BOUILLON

[JEFFERY A. DUVALL]

For the at least the past 150 years my family has maintained that one of
our ancestors, Mme. Madelaine-Marguerite BOUILLON GAERTNER (1792-1859), was
a direct descendant of Godfrey of BOUILLON, leader of the First Crusade,
and a relative of St. Anthony of Padua. Mme. GAERTNER was the daughter of
Antoine BOUILLON (b. 25-Mar-1759 in Danne, France and d. 16-Sep-1796 in
Danne, France) and his wife Marie-Ursule CLEMENTZ. Antoine was a son of
Noel BOUILLON (c. 1712-1772) and Marie-Eve FEYDT and the grandson of an
E(s)tienne BOUILLON and Marie DONAT. That is as far back as any of us have
been able to go. Is it possible that this BOUILLON family might, in fact,
be related to either of the houses that held the title of Duke of Bouillon?
I have read accounts of the family of Godfrey de BOUILLON which claim that
he died childless and others that claim that he had at least one daughter.
I have also run across accounts of the de LA TOUR d'AUVERGNE family (who
were at least the second house to hold the title of Duke of Bouillon) which
claim a descent from Godfrey de BOUILLON. Any help will be greatly
appreciated.

Jeff Duvall (irx...@indyvax.iupui.edu)

[Jared Olar]

You should check out the discussion of the descendants of Godfrey of
Bouillon in ANCESTRAL ROOTS, sixth and seventh editions. There may not
be any descents (provable or otherwise) for the families you have
mentioned, but Godfrey did have descendants--in England (not, as far as I
currently know, in France).

Jared Olar
ol...@eagle.uis.edu

[Gary J. Khusidman]

I am not sure about Godfrey, but I saw mentioning of Boullions in France
during the first Fronde (1648-1650 if I am not mistaken). If you could
find an account of the events of the Frondes, I am sure you could find
something about Boullions. I don't think that they have descended from
Godfrey (at least not in a patrilineal descent) because I haven't seen
any mentioning of this name in XIV-XVI centuries.

Good luck.

Gary.

[Don Stone]

On Tue, 9 Apr 1996, JEFFERY A. DUVALL wrote:
> For the at least the past 150 years my family has maintained that one
> of our ancestors, Mme. Madelaine-Marguerite BOUILLON GAERTNER (1792-
> 1859), was a direct descendant of Godfrey of BOUILLON, leader of the

> First Crusade,...
> Jeff Duvall (irx...@indyvax.iupui.edu)
and soon Jared Olar <ol...@UIS.EDU> responded:

> You should check out the discussion of the descendants of Godfrey of
> Bouillon in ANCESTRAL ROOTS, sixth and seventh editions. There may
> not be any descents (provable or otherwise) for the families you have
> mentioned, but Godfrey did have descendants--in England (not, as far
> as I currently know, in France).

In addition to gleaning the genealogical information from
Ancestral Roots, Line 158A, you might enjoy looking at "The Swan
Badge and the Swan Knight" by the late Sir Anthony R. Wagner in
Archaeologia, vol. 97, 1959, pp. 127-138, supplemented by many
illustrations and a chart. (An abbreviated version of this
discussion later appeared in his Pedigree and Progress.)
Wagner tells us that Godfrey of Bouillon became identified
fairly soon after his death with the legend of the swan knight
in stories propagated by various courtly poets and chroniclers;
Godfrey's mother was said to be a daughter of the swan knight in
many of these accounts. Then, beginning some 200 years after
Godfrey's death many different descendants of this family began
using swans in their heraldry, among them the Bohun earls of
Hereford and Essex, for example. (Wagners's discussion needs
minor corrections, since he thought that the English Geoffrey
was an illegitimate half brother of Godfrey rather than being
identical to him.)
-- Don Stone