Nicolas Vironet (1818-1874) | finding records in Mons, Saint Vaast, Jumet and Virelles Belgium?

[mattverona]

Hello, my 2nd great grandfather was Nicolas Vironet, a foundling, discovered May 4, 1818, at the Hospice of the Holy Spirit, in Mons, Belgium.
Timeline:
1. Birth - baby discovered May 4, 1818, in Mons, named Nicolas Vironet,
2. Marriage - married Placédie Joséphine COPPIN, Nov 4, 1845, in Saint-Vaast,
3. Birth of children from 1846-1859, all in Jumet, (St. Sulpice Church records)
4. Death - May 30, 1874, in Jumet. (Occupation: Houilleur/coal worker)
I would like to fill in the gaps in Nicolas' timeline, as well as discover his ancestry, via DNA shared matches.
Background info:
The Vironet surname existed in the Pyrenees, but apparently not in Belgium, before May 5, 1818.
Note: the VERONET surname is slightly more common, mainly in France, but VIRONET is extremely rare, surviving only in the United States.
My great grandfather, Jean-Philippe Vironet, was renamed "John Phillip Verona" in America, so our branch became Veronas, while Jean's brother, Jules-Auguste, remained a Vironet.
My Big Y-700 results show a very close match with Eduardo (Ed) Bernot, and his cousins, Francisco and Paulino, all born in Mexico.
FTDNA and YTree predict that our MRCA lived in the late 1400s/early 1500s, in Belgium.
Ed's oldest known ancestor, Francois Bernot, was born around 1618, in Virelles, Belgium, moving to Spain around 1631, with all subsequent generations living in Spain and Mexico.
My ancestors stayed in Belgium, resulting in Nicolas' birth around Mons, in 1818...
Jean-Philippe and Jules-Auguste emigrated to Indiana from Jumet, in 1888, with all subsequent generations living in the USA.
I'm working with Ed to connect our trees... Ed has to go back 3-4 generations from Francois, while we need to go back ~300 years from Nicolas.
The Vironet matches on Ancestry were found to be descendants of Jean-Philippe, Jules-Auguste, and their sister, Marie-Charlotte-Josephe Vironet - all descendants of Nicolas Vironet.
Now we're moving to other portals, such as Geneanet and GEDmatch, to find new DNA matches with trees.
Best regards,
Matt Verona (Vironet/Bernot)

[zanzigirl]

Hello,

Please avoid posting the same question in multiple forums as it scatters the answers: I've deleted some posts and locked the one on the DNA forum.

May I suggest two corrections for the translation of your ancestor's birth record?

- "tour" in this context is not a tower, it is a baby hatch / foundling wheel

- "him" in the last sentence is actually "her"

Best,
Claudine

[mattverona]

Hello Claudine, thanks for the information.
Yes, I figured the "him" in the last sentence is actually "her", since Agnés DELPORTE is definitely female. :-}
BTW, do you have any suggestions as to where to find more info on Nicolas Vironet?
Specifically, who raised him, and how did he end up in Saint-Vaast?
Perhaps his adoptive family lived around there?
If we could find Placidie Coppin's church in Saint-Vaast, the records could reveal important information.
I assume that Nicolas and Placidie were married at that church?
BRGDS,
~MV

[ericdubois]

BTW, do you have any suggestions as to where to find more info on Nicolas Vironet?
Specifically, who raised him, and how did he end up in Saint-Vaast?
Perhaps his adoptive family lived around there?
If we could find Placidie Coppin's church in Saint-Vaast, the records could reveal important information.
I assume that Nicolas and Placidie were married at that church?

Hi Matt,
I will pass on trying to find Nicola's ancestors but can help you find more information about his life. Mons was already a fairly large city at the time and Nicolas's mother may have come from a neighboring town. So it would be very hard to identify potential parents.

Mons and Saint-Vaast are not far apart. My own grandfather made the same move for work. Saint-Vaast is in the middle of an area that was very active in coal mining until the middle of the 20th century. It seems pretty clear that work was the motivator. But, as you'll see, Saint-Vaast was Placidie's hometown. Marriages almost always took place where the bride resided at the time.

Belgium was part of France until Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo in 1815. It then went under dutch rule until it gained its independence in 1830. Records are similar to France: Civil registration (état civil) after 1792, church records (registres paroissiaux) before 1792 (although they continue after that date, they are no longer the official records).

1. birth: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DRDK-YH?i=51
Interestingly, a second child (Simon BICHOT, #275) was found at the same time. Are they twins or is it a coincidence? Worth looking if you have any BICHOT in your matches' ancestry.

2. marriage: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-61G9-F1Y?i=1070
- Nicolas was charbonnier (coal deliveryman or similar coal related job) residing in Trivière.
- Placidie was born in Saint-Vaast on 8 OCT 1823
- Her father Charles COPPIN died in Saint-Vaast on 9 MAR 1828
- Her mother is Maximilienne JACQUARD, still living
You should be able to find the parents' birth and death records fairly easily on FamilySearch. Search via catalogs since most towns are not indexed.

Belgium does not have census like the US or France that represent the composition of the population at a specific moment in time. Instead, they have the registres de population, which are maintained for a period of 10 years, sometimes more, and includes detailed information on each household, when individuals moved into town and where from, where they went to when they left town when they married or died.
For Mons, you could look through the 1815-16 registers (I believe they were maintained until 1846). This will involve flipping many pages.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=156564&query=%2Bplace%3A%22Belgium%2C%20Hainaut%2C%20Mons%22&subjectsOpen=459690-50

Jumet should be a simpler place to familiarize yourself with those register:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/341795?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Eric