We find the first record of Nicolas Trahan in Montreuil-Bellay, France, with the baptism of his daughter, Anne, on February 4^th, 1605, as reported by both Genevieve Massignon and Stephen White, but Nicolas was assuredly in Montreuil-Bellay before that.

Montreuil-Bellay

Montreuil-Bellay began as a Gallo-Roman fortified town built on the hill beside the Thouet River, a tributary of the Loire, at a crossing as old as humans inhabiting the area. The name, Thouet, is derived from the ancient Gallic word for tranquil.

Around the year 1000, Foulques Nerra (987-1040), Count of Anjou, known as the Black Falcon, built a citadel on the foundation of the Roman village.

Why did the Foulques, a fearsome warrior, fortify this particular location? We don’t know for sure, but it was likely part of his consolidation of power. Clearly, he wanted to fortify the village itself, probably to protect the river ford.

But to protect it from whom or what? At that time, the location that would one day become Montreuil-Bellay was the boundary of the Count Angevin’s possessions facing the Poitou, at the crossroads of Anjou, Tourraine and Poitou. Nearby Saumur belonged to “the enemy,” Gelduin the Dane and was eventually taken from the Count of Blois. The Black Falcon’s lifelong arch-rival Odo II, Count of Blois controlled other nearby regions, including Tours. Foulques strategy seemed to have been surround and conquer. If this all sounds quite messy, it was.

A devout Catholic, Foulques also built or endowed several abbeys and may have been the benefactor of the Saint-Nicolas d’Angers Abbey at Montreuil-Bellay, which was established between 1097 and 1103. The adjacent Saint-Pierre church reconstruction was completed between 1140-1150.

In 1205, due to the strategic importance of Montreuil-Bellay, the King of France undertook a major fortification, building 11 towers, a gate, digging ditches, erecting walls and defensive military platforms.

Montreuil-Bellay became a nearly impregnable fortress on the front lines of the battles between England and France, eventually falling to the Plantagenet family. King Louis VIII held court there in 1224.

History records that the keep and fief were given not long after by Count Angevin to his vassal, Berlay the First – and for the next two centuries, the Berlays succeeded one another until in the 1400s when the castle passed to the Harcourts, a strong Norman family, then fell to the Orleans-Longueville family. The Bellay part of Montreuil-Bellay originated with Berlay.

The Thouet was once the head of navigation. In 1430, a group of merchants in Saumur suggested creating a navigation over the stretch of river that included Montreuil-Bellay, requiring passages through three mill weirs, which were small dams. King Charles II authorized the project, probably through the construction of flash locks. The project was to be financed by allowing the Lords to impose a tax on wine, an important commodity, that would pass through Montreuil-Bellay.

This 1896 etching by Octave de Rochebrune of 15th century Montreuil-Bellay depicts the castle, church, medieval mill and the lower town gates.

During the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453), the English captured the castle and used as a military stronghold, but the French took it back in 1443.

In the 1500s, the castle was rebuilt in the Renaissance style and French nobility resided there.

FIRE!

In 1568, which would have been in the lifetime of Nicolas’s parents, and perhaps Nicolas himself as a child, the Huguenots ransacked and burned the old part of the city.

Widespread intense fighting occurred in this region and throughout France during the second French War of Religion. The castle was well fortified and suffered little lasting damage, but the same could not be said for the homes in Montreuil-Bellay. While I can find no record that specifically details the fate of the church, Catholic churches were often targets, even when homes and towns weren’t burned, so assuredly the Saint-Pierre church did not escape without substantial damage.

As the flames consumed their town, the residents lost their livelihood, livestock if they had any, homes, and all of their possessions. We don’t know how many lost their lives. These violent and brutal depredations were often not inflicted by the military, but by fellow citizens, sowing widespread distrust and perpetual fear among once-peaceful neighbors. The result was that many people were displaced and fled the affected areas, disrupting commerce and trade, which in turn led to poverty.

Given the records of Nicolas Trahan and his wife, beginning in 1605 and continuing through the 1614 birth of their child, and the records of Anthoyne Trahan, who also baptized children between 1610 and 1616, it’s reasonable to at least tentatively surmise that they were related, and probably siblings – although no living child of Nicolas is named Anthoyne. Unfortunately, Massignon did not record the names of Anthoyne’s children.

We don’t know if the Trahan family lived in Montreuil-Bellay before or during this time of great upheaval, or if they perhaps relocated here after the town was destroyed, and peace had been secured.

The parish church, Saint-Pierre was assuredly an integral part of life in Montreuil-Bellay, but it also has its own history.

L’Eglise Saint-Pierre 

The parish church, Saint-Pierre, would have been the functional center of the lives of the Catholic families that lived in Montreuil-Bellay, beginning about the year 1100. Let’s take a walk and stroll through the ruins.

The Saint-Pierre church was abandoned in 1850 after the nave was destroyed and the parish was transferred to the castle chapel. This 1905 photo shows sheep grazing among the peaceful ruins.

This church existed in one form or another, and through at least three separate “rebuildings,” if not more, for about 750 years. That’s roughly 25 or 30 generations, give or take.

The first records describe a priory entrusted to the monks of the Saint-Nicolas d’Angers Abbey established between 1097 and 1103, part of which still stands today.

A reconstruction was completed around 1140-1150, although we don’t know why the church needed to be reconstructed.

Perhaps the church was older than we know or had been damaged in local warfare. France was not a peaceful place during this era.  

The ruins of the choir include a group of capitals from this period, which are the beautiful decorative carvings that rest on the top of columns.

When Nicolas was a boy, these would have been intact, and he may have daydreamed during services by staring at these carvings. What was coming out of their mouths, and why?

Was this an angel?

OK, this guy is scary. He looks like he’s wondering what is happening, too. 

Were there long-forgotten Bible stories to go along with these “things” – whatever they are?

During the Hundred Years’ War, the English castle and used as a military stronghold, but that didn’t last long, as the French reclaimed Montreuil-Bellay in 1443.

Were these damaged during that occupation? What happened to the church?

Probably related to that war, part of Saint-Pierre collapsed, leading to the restoration and construction of the north aisle.

After being rebuilt, the church was reconsecrated on January 31, 1485, as both the parish and priory church – an event that must have been joyfully celebrated by all the townspeople. That’s only about 100 years before Nicolas was born, so maybe his great-grandparents joined the chorus, raising their voices in thanksgiving. 

In 1568, the Huguenots burned the town, and probably the church. It assuredly sustained damage as it was not fortified like the castle.

We know, based on both earlier and later records, that Nicolas Trahan had a son, Guillaume, who was born before records remain for the Saint-Pierre parish. According to the Maine-et-Loire Archives, and thanks to Cousin Mark, we learn that some records for this parish reach back as far as the early 1580s, but there’s a very large gap between October 1588 and 1602, when the size of the record book changes.

Today, the Saint-Pierre church lies in ruins, but was fully active when the Trahan family lived in Montreuil-Bellay.

Based on Nicolas’s son Guillaume’s marriage in 1627, and subsequent baptisms at Saint-Pierre, we know that Guillaume’s baptism took place during those missing years.

We are incredibly fortunate that Guillaume’s marriage record, as well as that of Nicolas’s son, Francois, both provide the names of both parents. Francois’s 1632 parish marriage entry in Bourgueil provides the location of their residence in Montreuil-Bellay, too.

This means that we know positively that Nicolas Trahan and Rene Desloges lived in Montreuil-Bellay from at least 1605 through 1632, and probably until his death. Renee had died sometime between 1627 and 1632.

Nicolas Trahan was probably married in this church sometime between 1588 and 1590 based on the birth dates of both his oldest and youngest children.

We can calculate Nicolas’s approximate birth year, roughly, by subtracting about 30 from about 1590, so about 1560. Nicolas could certainly have been born either slightly earlier, or later. It’s possible that this was not his or Renee’s first marriage.

We’re assuming that their last child born in 1614 was due to Renee reaching the end of her fertility. If that was the case, then 1614-42=1572 for her birth. Often French men were older than their wives – so maybe Nicolas was born between 1560-1570, roughly. That would put their marriage in about 1590 or shortly thereafter, so that makes sense.  Of course, if Nicolas and Renee had additional children after 1614 whose births are not recorded in the church records, they could both have been born later.

Given Guillaume’s birth about 1600, it’s safe to say that Nicolas probably wan’t born much after 1570, and could have been born significantly earlier.

Genevieve Massignon viewed the original records and found another male Trahan, living at the time in Montreuil-Bellay. Anthoyne Trahan and Barbe Barault, with children baptized between 1610 and 1616, is likely related and probably a brother or cousin. .

Both Nicolas and Anthoyne Trahan, were probably born before the records are extant in the early 1580s. Of course, that fire consumed Montreuil-Bellay along with any records in 1568. The Trahan family may not have been living there then, or Nicolas may have remembered the devastation and wild trauma from the perspective of a small child. Whether he was alive or not, he certainly would have heard the stories from his parents who would have been unfortunate witnesses.

Massignon:

Parish records from Montreuil-Bellay reveal more about the family. Nicolas Trahan and Renée Desloges had at least two daughters, Renée (baptized February 25, 1612) and Lucrèce (baptized November 14, 1614). Baptisms for their sons Guillaume and François are missing, but another son, Nicolas, married to Lorraine Belliard, had a daughter baptized in 1633. Another relative, Anne Trahan, married Pierre Molay and baptized four children between 1624 and 1633.

Someplace nearby, probably adjacent the church, Nicolas lies in repose today, but that location is lost to history.

The history of the church does not end here, but it does end. The beloved Saint-Pierre sustained significant damage during the French Revolution in the late 1700s, probably leading to its literall downfall in 1850.

The Trahan Surname

These records mark the beginning of the known, documented Trahan family in Montreaul-Bellay.

Do we have any idea whatsoever where they might have come from?

FamilySearch reports that the surname, Trahan, is an occupational word associated with silkmaking.

French: variant of Trahant or Trahand (and, in North America, an altered form of the former), a metonymic occupational name for a silkworker who drew out the thread from the cocoons, from a derivative of the verb traire ‘to draw or stretch’.

How does this relate to the local or regional history?

Silkmaking was initially established in Lyon in 1466, although the city was hesitant to proceed with establishing the industry because they did not want to interrupt and jeopardize their relationships with Italian merchants who supplied silk.

In 1470, the silkworkers were sent to Tours and to the Château de Plessis-lez-Tours.

Tours was only about 45 miles from Montreuil-Bellay, and we know that in the 1500s, the French nobility was living in the castle at Montreuil-Bellay. This might be a clue.

By 1540, Lyon, 285 miles away, was embracing silk production, but it was interrupted by the Wars of Religion.

Is this at all relevant to the Trahan family? We have no idea, but the genesis of the name itself can’t be entirely disregarded.

Here’s what we do know.

Silkmaking was a complex process requiring a community of workers with multiple specialized skills that included mulberry tree cultivation and maintenance, silkworm keepers, reelers who boiled the silk cocoons and extracted the silk filaments, spinners who made it into thread, weavers, dyers, and of course, merchants. None of this is reported in Montreuil-Bellay, but there was nothing to prevent a man with the Trahan surname, perhaps an itinerant male reeler, from settling in Montreuil-Bellay, especially after one of their depopulating events when workers would have been needed.

I sure wish we had Trahan Y-DNA testers from France so that we could track their locations and tie them to timeframes.

The Trahan Winery

We have good reason to believe that the Trahan family remained in or near Montereuil-Bellay.

Montreuil-Bellay was known for its wines then, and still is today.

The Trahan name lives on just a few miles away at the Trahan Winery.

Today, only 13 miles from Montreuil-Ballay, we find the Domaiin des Trahan.

The drive from Montreuil-Bellay to the winery is simply quintessential French countryside.

It doesn’t look a lot different today than it did when Nicolas lived here. While we think of French peasants as not traveling more than a mile or two in any direction, we know from church records that Nicolas’s sons make those trips regularly, with both sons marrying some 20 miles away in different directions.

It appears from the parish record in Chinon that Nicolas was in attendance in 1627 when Guillaume married Francois Corbineau, so he obviously traveled too.

Travelers along the road would catch glimpses of the castle spires through the trees as they approached.

The walls were built to withstand the onslaught of the enemy army.

Watchtowers still stand and look like they could still fend off an enemy today. Nicolas probably stood watch here at some point, gazing over the countrside.

The castle’s church, which is not the same as the village church for the townspeople, peeks out over the castle wall. This church was not for peasants, but for nobles who lived in the castle.

Arrow slits in the towers were for firing on anyone approaching from the hill leading to the mote below – a foolhardy act that would have led to certain death.

In 1850, after Saint-Pierre was abandoned, and the parish was transferred to the castle chapel, an entrance bridge and opening in the wall was constructed for the parishioners to cross the mote and enter the church for worship.

In 1337, when the Hundred Years War began, the local population was starving and took refuge in the castle moat surrounding the castle, and monastery. No water fills the moat today.

A beautiful view of the castle from the modern bridge crossing just above the river ford.

The mill is visible from this position on the road. Initially, the navigation locks would have been located at the mill dam crossing the river.

The road running parallel across the river affords a distant view of the castle and upper level of the town, high above the river, viewed between sweetly-scented blossoming trees in the orchard.

Springtime in France is glorious! It’s no wonder that Acadians brought seeds for fruit trees with them.

Descendants of the earlier inhabitants of Montreuil-Bellay, including Nicolas Trahan, lovingly care for the fields today, still within the castle’s shadow.

But not with oxen anymore. Modern oxen are green and named Deere.

Fields and old bridges made of stone were probably standing when Nicolas walked here or traveled this road by cart, perhaps, tending to business.

One can always find their way home – just locate the castle or church spires on the horizon.

Another mile or two and the fields give way vineyards.

Modern roads weave their way between ancient farms and terraced villages with grapevines growing wherever they can gain a foothold.

A modern sign points the way to our destination.

We’ve arrived.

In the nearly 400 years since the church records at Saint-Pierre, the Trahan family has only migrated a few miles down the road. The Trahans have been vintners for at least four generations.

The Trahan winery is still a family affair. The entire family turned out to greet us. I think you’re looking at generation 5 and 6, if I’m not mistaken.

I desperately want to know how many generations distant I am from them. I’m guessing about a dozen or perhaps slightly more.

Of course, we don’t know positively that this Trahan lineage is the same as the Trahans up the road a few miles in Montreuil-Bellay 400 years ago – but I’m willing to bet that it’s the same family. They could be Nicolas’s descendants through either Francois or Nicolas, or the descendants of Anthoyne, or maybe unknown brothers or uncles of those men, or even further back in time.

A Y-DNA test would answer that question.

The award winning winery blends both the old and new.

The inside is beautiful. I would have brought that carved wooden platter home with me in a heartbeat – but it’s a family heirloom. I’m grateful for their hospitality and sharing their history, and wine, with us.

Casks with stainless steel in the background and a message for the ages. “I prefer the wine from here to the water from there.” Almost every French person would enthusiastically agree.

You can like their Facebook page, here.

Beautiful hand-painted labels. I want quilt fabric like this. I think they could sell those as prints or even as cards. Maybe wine-label cards!

It’s not just the labels that win awards!

The Trahans were kind enough to give us a tour and educate our Acadian group about winemaking.

While the public-facing areas are quaint and beautiful, the Trahan winery employs science and technology to produce the best wines possible. Each wine has its own “recipe,” for lack of a better description, so you’ll see huge stainless steel vats beside traditional casks. Every wine receives what it needs.

I love the oak casks, because they remind me of life in Nicolas’s time.

Each type of wine ages differently.

After the tour, they kindly provided samples with cheese, of course. It’s France!

Even the glasses are beautiful, and the wine was exquisite.

I’m not a huge wine drinker, although I must say that this wine experience was exciting, in part, because it was “family” wine.

I chose to take a walk outside while everyone else tried each kind of wine. Besides that, Jim was more than happy to drink mine! I was so grateful for his magnanimous sacrifice.

This is the production work area out back – the “farming” area.

I immediately noticed the age of the building, at right.

The X-shaped iron crossbars give it away. You see these all over Europe, and they are hallmarks of medieval buildings.

These are tie rods or anchor plates that, in essence, hold the building together and provide structural integrity. Throughout Europe, many medieval structures with these irons in towns and across the countryside have a carved façade with a date, some dating to the 14^th century which tells us when the structure was built.

The French are masters of blending the old with the new, incorporating history and heritage into their everyday lives.

Standing here, I wondered how long ago one of Nicolas’s descendants or relatives made the trip down that road and became the steward of the vineyards – and if that barn was already old even then.

Or, maybe it worked the other way around, and the Trahans were winemakers long before Nicolas lived in Montreuil-Bellay.

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