These are my ancestors back to Petrus Dorpmans and Elizabeth Verhagen, who were married in Holland in 1726. Their son Egbertus Dorpmans was born in February, 1730. He married Sophia van Nieuwkerken in Dordrecht, Holland on April 24, 1763. Egbertus and Sophia had at least seven children. I believe all of them remained in Holland except for Léonard. The names are Latinized (except for Léonard) as this is how they appear in the official records.
Petrus Johannes Dorpmans was born March 22, 1764 in Rotterdam. He married Adriana van Essel on May 10, 1789 in Rotterdam. They had five children.
Johannes Laurentius Dorpmans was born February 19, 1766 in Rotterdam.
Jacobus Petrus Dorpmans was born January 1, 1768 in Rotterdam. She married Johanna Maria Verhey on November 7, 1790 in Rotterdam. They had six children. Jacobus died in 1818 at Amsterdam.
Elizabeth Maria Dorpmans was born November 27, 1769 in Rotterdam. She married Antonie van der Linden. Elizabeth died July 29, 1834 in Rotterdam.
Egbertus Franciscus Dorpmans was born September 16, 1771 in Rotterdam.
Anna Petronella Dorpmans was born June 8, 1774 in Rotterdam.
Léonard Dorpmans was born in 1777 in Rotterdam, Holland. He moved to France sometime before 1810, possibly following the death of his parents. Sometime after 1808 Léonard was drafted into the French army along with many other Dutchmen during the few years Holland was taken over by the French. Léonard married Rosalie Demarest in the town of Rouen in Normandy, France in 1810. Léonard died in Rouen in 1846.
Egbertus Dorpmans died in 1799. Perhaps this is when his son Léonard left Holland for France.
I have listed what little I know about siblings. If you know anything about these folks -- and especially if you find you are distantly related to me -- please send me email and let me know.
My grandmother Élise Marie Dorpsmans claimed that her grandfather Jules was Jewish and came from eastern Europe, perhaps Hungary. However, we now know Jules was born in Bolbec, a town located near Le Havre in France, and that he was the son of the Dutch immigrant Léonard Dorpmans -- certainly east of France, but not as far as Hungary. My grandmother also said Jules played the violin. At other times she suggested Jules was a gypsy or had gypsy ancestry. It always seemed very unlikely that he would have been both Jewish and a gypsy. We now know Jules was born in Normandy to a Dutch father and a French mother. He was neither Jewish nor a gypsy. However, Jules was a travelling door-to-door salesman (marchand colporteur), and so might be described as living a gypsy-like existence.
Louise Aurore Bisson was born in Senonches in 1822. She married Jules François Joseph Dorpmans in 1848. Jules and Louise had at least three children:
Louis Constant Joseph Dorpsmans was apparently born to Jules and Louise before their marriage, possibly in 1848. Their marriage record indicates they wished to officially recognize Louis as their child. We know nothing further about Louis.
Stanislas Paul Celestin Dorpsmans was born in 1856. We know nothing about him.
Julienne Constance Celeste Dorpsmans, my great-grandmother, was born in 1857.
Interestingly Jules appears to have always signed his name as "Dorpmans" as one would expect, yet the name is nearly always transcribed "Dorpsmans" in the official records. Likewise, while his wife's name always appears as "Bisson" in official records -- and this is how the name was pronounced -- she herself always spelled it "Buisson."
Louise-Aurore Bisson lived most or all of her life in Senonches, where she was buried. We do not know where she died; there is no death record for her in Senonches. In June 2002 we visited Senonches and found that Louise's grave had been replaced by someone else's. Unfortunately it is now typical in France to replace old graves after thirty years if no one renews the cemetery contract. Of course when Louise was originally buried no such contract was necessary.
Sometime after his daughter Julienne was born, Jules left Senonches to serve in the military. Possibly he left in 1870 to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, although he would have been quite old at that time to join the war effort. In any case he was never heard from again. Presumably he died in battle. He was officially declared dead in 1882.
Louise actually reared her granddaughter Élise Marie Dorpsmans (my grandmother) who was born in Paris. Julienne, Élise Marie's mother, was not married at the time Élise Marie was born. The man Julienne eventually married did not want to rear Élise Marie, so she was sent to live with her grandmother in Senonches.
Élise Marie married Clément-Clotaire Lequien in Senonches on Saturday, May 2, 1896. The marriage record offers more information about their backgrounds and the witnesses who attended the wedding. They had three children:
Henri Lequien was born in 1897. He married Catherine Berthin. Henri died in 1958. Catherine died in 1990. She is buried in Tavernay with her son Robert Lequien.
Paul Lequien was born in 1899 and died in 1915, probably of encephalitis or meningitis, never having married. He was studying to be a teacher. He died just a few days before receiving his diploma.
My mother Paulette Henriette Lequien was born May 12, 1918 in La Boulaye, France. She married my father Robert Francis Burns on June 19, 1946 in Paris, France. She died in 1995.
Clément-Clotaire and Élise Marie received a divorce on October 16, 1931. Clément-Clotaire died in 1942 in Montigny-sur-Loing and is buried there.
My father was with the American army of liberation. He stayed on in Paris after the war to study art. He met my mother Paulette and they were married on June 19, 1946 at Sainte Marie-des-Batignoles in Paris. They moved back to Chicago where my father's family lived, bringing Élise Marie with them. She died in Chicago, Illinois, USA in 1961.
My distant cousins Petrus Dorpmans and Gonnie Wieskamp provided the information about the Dorpmans family in Holland.
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Last modified by pib on August 6, 2017.