The Thoughtful Homemaker

I finally watched the Star Trek movie and really enjoyed it despite all of its flaws. I love that this is an alternate time line Star Trek rather than a simple retelling of the previous stories. I thought the actors did a great job and I almost didn’t want the movie to end. I heard die hard Trekkies hate this movie but I really don’t understand why.

I am further along in the Sookie Stackhouse book and have finally have gotten to the very sexual part of the book. I was embarrassed reading the sex scenes. The book was so great in other places though. The old ladies of the small town love the vampire because he fought in the Civil War for the South and he knew their ancestors. They had him come to their meeting and the old people asked questions more about their ancestors than about the war itself, making sure their ancestors were true Southern patriots. I loved that part of the book and know that is what I would do if I met a vampire who was centuries old. I would ask about how life was back in the old days. I would tell the vampire to write a history book and together we would make a fortune off of history books written from the vampire’s perspective. I guess that would make a boring story though.

I found out that Leonie’s had an unknown sister. Lousie Adelle Dumanet was born in Choisy-Au-Bac is 1831. She died six months later in the same town in 1832.

I also found her grandfather, Melchoir, who was a shoemaker in Choisy-Au-Bac. He died in 1818 and lived with his son, Francois. I still don’t know where Leonie was born or where her parents were married, but I will say that this is a lot of fun!

I decided to try some new authors and this was the result.

Sharon Kay Penman-

Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons

is the first of Penman’s Welsh trilogy all taking place in the 13th century from the reigns of John, Henry III, and Edward I. This book is about the reign of King John and his dealings with the Prince Llewelyn Fawr, or Llewelyn the Great. This is my favorite century to study so I felt like I had to read these books and I must say they are very well researched.

I enjoyed reading about the Battle of Mirebeau and the parts with Eleanor of Aquitaine were my favorite parts. The latter part of the novel is also very good. You learn a little bit about Welsh history and culture with bits of Welsh language thrown in. I liked that she showed both good and bad of Llewelyn and King John. Despite all of the new information, the book is easy to read and is fun to read in parts.

The problem with the book is the central character- Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of King John and the wife of Llewelyn Fawr. I understand why she chose this character, being at the center of the English and Welsh courts, the problem with her is that she is not a sympathetic character. She spends the novel being whiney, wishy washy, and sex obsessed. She complains the Welsh do not like her, she will always be an outsider over and over again. She doesn’t get along with her step-son, and she fights with her husband constantly being love making sessions. The tedious part of that is the constant repetitions of “mayhap, my love, for certes, I will love you. I will never forget being that shy 14 year old bride. Remember how shy I was? I was such an innocent 14 year old bride. I was just trying to help because I love you! Oh, my Papa, King John will always come between us. It is John again! You love your father? (duh!) Oh that John you have his eyes, you look just like him (blah blah blah) Mayhap!! Maude de Braose! What did my father do? Oh no, I cannot believe he was a murderer, oh he was so good to me, noooooo!” Those sentiments were repeated over and over and over again. I wished she spent more time on King John’s last days which almost can be compared to Richard Nixon’s last days of president. He did not know who to trust, everyone seemed to be against him, and his terror caused him to make terrible mistakes. Joanna gets more and more annoying as you read about her. Joanna and her daughter Elen have ideas that are too modern, especially regarding women’s rights. The thing that bothered me the most is Llewelyn holding Joanna’s hand while she gave birth. I do not know if that is historical, but I do know that the idea of the husband helping his wife while she is in labor is a very modern idea.

Over all the book was a good read, though the bedroom scenes I had to scan through.

Tanya Huff

Blood Lines

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I watched the television show based on the books Blood Ties. I loved the TV show and watched the entire two seasons within a week. So I was excited to read the books. The books were not as god as the television show. Tanya Huff is a great writer, but the characters were not as interesting as they were in the show. There is a lot of sexual tension in the show, but in the books, the main character Vicky regularly sleeps with the vampire and Detective Celucci jumping from bed to bed. That sexual tension was the best part of the TV show. I was unable to finish the book because I couldn’t take all of the “F” words. Yeah, call me a Puritan, I don’t care, but I cannot stand to read the “F” word. I would rather read the annoying, “my love, my love, let us make sweet love together” than the “F” word. Too bad, because I really wanted to read about mummy trying to take over Canada. It is better than it sounds trust me.

Charlaine Harris-

Dead Until Dark

The first of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries

This is the book the show True Blood is based on. So far I am loving this book. I couldn’t get through the show with all of the “F-you!, no F-you” but the book is surprisingly clean. The main character is a southern girl who doesn’t like that sort of language, go Sookie! I love the main character, Sookie Stackhouse and am excited to read the books in the series. If only the show was just as polite and respectful as Sookie is!

I have finally found proof that my 3rd Great grandfather was indeed the Louis Charlemagne Dumanet born in Choisy-Au-Bac in 1806. I went to the library where you can access ancestry international for free and typed in Dumanet. I found a Louise Adelle Dumanet born in Choisy-Au-Bac in 1831. I thought it too coincidental that her name is too similar to Leonie Louisa and her sister, Clara Adelle. When I got home I looked up the L’Oise archives online and found the birth record of Louise Adelle. It was difficult to read. English documents are hard enough to read, but reading in a language you are not fluent in is even more difficult. I did understand that her father’s name was Charlemagne Dumanet and her mother was Claire Adelle Patry. I was so excited to find Claire Patry’s name for I have been searching for over year for her name anywhere in French records. To finally see her name brought tears to my eyes. I finally found an original document bearing Claire’s real name. Now I need to get the document translated so I can learn other information. I only got that Charlemagne was 25 at the girl’s birth which brings me to the correct year of 1806. It is possible that they were married in another commune or moved not long after Louise’s birth. I will continue to search, wish me luck!

I guess I need to study up on my French. Plus I hope one day to visit Choisy-Au-Bac.

I have always been fascinated by the vampire myth. I still have a journal primarily about vampire myths written in 2003, BEFORE Twilight. It is not a fictional story, just entry after entry on the vampire myth and where it may have come from. I was alone in Hawaii with an 18 month Victoria while my husband was in Thailand. I had to do something. In it I hypothesized that the vampire story is about the rich and powerful mortals who wish to be eternally young and to have immortal power so much that they are willing to do the unnatural. In the past they were the aristocrats, in today’s world they would be celebrities, and it being 2003, I used Michael Jackson as an example.

Why Michael Jackson? 1. He was rich and powerful. 2. He didn’t want to get older and made himself look unnatural. 3. He was obsessed with children and always had them in his home. 4. He MIGHT have done unnatural things to the children. 5. He was very controversial who hid in his compound surrounded by “yes men”. Of course, now I have to use the past tense with him.

Ok, a famous example of someone people usually connect with vampires, Elisabeth Bathory. 1. Rich and powerful. 2. She did not want to get older and did go to extremes to make herself look younger. 3. Obsessed with young girls and had them in her castle at all times. 4. She MIGHT have done unnatural things to the girls. Of course, she is known to have bathed in their blood and beat the girls to death, Michael Jackson would never do something like that to a child at least. 5. She was a noble woman in Eastern Europe so of course she was surrounded by servants who did what she wanted and was a very controversial woman in her time.

Vlad Dracula? 1. Rich and powerful,, though he was a great warrior. 2. He did the unnatural like drink human blood and massively slaughtered his enemies. I read somewhere that he learned his cruel methods while a prisoner in the Ottoman Empire, and was good to the average people. So, interestingly, Vlad would not really make a great modern day vampire character.

It is easy to make a leap to the vampire myth, at least the one started by John William Polidori in 1819, The Vampyre, inspired by the aristocrat Lord Byron. Lord Byron was an aristocrat who had sex with both men and women. He described himself liking violence. He spent money, running up many debts seducing men and women as he traveled around Europe. He would seduce women, rich or poor, then leave them for another. Some of the women obsessed over him after he dumped them making themselves ill and desperate. Lady Catherine Lamb stalked him and later went insane. He was said to seduce even his own half-sister and was abusive to his wife who quickly divorced him. John Polidori was a doctor working under Lord Byron and traveled to Switzerland with him. They spent the summer of 1816 in the Swiss mountains with the Shelleys, Percy and Mary and Mary’s stepsister Claire, who became Lord Byron’s lover. That was the year known as the Year Without A Summer. It was that dark, wet summer that inspired our famous heroes of horror, Frankenstein and The Vampyre.

The fact that a lot of girls fantasize about having one of those Byronic vampires bite them shows how successful those vampires would have been if they really lived.

I used Michael Jackson as an example. Who else would make a good vampire character. It would have to be someone rich, handsome, powerful, cold, aloof, secretive, surrounded by “yes men”, obsessed with youth, and does the unnatural.

This knight’s armor wasn’t exactly shining, but he is very interesting nevertheless. This is a rewrite. I think my writing was so terrible that I feel that I didn’t give this prince enough respect.

Enrique was the younger son of King Fernando III, a great-grandson of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Fernando was King of Castile, Leon, and Galicia and conquered Andalusia. King Fernando III was later known as Saint Fernando because of the successful Reconquista held under his reign. The Reconquista was the campaign started by the Castilian king Alfonso VIII to reconquer Spanish lands from the Muslim sultans. The Reconquista did not end until 1492 when the Muslims were thrown out of Granada. Fernando III was married to Elizabeth of Hohenstaufen, daughter of the powerful Philip of Swabia and the Greek princess Irene, the daughter of a Byzantine Emperor. Elizabeth was a cousin of the infamous Frederick II of Germany and Sicily. Together they had 10 children, 6 of those were healthy boys. After the devout Elizabeth died, Ferdinand married the Countess of Ponthieu and Aumale, Jeanne and with her had Eleanor, later wife of King Edward II of England.

The sons of San Fernando Rey were Alfonso, later King Alfonso X, Fadrique who was raised in Sicily with his cousin Frederick II, Fernando, who died young in battle, Enrique, the subject of this post, Felipe, saved for the priesthood but gave it up for a Norwegian princess, Sancho, an intelligent, educated Archbishop, and Juan Manuel. The brothers spent most of their lives fighting over the lands San Fernando conquered and over the new laws Alfonso X sought to put in place. ENrique was especially ambitious and wished for a kingdom of his own, especially after conquered two lands in Andalusia on his own while his brother was busy writing poem, writing laws, and studying Astronomy. He became friends with his step mother Jeanne, who also felt she did not get the money she felt she deserved as the wife of the former King. Alfonso didn’t divide the newly conquered lands of Andalusia to Enrique’s and Queen Jeanne’s liking so they plotted against him. There were rumors that Jeanne and Enrique were lovers. In anger, King Alfonso kicked out Jeanne out of Castille despite the fact that her daughter Eleanor was about to marry the future Edward I of England. Enrique organized a rebellion in Southern Spain with the help of Alfonso’s enemies in 1255. He miscalculated his “nerdy” older brother and was defeated and forced into exile. He first went to Queen Jeanne’s land of Ponthieu. Enrique stayed in France for a short time. When his younger half sister, Eleanor, arrived in London, Enrique asked permission to stay with his sister. King Henry III allowed Enrique stay in 1256. He was then known as Henry of Castile. Enrique stayed about four years. While there Sancho, the son of Alfonso came to London to visit his aunt and uncle. Sancho was a rude guest and was unpopular with Londoners. He made fun of England and his sister’s “Spanish style” bedroom in the Tower of London. (which I visited personally!)

In 1258, there was a revolution in England. The Barons rose up against the king and his foreign in-laws and half-brothers hanging around taking English money. They wanted the foreigners out and to limit the King’s power through a Parliament. They finally made an agreement called the Provisions of Oxford. The foreign relatives including Enrique had to leave.

Enrique went to Aragon where King Jaume ruled. Jaume was the father of Alfonso’s wife, Violante. While at Jaume’s court he courted the Infanta Constanza. Constanza and Enrique fell in love and asked King Jaume if they could marry. Jaume said he would if he would conquer the Muslim land of Niebla and would make Enrique king. Then King Jaume went behind ENrique’s back and consulted with Alfonso who instead betrothed Constanza to Alfonso’s youngest brother Juan Manuel. Alfonso conquered Niebla himself in 1262. Heartbroken and without a home, or a kingdom, Enrique went to Tunis to give his services as a trained knight to the Sultan of Tunis, Al Mustansir.

In Tunis, he was welcomed Enrique as the son of a king. Enrique worked as a knight errant for the Sultan Al Mustansir, fighting wars for him against his other neighbors in Northern Africa. For his service, Enrique was betting that the Sultan would later help him start a kingdom in Andalusia. Enrique had of course his Christian entourage in Muslim land and were gaining popularity. The members of the sultan’s court became jealous and wanted the sultan to kill Enrique. The sultan refused for he liked Enrique and respected him as a knight and a prince.

About the same time Alfonso got into an argument with another brother Fadrique, who came to Castile from Italy after Frederick II’s death with his Italian wife. Fadrique became angry, again over his legal rights and lands and joined Enrique in Tunis.

The Tunisian members of court finally convinced the Emir to kill the ambitious Enrique. The told the Emir to lure Enrique into a courtyard. Then they would send to lions to eat Enrique. The Emir agreed.

Enrique was told to meet the Emir in the courtyard of his palace. Enrique and his men traveled to the palace. Once they arrived, members of court told Enrique to go alone and that his men must stay behind. Once Enrique left and was out of sight, the “Moors” attacked the men left behind.

Enrique entered the courtyard where the Emir was waiting. They talked about an upcoming attack on one of his neighbors. Then the Emir told Enrique to wait while he went to quickly take care of some business in another room. The Emir walked out a gate and shut the door. On the opposite end of the courtyard two hungry lions were released and ran after Enrique.

The “Moors” told Enrique’s men that they were wasting their time fighting as Enrique was going to be killed. Fadrique was angry and continued to fight, the other men began to fear for their future. They were losing the battle.

Enrique saw the lions and unsheathed his sword. The two lions and Enrique stared at each other, the light reflecting off of the sword blinded the lions. Enrique never turned his back to the lions and walked backwards out of the courtyard and quietly shut the gate. He ran out of the palace killing palace guards as he ran back out into the desert where his men were waiting.

He saw his men fighting the Tunisians and that they looked like they were giving up. He yelled a Castillian cheer to his men and they saw their prince! Enrique ran to his men and surrounded the Emir’s soldiers. Enrique had his sword on the Moor leader’s neck and told them to let his men free.

The Emir came out of his castle and called the fight to a halt. He said, “Let the Christians go!” and was sad to see his favorite knight leave.

Enrique and Fadrique embraced for Fadrique thought his brother had died. They all camped in the desert that night to decide where they would go next. Fadrique was raised in Sicily and Naples with his cousin Frederick and even had an Italian wife. After Frederick died, Frederick’s illegitimate son Manfred was fighting against the Pope to be the King of Sicily and that the pope was supporting the French Charles of Anjou to be the new king of Sicily. They decided to go to the Italian peninsula to offer their services to Charles of Anjou. Since they were cousins to the former king, Frederick II, perhaps for their services he could offer Enrique a kingship.

Enrique and Fadrique fought for Charles of Anjou and helped him to win. Enrique was never offered the kingship he so desired. He left Charles of Anjou and went to fight for his cousin, Conradin, grandson of Frederick II. Conradin was 16 and fought for the Sicilian crown he believed was rightfully his. Conradin lost and Charles had the youth beheaded and Enrique was imprisoned in Sicily for 23 years. That is a good thing for his brother Fadrique returned to Castile where his brother, King Alfonso, had him executed for treason and homosexuality with Fadrique’s co-conspirator in 1277. (those charges were probably false but it is interesting that his nephew, King Edward II of England was also rumored to be a homosexual.) Fadrique was killed without a trial and was secretly strangled to death. Fadrique’s co-conspirator was burned at the stake. It is not officially known why they were killed but in the Cantigas some written by Alfonso X, it mentions “Just as the candle burns so does the flesh of those who did not love womankind.” This was written the year that Fadrique died and his friend Simon was burned to death.

Enrique was later released long after King Alfonso died and returned to Castile where he became regent for his grandnephew King Fernando IV. Enrique had no legitimate children, and though spent most of his life in exile, died with some respect in Castile.

He was the ambitious, younger brother of a king who never got the respect or honor he thought he deserved.
Wars fought: The Reconquista (Kingdom of Castile) conquered Lebrija and Arcos in 1255, The Sicilian Vespers (both sides, won for Charles of Anjou, lost for Conradin), North Africa (various small battles and against two lions, Tunisia)

Exiled 1255-1298
Prison in Italy- 1268-1291
Titles- Senor de Moron, Cote, and Silibar, Senator of Rome, Adelantado Mayor
Sources- Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, Wikipedia, Chronicle of Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England (the last three found on Google Books)

I think that will be my project the next few months. I will work on finding Leonie. Last year I was looking for the Keiths and did find the family of Elizabeth McLin. This year my focus will be on Leonie’s family. I know a lot about Leonie, but I want to find her missing family, her brothers, her mother, her father. They all disappear about 1865. If you are in my family, you can help me as well. Maybe see something I am missing.

I searched the records of Oise for Leonie’s birth record and could not find her in Oise. Either that is the wrong Louis Charlemagne or Louis moved to another area. Since I could not find any Patri’s in Oise that is very possible. Louis was a merchant so he could have easily moved to an a more urban area. At this time I cannot find the Patri’s (Patry?) I found some in Aisne, France but there is not connection to my family found there. The rumor is that the family came from around Paris so I will try that area.

Before I told you the basic story of my ancestors who immigrated from France. I have a lot of information about them once they arrived to the USA but they remain a mystery back in France. Because many of the records in France have not been indexed like they are here in the USA and in Great Britain it is difficult to find your family without knowing which department your family is from.

After the French revolution in 1790, France was divided into 26 regions: Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Burgundy, Brittany, Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Corsica, franche-Comte, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Basse-Normandie, Martinique, Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardy, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, Reunion, Rhone-Alpes, Upper Normandy (Haute-Normandy)

I have a hunch that my ancestor came from the region of Picardy. The next step is to find out the department of the region. The departments are each given a number. I think my ancestor came from Oise which is number 60 in the commune of Choisy-au-Bac. So I would write his birthplace as Choisy-au-Bac, Oise, Picardy, France. I searched on geneanet.org and found that many Dumanets lived in Oise.

Another great website is www.archimaine.fr where you can see original archives online or “Archives en ligne”. You click on the department, (l’oise)- archives, then etat civil. “Anee” means year. You are search actes, tous means all. Then you can see the original documents. They are in alphabetical order which is nice.

If you have anymore tips on French genealogy please let me know!

My great great great grandmother, Leonie Louiza Dumanet, was born in France. Her family came to Tennessee in 1849 and had a tanning business along the banks of the Tennessee River. There were several French and Belgian families opening up tanning businesses, bakeries, etc in the small town of Lobelville, started by the Belgian-Frenchman Henri de Lobel. She was the last of my family to immigrate to America. The next to last was the British Anne Brown who came to Maryland sometime in the 1750s.

Since she was the first person I did a baptism for, I have always been interesting in finding her family in France. Not many French records are indexed at this time and it is difficult to find French information online. So, knowing the first rule of genealogy is to work backwards not forwards, I focused on what I could find out about the family in the United States.

1. Immigration– My mother found the records of the ship Vesta on ancestry.com. Vesta left Le Havre, France on November 9, 1849 and landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. The members of the family listed are Leonie age 5, Eugene 11, Louis 16, her mother, Clara Adele Patri 41, and her uncle Auguste Patri 30. Why is Clara listed with her maiden name? When did her husband immigrate?

2. Land Records- Google Books is a great resource! I found a land record in The River Counties in Google Books mentioning a Louis Domonet and Pierre Eustache buying property in March 1850 in Perry County, Tennessee. I need to go to the Family History Center to get a microfilm of the original land deeds. To find them you go to familysearch.org, then library, put in Perry, Tennessee in place search and find the land deeds I need. I can order them from my local Family History Center straight from Salt Lake City and look at it there.

3. Census- 29 September 1850
Charles Dumania 44 M France $500 Farmer ($500 does not seem like much, but he had more money than his other French neighbors)
Clary 42 France (This is Clara, now listed as Clara Dumania, notice the phonetic spelling of the French name)
Charles Eugene 16 M France (why was he listed as Louis on the ship records and shouldn’t he already be 17?)
Eugene Peusy 12 M France (is Peusy a misspelled name, his last name?)
Heanry Hanrniesse 6 M (who the heck is this? Is this Leonie?)
Augusta Patry 31 M France Blacksmith
Eastache Piere 39 M France Carpenter $372 (who is this?) (where is baby Adele born in August 1850?)
24 June 1860 Linden, Tennessee
Lewis C. Domonet 54 M Tanning and Farming $5000 $6000 Someone in the home was married that year
Clara A. “” 52 F
Henry E. “” 22 M This must be Eugene. Louis or Charles either moved out or died.
Leono 15 M This is Leonie. The census taker must think the name is Leon and assumed she was a boy.
Adell “” 9 F She is in school.
France Raw 54 M Laborer my favorite misspell- Francois. I do not know who he is.
Hellena Yates 24 F NC (who is this? Wife to Louis or Eugene?)
Uncle Augustus was living close by with his American wife Jane Terry and their daughter Josephine.

4. Slave Records
Lewis C. Dumonet had one 25 year old mulatto slave in his own house. Probably worked with Francois.

I do not know what happened to Leonie’s family.

During the Civil War, Louis Dumanet or Dumonet’s farm was attacked by Union troops and destroyed. Leonie was married but her first husband and children were dead by the end of the war and the Union soldiers shot her brother dead. There is no evidence of her family after 1865. Leonie remarried Samuel Warren in 1866. Adel had an illegitimate daughter, Emma, in 1869 and was living with her Uncle Auguste in 1870. Interesting because my cousin is a single mom whose daughter is also named Emma. Adel got married in 1872 to a Frenchman named Henry Charles Zimmerman.

There are also stories of a brother named Tom. Maybe he was a son of Pierre Eustache’s?

Later there is a court record of Leonie L. W. Dumanet and Clara A. Z. Dumanet trying to get compensated for the damage done to their father’s property during the Civil War. Their names are spelled Dumanet like it was on the passenger list of the Vesta so I believe this is how their name was spelled. This claim had to do with a treaty between the US and France in 1885. The sisters claim the US Army took their father’s property from Jan 31, 1862 - February 25, 1865 in Danville, TN.

In 1916, there is another court case involving the estate of Charles Dumanet. The case was dismissed. I do not know where to find the actual court case in detail. Both Leonie and Adel were alive at this time. The case was referred to the Committee of War Claims. It looks like Adel and Leonie did not get their father’s property back.

I went to my library where you can get Ancestry.com international for free. I found a Louis Charlemagne Dumanet born in 1806 in Choisy-Au-Bac, Oise, France a rural area in the Ile-de-France now the Picardie region. Oise offers their microfilm free online. I went to familysearch.org, then library catalog, places, and found the link to the website so I saw the original document. Unfortunately, no parents are listed. I am currently trying to find Leonie. Remember work backwards! This is the only way that I can prove that this Louis Dumanet is my gggg grandfather.

Wish me luck on my journey!!