Surname Saturday - HUGUENIN - HUGUNIN

Dear Grandparents,

Sometimes life interferes with my determination to post information about a different surname each week. Last week was one of those times but I will endeavor to catch up. Last week's Surname Saturday topic is HUGUENIN or HUGUNIN. My ancestors David Huguenin age 60 and his wife Susanne Jacot age 47 and their children Son Dan'l age 14, Marguerite age 12, Son Abraham age 10 and son David age 8 are found among "A List of Germains and Switz Protestants under the Command of Collo Purry qualified before his Excellency Robert Johnson Esquire Gorernour of this Province on the 22 and 23 dayes of December 1732." This citation is from the article "Purrysburgh" by Henry A. M. Smith published in "The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine" vol. 10:4 (Oct 1909) pages 208-210 ( as found on www.ancestry.com) and includes the original spelling. Family tradition would number the Huguenins among the french speaking Swiss protestants.

This Huguenin Family came from Le Locle in the canton of Neuchatel, in western Switzerland near the border with France. According to the Huguenin Family History blog at http://hugueninfamily.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/3/#comments "The known ancestor, named Outhenyn chiez Heuguenin, was a free-burgher and lived there at the end of the 15th century." Though the surname may have existed in Switzerland before the influx of the French protestants fleeing France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there is no doubt that our Huguenins were Protestants and would have identified themselves with the Huguenot refugees who settled in South Carolina. Our ancestor, David Huguenin, is included in the list of "Ancestors Claimed by Members of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina since 1885." http://www.huguenotsociety.org/

The Huguenin surname appears in France as early as 1292 according to the Huguenin Family blog at wordpress. The author cites two incidences of the name, "The Census Parisiorum refers to the presence in Paris of a so-called Huguenin la Bourguignon, this name suggesting a Burgundian origin." The second  incidence is in Burgandy "a certain Hughes Bourgogne, called Huguenin, born in 1260 and dead in 1288."

Many Huguenin researchers list Moyse Huguenin, born about 1630 in Le Locle and died about 1675 as David Huguenin's father. His mother is listed as Marie Huguenin-Virchard, born about 1639 in Switzerland. She is from another of the many two named Huguenin clans in Neuchatel. I do not have any personal knowledge of their information.

In an interesting coincidence, while my husband was working at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, he called one day asking me for the name of the colonial town where my ancestors had settled in South Carolina. When I replied Purrysburg, he mentioned that a History Professor at Whitworth had announce the publication of a book on Purrysburg. Arlin C. Migliazzo's book "To Make This Land Our Own: Community, Identity and Cultural Adaptation in Purrysburg Township, South Carolina, 1732-1865" was published in 2007 by the University of South Carolina Press. It is the definitive study of Purrysburg. I enjoyed talking with Prof. Migliazzo about Purrysburg and the Huguenin family.

In a couple of weeks, I will have the opportunity to travel to Charleston and I hope to do some additional research and visit the Purrysburgh site.

Love,
Cecily