Johann Conde left for America in 1630...

He had a son named Zacheus Conde born in New Haven, 1640.


See also:  Rev. Wm. Cogswell, ed., NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL & GENEALOGICAL REGISTER, Vol. 1, esp. article by Charles William Bradley, Esq. (Sec. of State-CT) "The Names of the Proprietors of New Haven CT in the year 1685" for Zacheus Cande, Henry Bristoll, Serjt. Nathan Andrews, Mallery.

In 1664 New Haven Colony became part of Connecticut Colony.

1675-1676 King Philip's War fought in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

1687 Andros assumes control of Connecticut.


On one of our recent trips to the Fairfield History Library and Museum we were reading more about the process of becoming a D. A. R. 

But we also peeked at some information about the National Huguenot Society.

And found a John Conde listed in the names associated with the Huguenot Society of America.

Even though we've not really demystified the whole Huguenot piece of family research yet, we do feel compelled to pursue the greater story in addition to our personal ancestory.

In it's simplest meaning a Huguenot was/is(?) a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France or French Calvinists. 

Such people came about subsequent to the 10th of December 1520 when Martin Luther burned the Papal Bull against him.

And Jean Cauvin or John Calvin's writings.  The term Huguenot was in use by the 1560's.

By the 17th century there were "French Protestants" as opposed to German co-religionists called "Calvinists."  And by the end of the 17th century some 200,000 Huguenots had been driven from France by religious persecutions.  An example of such activity was the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in which 5000-30,000 Protestants were slain by Catholics.  The 1560s were the start of the French Wars of Religion which people nowadays don't really "like" to discuss much because the tragedies that took place were horrifying on personal and global scales.  And sometimes when people discuss historical happenings, the people and events get compared to contemporary people and events and the details MAY NOT be the same.  It is only through detail nitpicking and a rigorous comparison of the past to present structure and society that we can raze the dread and see how the contemporary world is working hard not to blindly repeat the past!  We are exploring the history of religious and political people in order to better understand what has been, so that we can better understand the world of now.

Huguenots were people at high risk until the promulgation of the Edict of Toleration (13 OCTOBER 1781) which was the more "successful" in a series of edicts which failed to bring peace among religious groups.  Edicts, in other words, were not as consensual as other kinds of agreements like treaties.  And yet, they had the power to rearrange jurisdiction and this rearranged the landscape of our ancestors.  The Edict of Toleration, proclaimed by Joseph II, for instance, over a period of eight years forced the closure of 700 monasteries.  "There still remained, however, 1324 monasteries with 27,000 monks and nuns.  For those which remained a new organization was prescribed," our old ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WORLD HISTORY tells us.  It also explains, "The connection of the ecclesiastical order with Rome was weakened, schools were established with the property of the churches, innovations in the form of worship were introduced, nor did the interior organization of the Church escape alteration."  Pope Pius VI traveled to Vienna in 1782 to try and prevent these changes.  The Holy Father had a duty to pull the Catholic Church as a Holy Institution through these times of change.  The violence between all types of people had spiraled out of control and though religion had a responsibility to take some of the blame for participating in worldly affairs, the Holy Father was in the position of ALSO being sacredly bound to God and he had to see how best to survive the sacraments.

As usual while the leaders of church and state were pressed to sort their particular Orders from each others' articulations of form and realm maintenance, there were also matters fundamental to the peoples' lots in life at stake.  Like, during this time "feudal burdens were reduced to fixed norms" and "attempts were made to abolish completely personal servitude among the peasants."

Other Edicts...like the Edict of Nantes had really messed up peoples' sense of stability because these were like spokes in the wheels of humanity and changed the direction of the course of the whole in spots, and, then there were subsequent mechanisms put in place to reverse those or further derail an onward development.  All this edicting forced much fleeing and fancy footwork that makes it pretty difficult to easily trace our roots!

In 1685, for example, when there was a revocation of the Edict of Nantes, "The exercise of the reformed religion  in France was forbidden, children were to be educated in the Catholic faith, emigration was prohibited."  But despite this, "more than 50,000 families, including military leaders (Schomberg), men of letters, and a large part of the artisans of France, made their way to foreign countries" (AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WORLD HISTORY).

Industry was wrecked!

Exiles found welcome in Holland, England (Spitalfields), Brandenburg, English North America, and South Africa.  At that time the Protestants of Alsace retained the freedom of worship which had been secured to them.

That's a lot of families on the move!  And some figures place the "illegal flight" of Protestants at much higher numbers, the kinds of thousands that also denote the increasing numbers of people slain.

There were some who fled Europe all together.  Some went with Jean Ribault, for example, to the banks of the St. John's River near now Jacksonville, Florida.  Others went to what would become New Jersey and New York, and to Nova Scotia.

The Reverend Elie Prioleau from Pons France settled in Charleston, South Carolina.

In the 1700s, several hundred Huguenots made way to the colony of Virginia.

It wasn't until 1787 edicting that people gained a "right of return."  And it's not like there was computering and card cataloging that was keeping track of all our families.

Some families made "crests."  These were like storyboards that told the journey tales in pictures.  Often these crests also included symbols which represented old family names and time served in various armies and battling, religious history, and social clues about families and regions!

We only had little bit of time at the library on that visit and as it was divided that up between Huguenots and MacAlpines.  We'll get those tidbits of MacAlpine information posted soon!