From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Crockett-993
This profile has been disconnected from Antoine de Crocketagne and Louise de Saix because of the controversy surrounding the widely disseminated "French ancestry" of the Crocketts/Crocketagnes, believed by many to be at best a legend, at worst a hoax. For more information, see the WikiTree space, The alleged French origins of the Crockett family in America.
Profiles connected with the unfounded De Crocketagne family history have been listed in the category Crockett Mythical French Ancestry, and those with no verified source attesting their existence have been disconnected from the ones representing real people.
This version of the Crockett ancestry appears widely accepted: it is found in numerous online genealogies, including Roglo and Rootsweb and in Wikipedia. It is reported in many books, from recent biographies of the famous Davy Crockett to compilations printed by Daughters of Texas Revolution and the Huguenot Society.
The alleged French origins of the Crockett family in America
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Davy_Crockett%27s_fake_French_a...
French Crockett ancestry
A well-known theory of the origin of the Crockett family (or families) in America makes them descendants of Antoine Desasure de Croquetagne, a French Huguenot. According to this theory, "Antoine Desasure Perronett de Crocketagne" was born in 1643 in Montauban. Described as "one of the most handsome young men in the south of France", he drew the personal attention of king Louis XIV who placed him second in command of the household guards. He met his future wife "the beautiful Louise de Saix" among the nobility. Antoine started working as a commercial agent in the wine and salt trade of Southern France for the Maury family, and under their influence converted to the Protestant faith.[1] In 1672, (several years before the Edict of Nantes was revoked) Antoine, with his wife and infant son, Gabriel, fled across the English Channel and remained in England for a short time, but shortly fled to Ireland.[1] There, they changed their name from "de Crocketagne" to Crockett, either to escape their French identity or because their name was too difficult to pronounce.
This version of the Crockett ancestry appears widely accepted: it is found in numerous online genealogies, including Roglo and Rootsweb and in Wikipedia. It is reported in many books, from recent biographies of the famous Davy Crockett to compilations printed by Daughters of Texas Revolution and the Huguenot Society.[2] Antoine Desasure de Crocketagne and his family have their own Find A Grave memorials (strictly virtual memorials with no known place of burial).
[edit] Why is this French theory dubious?
- DNA analysis: DNA research does not seem to support the theory of the French origin of Crocketts. The results also show that not all Crocketts are related, contradicting the Crocketagne theory which makes all Crocketts descentants of the Croquetagnes. See a discussion at Rootsweb (possibly now offline) or FamilyTreeDNA.
- Inaccuracies:
- It is not true that with the revocation of the edict of Nantes "heretics were ordered out of France", as told in some (not all) versions of the story. On the contrary, Louis XIV initially forbid them to leave the kingdom - he wanted them to convert, not go away. To be accurate, the edict was revoked in 1685, not 1672,[3] although life had been made harder for Huguenots in France for years prior to the revocation.
- It is alleged that Louise de Saix, Antoine de Crocketagne's wife, was "a cousin of the Marquis de Lafayette's mother", without other information. There is apparently no connection to a de Saix family in the ancestry of Louise-Marie-Julie de La Rivière, marquise de La Fayette.
- There are several towns called Montauban in France, including one South, in Tarn-et-Garonne, and another, Montauban-de-Bretagne, in Brittany. Proponents of the Antoine Desasure de Crocketagne legends don't agree on which of the two was his birthplace. Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) was a Protestant stronghold[4] - which does not help, since Antoine is said to have converted as an adult, at a time where persecution against Protestants was intensifying and he had everything to lose by converting.
- The "de Croquetagne" family is elusive. There is no agreement on their originis: some claim that they were from Montauban, others that they were from Normandy or Brittany. The source of these claims is unclear. There are no contemporary mentions of a Crocketagne or Croquetagne family anywhere in France. Internet searches show that the only trace they have left us is the alleged Crockett descendance. Yet they supposedly lived in France until 1670. Some documents mentioning the name should have survived.
- Lack of sources: Not one available genealogy provides sources. Yet, those sources can probably be found, if they exist: Baptisms had to be recorded well before 1650 (keeping a double register was compulsory from 1668). We have no records of the "De Croquetagne" family, no records of their emigration or arrival in Ireland, no records of Antoine de Croquetagne's alleged service in Louis XIV's guards. Yet, as this article points out, these records could have been looked for. Some people have attempted a research, but they found nothing. As one French proponent of the Crocketagne story puts it, obviously without realizing the irony : "Le temps me manque pour rechercher dans les registres protestants des alentours de Montauban au XVIIe siècle, mais gageons que l'un de vos perspicaces lecteurs retrouvera probablement la trace des Croquet" (I have no time to research the protestant registers around Montauban in the 17th century, but I bet one of your readers will probably find a trace of the Croquets)[5].
Origins of the Crocketagne story
Gilles Havard, a French historian specialized in New France[6], believes the Croquetagne story is a hoax, propagated by two American authors and repeated everywhere since then. He says "I have looked into this issue, but until there is a proof to the contrary, no source indicates that Davy Crockett had French ancestors. This looks like a hoax (...) it seems advantageous to be descended from Huguenots who were persecuted in Europe. This tells us more about how myths are created than about anything else"[7].
The story is in fact older than the 1920s. In 1908, John Wilson Townsend and Samuel Woodson Price mentioned Antoine de Crocketagne in their Biographical Sketch of Colonel Joseph Crockett.[8]. The story is repeated in more detail by Zella Armstrong and Janie Preston Collup in Notable Southern Families.[9]
But the first mention of Antoine de Crocketagne is found in a letter written in 1858 by Davis T. Maury of Essex County, Virginia to S.M. Duncan of Nicholasville, Kentucky. This letter provides the foundation for Volume V "Notable Southern Families - The Crockett Family and Connecting Lines" by Janie Preston Collup French and Zella Armstrong (1928). The letter is also published in the periodical "Huguenot Society of Manakintown" vol.7 p180.[10] In this letter, Davis Maury writes: "I have an old record of the Crockett family, brought from France by some member of the family in 1716, 1717, and 1718. The name in France was de Crocketagne ... " It has not been possible to locate the original records mentioned by Maury in his letter, and there is no known original French version of these alleged documents. This is consistent with the details provided in the letter being invented by Maury to flatter his correspondent. …
Dealing with affected profiles
Profiles connected with the unfounded De Crocketagne family history have been listed in this category, and those with no verified source attesting their existence have been disconnected from the ones representing real people.
Profiles listed in the category have been affected by the Croquetagne myth; some are real people, some are not. Listing in this category does NOT mean that the profile itself is fraudulent; hopefully it is listed because the fabrication has been identified and corrected.
Category: Crockett Mythical French Ancestry
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Crockett_Mythical_French_Anc...
