Des Longrais - serious help needed!

[JAP]

Hello Tracy,

Have you searched the National Archives?

There are two hits for Deslongrais.

One is:
FO  Records created and inherited by the Foreign Office
Division within FO  Records of Consular Courts and other extra-territorial jurisdiction
FO 841  Foreign Office: Consulate, Cairo, Egypt: Court Records
Subseries within FO 841  CONSULAR COURT CASES                 
FO 841/73  Consular court cases
Estate of the decd. Auguste DESLONGRAIS, date 1902

The other is:
Online Document WO 372/6
Medal Card of DESLONGRAIS Gaston D London Regiment 766015 Private Royal Fusiliers 95482 Private Intelligence 766015 . Medal Card of Deslongrais Gaston D London Regiment 766015 Private Royal Fusiliers 95482 Private Intelligence 766015 Date range: 1914 - 1920.

I see that you list Auguste (the father) as Auguste Durand DesLongrais.
A Google for:
Deslongrais
brings up quite a number of hits for people named X Durand Deslongrais.
Perhaps some of these are related?  Perhaps descended from an earlier generation?

Good luck,

JAP
Edit just to put two more names in bold

[JAP]

Hi Tracy,

Images of the Medal Card and the Attestation of Gaston Durand DESLONGRAIS can be viewed on Ancestry.  Not much information.  In 1917 he was a Solicitor's Clerk at Blythe, Green Jourdin & Co Ltd, 47-51 King William St, E.C.4.  He was aged 26.  It has the following note at the top "Overseas Recruit O.T.C."

There are also 6 relatively recent DESLONGRAIS births in England, and 3 with mother's name as DESLONGRAIS.

And some records under DES LONGRAIS (i.e. with a space).

JAP
Edit just to put names in bold.

[TracyL]

Wow!  JAP thank you. I had noticed the Gaston Deslongrais on Ancestry but haven't been able to find a solid link at the moment.

The Foreign Office stuff is very exciting!  I know from an early census that his wife was born in France, and assumed that Auguste was.  However, I have no proof of that.  So he could either have gone to Eygypt to to work or could inded have been from there.

I did come across a reference to the Deslongrais name in a French book from 1850 called Assemble Nationale Comique.  As far as my school french can make out, it is a humerous take on the state of the government around the time of the mini-revolution in Paris in 1848.  I cannot work out who this Deslongrais was (or even if the book is a fiction!), but I was trying to find a link as to why a French couple would leave France around that time and turn up in Wales! Could this connect, if he was a senior official of some sort I wonder, with him going to Egypt - very tenuous, but intriguing!

I discovered some Deslongrais births on Ancestry yesterday with the new searchable births 1916-2005 (when did they arrive!) and am going to look again today and try to make some sense of it all.

Thank you so much for all of that.  If you have any other brainwaves.........
Tracy

[JAP]

Hello again Tracy,

Yes, that Foreign Office reference does look interesting.  Fingers crossed!
Wouldn't it be great if it is "your" Auguste (which seems likely).  And even better if it turned out that he had left England some time soon after 1880 when his wife died and before the 1881 census (either for Egypt or for elsewhere and later travelled to Egypt) and had taken daughter Marie with him.

I was also interested to see that a Google revealed quite a number of DURAND DESLONGRAIS people - including some in Australia as I recall.

It would be most exciting to find other direct descendants of your Gggfather Auguste Durand DESLONGRAIS.
But if it turns out that your father was the only one who carried on the line, then I guess the next best thing would be to find descendants from Auguste's father, grandfather or whatever ...

Best of luck with the FO document,

JAP

[TracyL]

Thanks JAP

Co-incidently, I have just received an email via Facebook from an Australian Deslongrais!

I emailed every Durand Delongrais and Deslongrais that I found on Facebook yesterday and voila!!  This particular person tells me that her family emigrated from Mauritius to Australia 20 years ago, but believe they originate from France.  She is very keen to hear more and is contacting her mother's family who are still in Mauritius for any more info.  Apparently they have been meaning to look into their family history for some time. Who knows where that may lead!

As you say, distant family is better than none!  And with your information, I might yet find Marie and possible descendents.

Next stop - Kew!

Tracy

[TracyL]

Hi again

Well I am happy to report that I made it to Kew yesterday and the FO document for Auguste Deslongrais was the right one!

I have copies of the entire file which was the Consular Court of Cairo documents regarding the estate of Auguste Deslongrais who died intestate in Cairo in 1902.  He was apparently the Secretary of the Suez Canal Company! I guess they must have gone between 1881 and 1891 as Auguste's wife died in Warwick in 1880 and they don'tappear on the 1891 census.

It also solves the mystery of where his daughter Marie had gone, as she was with him in Cairo (calling herself Mary) and was making the claim to administer his estate.  There was even mention of Arthur being in Leamington.

Marie was single, and I have since found her death record in Cairo in 1950, aged 90, still single!  My last chance of there being any descendents of the family.

The file itself is fascinating - a large number of official documents from the court plus dozens of receipts for payments Marie made to settle his accounts.  One, from a provisions company shows that the day he died he received four bottles of white wine, one bottle of whisky, half a bottle of Courviosier, half a kilo of chocolate and some syrup of strawberries!!

As most of the receipts are in French, it will take some time to figure it all out.  One thing I can't decipher is his address.  It looks like T(J)ewfikieh Quarter, Cairo.  Have searched for a quarter in Cairo that would fit, with no luck.  Any suggestions?

Can't thank JAP enough for finding this for me

I wonder how Marie fared alone in Egypt for the rest of her life - a woman born in Wales to French parents with both her brothers remaining in England.

Tracy

[JAP]

Hello Tracy,

I am so very pleased for you.

Here are a couple of articles which refer to the Tewfikia quarter:

http://www.egy.com/landmarks/98-10-29.shtml

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Cairo_(Egypt)
Sorry - this link doesn't seem to work.
I got there by Googling for
ismailia + map + tewfikia
It was the second hit.

Spellings seem to vary greatly e.g. Tawfiqiya

JAP

[davidqueneherve]

Hi,

In Dijon in 1844, death record (death 20/12/1844, declaration 21/12/1844)

Death of Marie Joseph Henriette DURAND DESLONGRAIS wife FARAGUET

36 years old, native of Maurice (England), daughter of Denis Louis DURAND, notaire, and Joséphine JOCET DESLONGRAIS, his wife, both deceased, wife of Antoine Henri FARAGUET, owner

Rue du Fillot n° 12

Same day (death and declaration 21/12/1844), death of Anna Claudine Victorine FARAQUET, 4 days, daughter of Antoine Henry FARAGUET and the late Marie Joseph Henriette DURAND DESLONGRAIS.

DURAND, Denis (FranceArchives) - Archives de France
https://francearchives.fr/fr/pniaagent/19077593
Fonds : Minutes et répertoires du notaire Denis CHANTEMERLE, 1562 - 29 mars ... à la requête de Denis Louis Durand, demeurant au Port Louis, Ile Maurice.

NOTAIRES [ILE MAURICE] : Divers
www.cgmrgenealogie.org › ... › NOTAIRES [ILE MAURICE](Divers)
1804, DURAND Denis Louis, JOCET DES LONGAIS Marie Joseph, Contrat de Mariage, Détails. 11. 1805, DURAND Jacques Dit Cadet, NO Charles Paschal ...

Marie Joseph JOCET DES LONGRAIS is the widow of Pierre POUEY

http://gw.geneanet.org/hmaurel?n=durand&oc=&p=denis+louis
http://gw.geneanet.org/amamaurice?n=durand&oc=&p=denis+louis

Her parents are Charles Malo JACET DESLONGRAIS and Marie Marthe NORMAND.

Marriage in 1766 in Rochefort, Saint-Louis parish (14/JUL/1766)

http://www.archinoe.net/v2/ad17/visualiseur/registre.html?id=170032239

Frame 92/211

Parents :

- Nicolas JOCET and + Perrine Hélène MACEY
- + Antoine NORMAND and Marie Magdeleine CAILLAUD

His occupation :  commis de la marine in Rochefort like his father if I understand correctly

Poivre recommande M. des Longrais - Pierre Poivre et Compagnie.
www.pierre-poivre.fr/doc-68-11-mois.pdf
Poivre recommande M. des Longrais ... 1 On trouve une petite bio de Charles-Malo Jocet des Longrais dans Bougainville et ses compagnons … t.1, p.443.

Antoine NORMAND was a merchant.

The given name Malo can be explained by the origin of Nicolas JACET. He got married in Saint-Malo in 1740 (26/APR/1740). After the death of his wife, he remarried there in 1765 (17/JAN/1765).

http://archives-en-ligne.ille-et-vilaine.fr/thot_internet/FrmLotDocFrame.asp?idlot=140108/140109&idfic=0376442&resX=1920&resY=1080&init=1

Frame 16/61

Nicolas JOCET, sieur des Longrais, marchand de vins en gros, 42 years old

He is a son of the late Germain JOCET and the late Françoise DESCHAMPS, widower of Guillemette PENEC.

http://gw.geneanet.org/samlap?n=jocet&oc=&p=germain

Perinne Helenne MACEY is 28 and a half, daughter of Gaud MACEY, sieur de la Vigne, and Servanne BLANCHET, both deceased.

David

and http://gw.geneanet.org/racap25?n=jocet&oc=&p=germain

 

[Tracy1303]

Wow David!

This is a LOT of information!  How did you find it all?  This is going to take a bit of piecing together to understand.  I know the family were Notaires in Mauritius.

I will get on to this tomorrow and try to see where all this fits.

Thank you!