would not take root and grow. For there is also within the human genetic code a need to take root and possess the land from which we were born. This need is what creates the villages, towns, and nations in which we live. The territorial imperative of mammals is widespread and more so in the human species. While this imperative fosters civilization, it also is the reason for the many wars that the human species has fought over the millenia. Often these wars have been fought over land without any real value, or in conflicts that bear no relationship in the number of lives lost to the value of the territory fought over. The Falkland Islands over which Great Britain and Argentina fought is but one example.

My family like so many others is one that demonstrates this conflict well. I am the product of men and women who left their native countries as well as the product of soldiers who stood and fought for principle and country.