No 1 - June 2000
Editor of this issue: Carsten Berg Høgenhoff,
Oslo, Norway.
Editoral committee on this issue: Sigurd Lambek, Oregon, U.S.A. and
Erik Tøndevold, Asker, Norway
Dear reader,
SIEC has truly become an international organisation. As the work within
SIEC goes forward, there is a need for a short summary and update published
on a regular basis. As much of our corresponcance take place in Scandinavian
languages, we have chosen to publish this Newsletter in English for
the benefit of our foreign readers.
As a start, the Newsletter
will be written in turn by Mr. Erik Tøndevold, Mr. Sigurd Lambek
and myself - and I go out first with this 1st Edition in June 2000.
We aim at three to four Newsletters per year. For further information,
there are links to the SIEC web site.
Oslo, 1st June 2000
Carsten Berg Høgenhoff
Contents
What is SIEC?
SIEC means "Société
Internationale des Études de Créqui". Behind this
- and do forgive us! - rather posh title you will find an informal cooperation
between several descendants of the Norwegian 17th century officer Ahasverus
de Créqui dit la Roche. Our common interest is genealogy, and
as we happen to share this same ancestor and find interest in investigating
him and his family, we have formed SIEC as a mean for reaching common
goals.
SIEC is a pure result
of the internet era. Without the web, the members of SIEC would still
perform their genealogy in any form from shoe box archives to more professional
approaches. What is sure, is that we would not know anything about each
other, and we would not have reached as far as we have by now. Through
SIEC, we manage to share information as well as tasks, and the result
is new knowledge and better understanding for all of us. By June 2000,
we have members in Norway, U.S.A., Austria and Germany.
As it is, we are pleased
to share our knowledge with anyone who cares to read about it on this
web site. That is, in short, also the platform upon which SIEC is built:
Common interest, an open flow of information between the members, and
partly also on the web. The information we bring forward comes from
existing litterature, state archives etc, and we also use the web for
what it is worth.
There are, of course,
numerous descendants of Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche who
are not members of SIEC, but who share our interest in genealogy. To
all of you, please take SIEC for what it is: An informal club for common
genealogy interest. We do not have all the right answers, and
what we publish on this web site is not in any form an "official
and right" version of all those things that happened centuries
ago. We just find great fun in learning more about these individuals
and - just as important - the times they lived in.
In short, our tasks are
divided in three categories:
- Knowledge about Ahasverus de Créqui dit
la Roche's ancestors. One particular task - and so far unsolved
- is to find the link between his few known ancestors and the French
noble family de Créquy from which he has his name and coat
of arms.
- Knowledge about Ahasverus de Créqui dit
la Roche's carreer and life both in The Netherlands and in
Norway. We know basically nothing about the time before he came to
Norway in 1657, while our knowledge about his career and whereabouts
between the time he was recruited as a captain to the Danish-Norwegian
army and his death as a lieutenant colonel in 1678 is rather deep.
There are still holes to be filled, though.
- Knowledge about his descendants until
approx. 1800-1850. We have followed some of the lines all the time
until today, but have a hope to fill in as much as possible about
all his descendants until the start of the 19th century. From this
time, people interested in genealogy will know more or less what is
available about their families, and with a complete list until this
period we may "reach out" to those who thus may share our
knowledge about our common ancestor.
New SIEC-members
The spring has brought
SIEC several new members. We welcome Jan-Erik Sem Dambæk
of Vienna, Austria, Bjørg Ager-Hanssen of Stavanger, Norway
and Norbert Nürnberg-Kaas of Sylt, Germany. E-mail addresses
etc. have been provided to all SIEC members by e-mail or telefax, and
can be obtained from me on e-mail. See Carsten Berg Høgenhoff
via eMail in left frame.
The Gouda stained glass
window
Much hope arose when Mr.
Réne Lesage of France informed us about the stained glass windows
in the St. John church in Gouda, The Netherlands. A glass artist friend
of him had told him that he had seen the de Créqui coat of arms
in the church windows. Then, on a web search, Mr. Dag Strømsæther
discovered the picture of this particular window
- and we were thrilled with excitement. Could this lead us to the
link between Jean de Créqui dit la Roche and the French noble
family?
We were put off a little
by the fact that the colours on the coat af arms in the window were
not correct, but we started our little investigation. During April and
May 2000, there has been vivid correspondance between Mr. Sigurd Lambek
and myself on SIEC's side and several people connected to the church
on the other: Mr. Maurits Tompot, Mrs. Andrea Gasten and Dr. Xander
van Eck.
We have now determined
that indeed Mr. Lesage's information was correct: The coat of arms shown
in the stainad glass window belongs to de Créquy family. The
wrong colours are due to a restauration many years ago, but the text
below the coat of arms reads "de Crecquy". Old manuscripts
also describe the right colours; red and yellow/gold. We also know which
de Crequy this coat of arms belonged to: Jeanne de Crequi, wife of
Jean de la Tremouille. She was the daughter of Jean IV de Créquy and thus
the sister of Jean V de Crequy who was knighted with the Order of the
Golden Fleece in 1430.
Mrs. Andrea Gasten is
well informed about the various coats of arms shown in the St. John
stained glass windows, and in our corresponance with her we have disclosed
that there is seemingly no connection between Jeanne de Crequi and
her husband Jean de la Tremouille and Jean de Créqui dit la Roche
. First of all, we know much about Jeanne de Crequi and Jean de la Tremouille's
descendants, and so far Jean de Créqui dit la Roche has not been
found among them. Then, there are no traces of any of the other coats
of arms from the Jæger-shield in the stained glass windows, which
may also be an indication of non-familiarity - but yet not in itself
decisive.
Thus, the St. John church
has not provided us with what we search for; Jean de Créqui dit
la Roche's ancestors and the unquestionable link to the de Crequy family
of France.
One thing is interesting,
though: Mr. Sigurd Lambek has found the name " de Lys " connected
to a de Lannoy family. This Jean III Seigneur de Lannoy, de Lys,
de Bossuit, de Rumeur was also a Knight of the Golden Fleece in 1451
, and three of his relatives, Hugues de Lannoy, Gilbert de Lannoy and
Baudoin de Lannoy, were knighted already in 1429 when the Order of the
Golden Fleece was founded. The village of Lannoy is just outside the
cities of Lille and Roubaix in the northern part of France, and the
village Lys is a couple of kilometres from Lannoy.
The distance from the
fact that the de Lannoy family appears in the St. John stained glass
windows and to a possible connection to "our" de Lys/de Leis
from the Jæger shield is indeed too far to make any possible suggestions.
It is, on the other hand, the first time we have seen the name de
Lys mentioned anywhere, and one should perhaps continue investigations
in this direction? Could there, for example, be a connection between
the fact that both Jean V de Créquy and Jean III Seigneur de
Lannoy and other members of his family were knights of the Golden
Fleece and the de Lys-name on the Jæger-shield?
Descendants of Ahasverus
de Créqui dit la Roche
One major task of ours
is to complete the list of Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche's
descendants until approx 1850. This work is in progress, and much information
is available already. Lately, I have included information from the Jæger
family , and Mr. Jan Dambæk has provided us with much
information about Karen de Crequy's descendants
these last few months. Earlier, we have received information from Mr.
Sigurd Lamek, Mr. Erik Tøndevold, Mr. Dag Strømsæther
and Mr. Svein Solvang, but some editing remains.
All material written in
this newsletter has been compiled by members of SIEC and is believed
to be correct, but is not guaranteed in any way. Use at own risk if
copied or used for personal research.
The SIEC newsletter No 1 - June 2000
Carsten Berg Høgenhoff
