Laurent Seguin

Born: Abt 1621
Marriage: Marie MASSIEU on 14 Jul 1643 in Saint Aubin En Bray, Picardie, France
Died: 22 Nov 1706, Senantes, France about age 85

General Notes:

The Family of Laurent Seguin and Marie Massieu

Laurent Seguin (c. 1621, France - 22 Nov 1706, Senantes, France) married Marie Massieu (1622, France - 25 Oct 1650, Cuigy-en-Bray, France) on Tuesday, 14 Jul 1643, at the Church of St Leu and St Brice, Cuigy-en-Bray, France. She was the daughter of Adrien Massieu and Louise Beaudry. Their ceremony was performed by Fr Pouchard. Laurent and Marie were later inhabitants of the parish of Dombre, part of the Catholic Diocese of Beauvais, in what is now the Department of Oise, in the historic region of Picardie, France.

Today, in the French governmental structure, the region of Picardie (one of 22 regions in France) has within it three Departments (Oise, Somme, and Aisne). Under Napoleon, 96 Departments were established throughout the country. Beauvais (pop. 53,000) is the governmental center of the Oise Department, while Amiens is the regional capitol. The larger towns found in the Oise Department, include Beauvais, Compiegne, Senlis, Chantilly, and Ermenonville.

Beauvais is about 60 miles north/northwest of Paris in the north central area of the country. The communities of Cuigy-en-Bray (marriage of Laurent and Marie), St Aubin-en-Bray (baptism of their son Francois), and Ons-en-Bray (the apparent first home of Laurent and Marie) lie in a straight line (in that order) just west of Beauvais, along Road D-109, with Cuigy-en-Bray being the farthest west. The village of Senantes, the burial location of Laurent, lies just north of Cuigy-en-Bray.

The following marriage information, listing the names of the two witnesses, is an extract obtained on 27 May 1961 from the register of baptisms, marriages, and burials at the parish of St Leu and St Brice in Cuigy-en-Bray during the year 1643:

Laurent Seguin and Marie Massieu le jour que dessus en presence du dit sieur vicaire, d'Adrian Desmellieres et Denis Tornant, lesequels ont signer avec les partyes le jour et an dessus dits.

Additionally, the following information pertaining to their family comes from an article by Robert-Lionel Seguin, published in Le Droit on 10 Sep 1965, and in La Presse on 24 Dec 1965.

Francois Seguin was born and raised in St Aubin-en-Bray, diocese of Beauvais in Picardie. He was born 4 Jul 1644, and his parents were Laurent Seguin and Marie Massieu. He was named after his godfather, Francois Dufour [Oudin]. The Seguin and the Massieu [families] did not inhabit St Aubin-en-Bray. One may ask, why was their first born baptized at St Aubin-en-Bray while being designated at his marriage in 1672 as being from Ons-en-Bray? It seems that the clergyman happened to be temporarily passing through St Aubin-en-Bray and the parents took advantage of this situation to have their child baptized.

At Jamericourt [south of Ons-en-Bray], an hamlet neighboring St Aubin-en-Bray, Marie Massieu gave birth to a girl, Renee, on 19 Nov 1645. Her husband, Laurent, is designated as "clerc" or clerk, in that village and he also filled in the functions of magistrate and school teacher. Occasionally, he would even act as cantor during he religious ceremonies and help the parish priest with his church records and financial duties.

Because of missing registers, we lose trace of the family for a number of years. We locate it later on at Jouy-sous-Thelle [south of St Aubin-en-Bray], where a son, Pierre, was born 29 Jan 1648. [Another son, Laurent, is born in the same village on 10 Dec 1649.] Unfortunately, Marie Massieu dies at Cuigy-en-Bray on 25 Oct 1650 at the age of 28.

Whether Laurent remarried following his wife's death is unknown, although it seems probable since he lived to approximately 85 years of age. It is also reasonable to assume that at least one of his two other sons who remained in France (Pierre and Laurent) lived to adulthood, married, and had descendants. Today, the name Seguin is the 216th most commonly found surname of approximately 300,000 surnames in France.




Laurent married Marie MASSIEU on 14 Jul 1643 in Saint Aubin En Bray, Picardie, France. (Marie MASSIEU was born about 1622 in France and died on an unknown date.)