In 2005 the NYG&B Collection acquired 199 reels of microfilm containing the famous “Walloon Index” or Collection des Fiches of the Bibliothèque Wallonne in Leiden, The Netherlands. Purchase of the film was made possible by a generous grant from our friends at the Huguenot Society of America. The reels were purchased from the Genealogical Society of Utah, which filmed the Index in 1950. They are cataloged at the NYPL Milstein Division as microfilm *ZI-1374, and the NYPL catalog lists the range of surnames on each reel. Like all GSU films these can also be viewed at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and its branches worldwide[1].
What is the Index?
The Bibliothèque Wallonne or Walloon Library was established at Leiden in 1852 and is now part of Special Collections at the University Library of Leiden University. The Walloon Library maintains a large collection of works on the history of French-speaking Protestants, and is also the repository for the records of many extinct congregations. In 1875 a commission appointed to compile historical information about the the Walloon churches began the creation of the Index, the original of which is housed at the Library[2]. The commission’s goal was to index all baptismal, marriage, membership and death records of French Protestant churches in the Netherlands, as well as some in Belgium, Germany and France. They also included in the index some records of French-speaking people found in registers of Dutch Reformed churches in the Netherlands. The size of the index can be judged by the fact that it fills 199 reels of film. The years covered are 1500-1828.
Value of the Index
Large numbers of French-speaking Protestant refugees found their way to the American colonies, including New York. A substantial percentage of these settlers (or their forebears) had fled from France and what is now Belgium to either the Dutch Republic or the German states, where they often remained for awhile before coming to America. The Index should be helpful in tracking many of these families[3], as well as those of 19th and 20th century immigrants of similar origin. Some families in the Index emigrated to other parts of the world then under Dutch rule, including South Africa, Surinam, and Netherlands Antilles. Historians, including art historians, who are researching Europeans of French Protestant origin, may also find the Index of value..
Walloons and Huguenots
It has become common practice in the U.S. to refer to all French-speaking Protestants as Huguenots. Many historians argue, however, that there were two distinct groups: those properly called Huguenots, who originated in the Kingdom of France, and the Walloons from the Low Countries. That this distinction was carried over to the New World can be seen in early New York records where there are references to “the French and Walloons.” In the Dutch Republic (the modern Netherlands) the majority of French Protestants were Walloons, although large numbers of Huguenots also found refuge there and are included in the “Walloon” index.
While millions of Americans have Huguenot or Walloon ancestry, we tend to know little of the history that led these groups to emigrate to the New World. Following is a very brief outline of the history of the two groups.
The Walloon Country
In Belgium today the southern half of the country is the French-speaking La Région Wallonne, or Wallonia, one of the federal state’s three regions[4]. The inhabitants of the region have been known as Walloons for hundreds of years[5]. In earlier times the Walloon country also included the present French départements of Nord and (part of) Pas de Calais. This region, formerly southern Flanders (“Walloon Flanders”) and Hainaut and all of Artois, was annexed by France between 1640 and 1678.
The Walloon country was historically part of the Low Countries (Pay-Bas, or “Netherlands”). In the Middle Ages the local rulers were subject to the King of France, but beginning in 1385 control passed to the Dukes of Burgundy who eventually ruled all of the Low Countries. After the last Duke died in 1477, his territories became part of the Hapsburgs’ Holy Roman or German Empire, through the marriage of his daughter Mary of Burgundy to an Austrian prince. Mary’s son Philip I married the heiress to the Spanish throne, bringing Spain under Hapsburg control as well. Just before his death in 1555, Philip I’s son Charles V divided the Empire, giving his son Philip II control of Spain and the Low Countries. Philip chose to rule from Madrid, and it is said that he spoke neither French nor Dutch.
This proved to be an unhappy arrangement for many in the Low Countries. By the 16th century the region had become the industrial and commercial heart of Europe, a center of world trade and a land where the arts flourished. As the century progressed the situation was complicated by the Protestant Reformation. Large numbers, including many Walloons, left the Roman Catholic Church and became Calvinists.
In 1566 a Revolt broke out against Spanish rule, under Protestant leadership. Determined to wipe out the rebels and their religion, King Philip sent a Spanish army into the southern Netherlands and restored his control there, but the north successfully resisted this invasion and in 1581 declared independence from Spain, as the United Provinces or Dutch Republic. The struggle between the Dutch and Spanish went on for many more decades, but a permanent division of the Low Countries was set in place.
The southern provinces now became known as the Spanish Netherlands[6]. In that region the Protestant churches were closed and their adherents had to choose between returning to the Catholic Church or leaving the country. Thousands of Protestant Walloons fled to the Dutch Republic, Germany, or England. Of those who remained behind, many remained secretly Protestant and went into exile later on.
France and the Huguenots
In France the Protestant Reformation also came to be dominated by Jean Calvin and his followers. By 1559 they were numerous enough to convene the first national Synod of the Reformed or Huguenot[7]Church. Although the reformers attracted many prominent Frenchmen and much of the middle class, the opposition was equally powerful and from the 1560s to the 1590s France was racked by bitter religious wars, remembered today especially for the notorious St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572 in which large numbers of Protestants were murdered. In 1589 the crown passed to Henri de Navarre, who was himself a Huguenot. Although after ascending the throne as Henri IV he became a Catholic, he recognized that peace could be restored only by accepting the existence of the Huguenots. In 1598 he issued the famous Edict of Nantes, granting the Protestants freedom of worship and control of some 200 towns and cities.
Huguenots emigrated from France in several waves, beginning as early as 1562. Emigration died down after the Edict of 1598, but beginning in the 1620s the terms of the Edict were increasingly violated, and emigration resumed. Conditions worsened until 1685 when the Edict of Nantes was revoked and Protestantism was effectively outlawed. The Revocation caused a massive exodus from France, leaving behind only a tiny (but influential) Protestant minority which survives to this day.
New York
While Huguenot and Walloon settlers can be found in most of the colonies, they were particularly numerous in New York. The first permanent European settlers to come to New Netherland were Walloons[8], and subsequent years saw many more French Protestants arrive. After the English took over in 1664 this immigration continued, for example in the early 1670s a large contingent arrived from the exile community at Mannheim in Germany (which is covered in the Index). The largest influx of Huguenots into New York occurred after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
For many years Dutch Reformed ministers in New Amsterdam conducted services in French as well as Dutch, but the earliest French-speaking families eventually assimilated into the larger Dutch community. This was not the case with the Huguenots who arrived after the Revocation, as they were numerous enough to establish their own churches, and later they usually assimilated directly into the English-speaking population.
Using the Index
The cards in the Index were pre-printed for each church and type of record, so that the indexer only had to fill in the names and dates. This makes reading the cards easier, but as some of the filming is not of the highest quality some ingenuity may sometimes be required to read the handwritten portions.
The cards are printed and written in both French and Dutch, but anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of either language (or a good dictionary) should be able to use them.
The cards are arranged alphabetically by surname. In most cases, variant spellings of a name are grouped together under the most common French form of the name. There may be a cross-reference card from one spelling to another, but if you do not find the spelling you are used to, try alternates.
Within each surname, the cards are arranged chronologically, not by first name. It is essential to keep this in mind.
Following is a transcript of a sample card in French, in this case extracting a marriage from the Mannheim church register. The couple are the founders of the well-known Brokaw family.
Mariés à l’Eglise française de Manheim le 18 Decembre 1666
Broucard Bourgoy, vef de Marie du May
et Catherine Lefevre
The following transcript of a sample card in Dutch extracts a marriage intention from the city records of Amsterdam. This well-known couple arrived in New Netherland on the first ship to bring settlers to the colony, and founded the Rapalyea family (many spellings).
Kerkinteekenregister te Amsterdam den 13 Jan 1624
Raparlie Joris geb Valenchiene 19j boratwerker Waelepadt
Triko Catharina geb Pris in Walslant 18j Nes geass met Marrij Flamengh haar suster
Both of these examples represent records that have already been known to researchers and published elsewhere, but many other Index entries remain to be discovered.
Once an entry is found, the original church record from which it was taken should be obtainable on film from the FHL.
Notes
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The films are catalogued at the FHL as Fiches op de Waalse Registers, 1500-1828; the reels are numbered 199755–199953. There is a similar separate but much smaller index, the Collection Mirandolle (21 reels, FHL 199963-199983) which the NYG&B has not yet acquired. For a description of these collections and related sources see Church Records of the Netherlands — Walloon or French Reformed, a research paper published by the LDS Church (Series C, No. 23, 1973), copy in NYPL Milstein Division call no. NYGB NETH. G 17.5, also on FHL INTL Fiche 6000055.
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We are grateful to Henk Jan de Jonge, President of the Commission de l’histoire des Eglises wallonnes aux Pays-Bas, for permission to purchase the index films from the GSU.
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French Protestant refugees also fled in large numbers to England; they are not included in the Index but their records have been collected and published by the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland (formerly the Huguenot Society of London). Copies of these publications will be found at the New York Public Library and other libraries, and some are available online.
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The other regions are the Flemish (Dutch)-speaking Flanders and the federal capital of Brussels.
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The name is said to derive from the old Germanic Wale or Walis, meaning “stranger,” applied to this area where a “strange” (i.e. non-Germanic) language and culture existed.
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In 1713 Spain ceded the provinces to Austria and they were known as the Austrian Netherlands until the 1790s when they were overrun by French Revolutionary armies. In 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars they were merged with the Dutch Republic to form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but the differences that had divided north and south for so long remained, and in 1830 the southern provinces became the separate Kingdom of Belgium.
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There is disagreement over the origin of the name Huguenot, and consideration of the various theories is beyond the scope of this article.
by Harry Macy Jr., FASG, FGBS
Originally published in The New York Researcher, Summer 2005
Updated June 2011
© 2011 The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
All rights reserved.