Hercules des Prez, SV/PROG - Sources for parents?

Hi Sharon

Elaine du Preez - Bell did some extensive research for her book Genealogy of my du Preez family which covers the descendants of Hercules Jnr . Have a look at the website dupreezfamily@yahoo.com

Thanks Ansu. Private User mentioned her work too. Madly searching the web for it... :-) The link you give above appears to be a mailing address, not a website. Do you have another?

Hi Sharon,

It is the address on the fly leaf of her book - maybe best if you contact Elaine ?

I've messaged the email given on the website I found via their Face Book page :-)

Do you have the book, Ansu? What are the sources given for these parents?

I do at home yes, I will have a look and let you know over the weekend , I am out of town at the moment. I know she went to France and the Netherlands to do the research

Thankyou, you're a star! :-)

I send you a message on fb , Sharon

@Hercules Francois Du Pre de Conrai

Hello Sharon & Ansu,

I had to walk away from researching for quite some time due to family illness and the subsequent death of my dad in August 2016. I am now attempting to jump back in and was horrified last night when I read the information posted by some on Geni. I was so angry that I posted my feelings regarding the Du Pre de Contrai name and information on the website under Surname section.

I was also most surprised to read somewhere that Hercule (circa 1645) married Catharina his mother !!!! To the best of my knowledge Catharina Gruson did not die in South Africa as stated on someone else's tree. Nor did she come from Courtrai.

Please excuse me if I sound harsh, but I am really angry with the absolute rubbish that people have posted online. But it is very reassuring to know that there are others out there, like me, who want to search for the truth and not just heresay as gospel.

To answer some of the points raised above - I travelled to France and Belgium in search of the family. I found baptism records for 2 of Hercule and Cecilie's children in Kortrijk. I subsequently found more documentation on Hercules' family in northern France and have copy documentation to prove my direct line from Hercules Junior born 1669 (and not 1672) in France right down to myself. I have copy documentation in respect of Cecile's ancestry going back to about 1611. I have Cecile's baptism record. And she was most definitely not born in Kortrijk.

My website is as follows, although outdated - I will be updating it in the coming months.

www.genealogyofmydupreezfamily.weebly.com

Please feel free to contact me on dupreezbell@gmail.com should you have any further questions regarding my research and the copy documents. My policy is having documentary proof to back up my information

Hello Elaine Bell. Welcome to geni. I'm so sorry to hear about your father - that is very recent and must be still be very raw.
Can I make sure I'm understanding you correctly here
- Do you have documentation for the parents: Adam D'Athis, Dathe and Cathalina De Roo / Deroy D'Athis, as well as for Hercule Francois du Pre de Contrai & Catharina Gruson, de Contrai?

Hi Sharon, thank you for your email and yes my dad's passing is still very fresh but we're slowly getting there.

Cecile's Family - I have traced her ancestors back to approx. 1598. Her Great Great grandparents had 6 children and I have copies of 5 of the baptisms.

Her Grandparents had 8 children and I have copies of all 8 baptism records.

Her parents had 2 children and I have both their baptisms plus her parents marriage record.

Hercules - I do not have a copy of Hercules Despretz baptism record (birth believed to have been circa 1645). But I have a copy of his sisters baptism record, her marriage record and the baptism records of all 8 of her children. I have the name and year of birth of Hercules other sister too.

Having the baptism record and birth details of Hercules 2 sisters means that I have a document containing the names of Hercules (born circa 1645) parents.

I have copies of 4 of Hercules' (born circa 1645) children baptism records - all documents were obtained in either France or Belgium. I have copy documentation in respect of my direct line from Hercules Despretz born 1669 down to me so I have proved my line using the strict criteria which the French Huguenot Society in American uses before they accept you as a Huguenot descendant. I do not belong to any Huguenot society but used their standard to prove my line. Here in SA anyone can join the Huguenot society but not so in America.

Hercules (circa 1645) mother was a Gruson and I have some odd documents relating to various Gruson's in her line. I collaborated with a descendant of Hercules' mothers brother who lives in France. Hope that makes sense.

I also sent my French Despretz documents to a friend in France who has her Masters Degree in the Research and Study of the History of Protestantism and between her and her professors, they looked over the documents and satisfied themselves that the spellings on the documents relating to Gruson are all accepted variants of the name Gruson.

Whilst I traced my line in greater deal, I did research to a lesser degree, Hercules (born circa 1645) other children. I have a variety of copy documents in respect of these siblings too which I did not include in my book.

One can never say that one's research is 100% accurate - for example I have only found x number of children born to a particular couple. Another child could possibly be found at a later stage. But what I have done, is to make sure that where I have stated something, that I have documentary proof to back up my statements.

I found a family that I feel sure forms part of our Depsretz ancestry. However, I could not find any documentary evidence to support this. I sent my finds and my assumptions to France for perusal by these professors. They could not find fault in my assumptions BUT I did not include this line in my tree as I could not proof it. I did include a section on this line in the book, but made it clear that it was only based on my assumptions. I did this because whilst I could not find any documentary evidence, maybe someone else would be able to find this line to either confirm or to dispel my assumption completely.

I have never found any record that refers to Hercules Despretz as Hercule Francois Du Pre de Courtrai or anything remotely like this. As far as I can see, no sources have been provided to substantiate the information contained in a lot of the trees on Geni relating to our ancestors. But rather, each person names someone else's tree as their source but I would like to see a copy of a document to verify where this information originated from.

I apologise if I'm ranting but I feel very strongly about incorrect information being put out there as true when I'm sorry to say, its really mostly rubbish.

I hope I've addressed your questions but please feel free to contact me again should you need anything further.

Kind Regards

Elaine

Shew, that's a lot of information; not a rant :-)
Well done for all the work. Okay, so you want us to buy the book to see that info? Fair enough. I'm happy to do that :-)

Does anyone know if Elaine Bell's book is still available?..I have tried her site, & can't get any further..Did anyone on here purchase her book?

This is the last email address I have for her Danielle: dupreezbell@gmail.com

Did anyone ever get this info - we're still lacking documentation support for the parent line. It's time to think about cutting this, pending there being actual proof.

Sharon, did you read Elaine Bell's post submitted on 1/24/2017 at 7:44 PM?

Yes. I responded.

Aaah. Sorry, missed that ... I also asked Thys du Preez and he said he'll try and find info.