About my blog and the Vendée war

Behind me, the river Evre, where my ancestor Jacques Clemenceau was a miller in Gevrise (end 17th-begin.18th century), village of Botz, near St-Florent-le-Vieil. The mill does not exist anymore, just lodges around (photo Jacky Clemenceau, june 2007).

ABOUT MY BLOG (1):

For nearly thirty years, I have been interested in the history of my ancestors and my area which is in Anjou, former province called now "Maine-et-Loire". The capital is Angers, near Brittany in western France (2).

With 2 brothers, I began investigations about the origin of my family in the area of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil (=old St-Florent ) which is a little town just along the river Loire.

Living in the north of this " département" of Maine-et-Loire, we just knew that the father of our grand-father was born here in "St-Florent-the-old".

We did not know much about our ancestors who were millers (3), but we began to dig out discovering that our family was involved in the "Vendée war" in 1793 (4).

An oral tradition still existed among cousins of my grand-father, about an ancestor who was caught by the "Bleus" (= republican soldiers).

Making researches into old files, we discovered step by step the history of our millers and a bunch of cousins coming from the first miller ancestor, Guillaume Clemenceau born around 1635 in Liré (5)!

To share our discoveries with the family, I decided in march 2007, to create this blog "Clemenceau du Petit moulin" (= "Clemenceau from the Little Mill", mill where my last miller ancestor, Pierre Clemenceau worked. Then he was shot in 1793 in St-Florent-le-Vieil during the Vendée War).

I dare say, I wrote this blog in memory of him.


(1) From time to time, I will write articles in english in order to help foreign readers whose the french language is not current and interested in the Vendée war.
I hope it will be also useful for some friends I met a certain time ago and keep contact with them.

(2) Plantagenet kings' country, when England and some french provinces belonged to the Crown of England (12th century). see Google, "Angela Bird's Vendée : a little Vendée history".

(3) From the 17th century until the beginning of the twentieth century (see "the last millers-Le dernier des meuniers" heading with 3 photos of old Clemenceau millers).

(4) After the Revolution (1789), in 1791, the people hope to get the land (mainly territories belonging to the priests and clergy) where their ancestors have worked for centuries.

In fact, the "Bourgeois" (tradesmen, officials, even nobles...) have more money, can buy the land and peasants are quite insatisfied.

In 1792, the catholic priests are persecuted because the new gouvernment want them to swear allegiance to the civil Constitution.

The King, Louis XVI, is guillotined in the beginning of 1793.

Because of the war against Prussia, Austria, England..., the countrymen are obliged to fight to the east border of France in order to help the young Republic. A lot of them refuse to go there and prefer to stay at home.

In march 1793, it is the beginning of the Counter-Revolution with many riots in France.

In western France, the insurgents succeed to get rid of the Republicans.

Now, to sum up this conflict, it is a civil war, "Royalists = Whites" ("catholic party") against "Republicans= Blues" ("atheist party").

It is the beginning of the "Vendée War" which last 2 years and kill more than 150.000 people in our country.

(5) Heading-rubrique "Généalogie de la famille Clemenceau" which starts from Guillaume (9th generation) directly to my grand-father Louis (first generation).
Have a look at the map, rubrique-heading "Rencontre-meeting 30th of june 2007" and see "Itinerary, meeting...".