THE FRENCH CONNECTION SO FAR!
So, the key question is:
Who is the father of “Philip Morter Bap. bet 1655 –1680, Nth Walsham, husband of Catherine Lincolne”? Is it, “Philip Morter Bap 1630, Nth Walsham, husband of Dorothy” or maybe “An Admiral Mortier, who fled from France, from the Huguenots, with the help of Admiral Tinker” about this time i.e. 1700?
I decided a week in France, with my able navigator friend David, might lead to the answer! Armed with digital camera and video camcorder, we boarded the ferry at Calais, late afternoon on Sunday 24th Oct’05, for a ‘French Ancestry Adventure`!
I decided to concentrate on particular Mortier locations along the banks of the Oise and the Loire. Our name, Morter comes from Mortar and references to “bricks & mortar” are not far of the mark, as a lot of our family connections are in the Building Trade; so it seems, the same in France. There are many places in France that involve `Mortier’, but the ones I was interested in, were along these rivers. On the relevant maps, I came across 5 main places along the Loire, and 1 along the Oise, which had Mortier locations, maybe even ‘Chateaus`! On closer inspection, apart from 1 of these, they were all within 300 kms of Paris. My good French friends, Anne & Bernard live in Chantilly, 20 kms North of Paris; and were happy for us, to use their place as a base. French Town Halls, called ‘Mairies` looked after the Ancestry records of these Mortier locations; so I wrote to each nearest Mairie a French Standard Letter, before I went.
I was lucky enough to spend the best part of an afternoon looking through the original archives of the Dept. of Nievre, in Never. The particular Commune I was interested in, was the records of Druy-Parigny between 1550 and 1750, which covered Mortier near Never (remember Ursula!). There were no references to Mortier, at all!
At Bourgueil, the Mortier Vineyard related solely to the word ‘earth` or the terrain. For example ‘Domaine du Mortier`, which was written on their bottles of wine, referred to the different soil in the estate, that produced the type of wine e.g. Clay- Light Red, Sand- Rosé etc; nothing to do with Ancestry! However, I did buy 12 assorted bottles of ‘Domaine du Mortier` wine. I also noticed, whilst leaving the vineyard, the most spectacular rainbow that I`ve ever seen; and thought that the wine would have to suffice as the “Pot of Gold”!
The Mortier location, near ‘Never`, looked more like a run down farm, nothing like a Chateau!
Even with all the help from the Mairies, with all the locations, I came up with, as Mr Morgan would say:
“Not a shred of evidence connected these Mortier Locations to our family’s Saga about Admirals Mortier and Tinker.”
However, we had a great week in France!
Places we visited...
1. MORTIERS nr Crecy Sur Serre (Tributary of the Oise), 150 kms NE of Paris.
2. MORTIER 20 kms south of Nevers on the Loire.
3. MORTIER AUX BOEUFS nr Langeais, 25 kms west of Tours, on the Loire.
4. St Nicolas de Bourgueil, Loire vineyard making ‘DOMAINE du MORTIER’ Wine, 50 kms west of Tours.
5. MORTIERS nr Châteaudun on the Loir (Trib of Loire), 200 kms SW of Paris.
LES MORTIERS nr Nantes is the last remaining relevant location, on the Loire; to be visited in time!