Meanwhile, Back in Belgium

When Jean Joseph Dhuy emigrated from Belgium to America in 1856, he left behind two brothers, Jean Baptiste and Isidore Joseph. Isidore Joseph's great-great-granddaughter still lives near the same region today. The following letter, translated from French, is from her.

 

Blanmont, Belgium

January 10, 1990

Dear Steven,

    My father Isidore Joseph Dhuy has received your letter but he is too old to respond. Therefore it is I his only child who will do the deed.

    All the [genealogical] information you have given us appears accurate to me � I am beginning thus to be able to establish the genealogical tree of our family. But it's only a beginning, although a great pleasure to plunge into my past to retrieve yours.

    I ought to introduce myself. My name is Monique, I am 43 years old, I am married and am the mom of two children. One daughter of 16 years, Lidvine, and a boy soon to be 13, Axel. I work at a secondary school as a teacher; my husband Jean-Paul works at a business concerned with heating. We live in the same village as my parents. Blanmont is located more or less the same distance from Brussels, the capital of the country, and from Namur, capital of the Walloon region. I am including with this letter a videocassette which will show you our way of life, my parents, who are 86 and 73 years old, as well as our little family.

    In the region of Blanmont where we live, I am with my father, the last to carry the name of DHUY. There may be other descendants in the region of Mons [capital of the province of Hainaut] �

    The present letter is in French and the videocassette likewise because I am not able to write in English � On the cassette you will hear my father speak Walloon, a language that the older generation uses still, but which mine is abandoning more and more �

    Well, I end now in offering to you and all of your family a good and lucky 1990, and I hope to get very many letters from you all, my American cousins.

    With the hope of reading you soon, accept these kind regards from Belgium.

Monique Dhuy

Route Provinciale, 16
1450 Blanmont, Chastre
BELGIUM

Pierre Nicolas Joseph Dhuy § Anne Marie Romaine

1 Pierre Nicolas Joseph Dhuy

Chr:         20 Nov 1775, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:       9 Jun 1849, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Reli:        Roman Catholic
Father:      Joseph Duy (-1780)
Mother:      Marie Regine Cravillion

Spouse:      Anne Marie Romaine
Chr:         7 Jan 1781, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Marriage:    26 Apr 1802, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

Children:    Marie Regine (1803-)
             Jean Francois (1805-1807)
             Jean Baptiste (1807-1873)
             Marie Francoise (1809-1888)
             Marie Josephe (1812-)
             Marie Therese (1814-1873)
             Ursule Josephe (1816-1817)
             Jean Joseph (1818-1911)
             Isidore Joseph (1821->1853)
             Ursule Joseph (1824-)

 

1.1 Marie Regine Dhuy

Birth:       20 Jan 1803, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

1.2 Jean Francois Dhuy

Birth:       15 Sep 1805, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:       20 May 1807, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

1.3 Jean Baptiste Dhuy

Birth:       12 Mar 1807, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:       2 Aug 1873, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

Spouse:      Anne Joseph Delloie
Marriage:    1 Nov 1839

1.4 Marie Francoise Dhuy

Birth:       17 Nov 1809, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:       1888

1.5 Marie Josephe Dhuy

Birth:       24 Jan 1812, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

Spouse:      Eloi Gillain Bourgaux
Marriage:    16 Nov 1842

1.6 Marie Therese Dhuy

Birth:       20 Aug 1814, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:       1873

Spouse:      Pierre Joseph Herman
Marriage:    22 Nov 1843

1.7 Ursule Josephe Dhuy

Birth:      7 May 1816, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:      22 Mar 1817, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

1.8 Jean Joseph Dhuy

Birth:      8 Mar 1818, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:      10 Mar 1911, Lincoln township, Kewaunee Co., WI
Occ:        Farmer, knifemaker
Reli:       Roman Catholic

Spouse:     Marie Françoise Bouffioux
Birth:      25 Sep 1823, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:      21 Mar 1905, Lincoln township, Kewaunee Co., WI
Occ:        Homemaker
Father:     Philippe Bouffioux
Mother:     Marie Joseph Falque
Marriage:   14 Jun 1848, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

Children:   Philippe Joseph (1849-1909)
            Anais (1851-1851)
            Jean Baptiste (1853-<1856)
            Ferdinand Joseph (1858-1934)
            Clara (1860-1941)
            John Joseph (1863-1937)

1.9 Isidore Joseph Dhuy

Birth:      5 Jun 1821, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:      aft 1853

Spouse:     Natalie Justine Rouer
Birth:      28 Jul 1827, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium
Death:      aft 1854
Marriage:   14 Aug 1844

Children:   Eleonore Joseph (1846-1846)
            Jean Joseph (1848-1933)

1.10 Ursule Joseph Dhuy

Birth:     16 Jan 1824, Ernage, province of Namur, Belgium

In July 1990, after 134 years apart, the American branch of the Dhuey family was reunited with the Belgian branch, when Harris John Dhuey of Wisconsin visited Monique Dhuy of Belgium.

The late Isidore Joseph Dhuy with wife Maria (Looze) and daughter Monique in his home in Blanmont, Belgium.

Dhuey Family Reunion. 136th Anniversary in America. Saturday, 18 April 1992. Northbrook Country Club, Luxemburg, WI.

    All people in this photograph were either born a Dhuey or are descendants of a Dhuey. The guest of honor, Monique Dhuy Charpentier, sitting fifth from the right in the second row, is the last known Dhuy in Belgium. The hosts are Steven Dhuey, second from the right in the first row, and Harris Dhuey, behind him.

Front row: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, Steven P. Dhuey, Charles J. Dhuey (Sr.).

Second row: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, Ruth Dhuey Gustafson, Monique Dhuy, Harris J. Dhuey, Louise Dhuey Monfils, Armaine Dhuey Delfosse, ?.

Third row: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, Clement F. Dhuey, ?, Anthony J. Dhuey, ?, ?, ?, ?.

Fourth row: Linda Dhuey Opicka, ?, Andrew Opicka, ?, ?, ?, ?, Chris A. Dhuey, ?, ?, ?, ?.

Back row: ?, ?, ?, Brian J. Dhuey, ?, ?, ?, Ronald A. Dhuey, Ann Dhuey Ouradnik, Catherine Dhuey Schmitt, ?, ?, James F. Dhuey, John A. Dhuey, Susan Anderson Mitchell, David Lahey

La Nouvelle Gazette, Brabant, Belgium, 3 August 1990
When some Walloons from America
discover some cousins at Blanmont

   Who of us doesn't have remote ancestors who during last century immigrated to the United States, and more particularly to Wisconsin? These cousins from America, who come every two years to step on the soil of Belgium, their homeland of origin [as part of the Belgian-American Club's biannual exchange]. During this month of July, they came a fifth time from Wisconsin to rediscover their relatives and friends in Namur and Brabant, as was the case for the family Charpentier-Dhuy.

   Monique Dhuey of Blanmont has discovered a few cousins in America. In fact, it was Isidore Dhuey, Monique's father, who was contacted last year by a certain Steve Dhuey, great-grandson [actually, great-great-grandson] of Jean Joseph Dhuy, who left Belgium in 1856 with his wife Marie Françoise Bouffioux and their son Philippe to relocate in American, to Wisconsin. In Ernage he was a knifemaker; in America he would become a farmer. He also had four other children: Jean Baptiste, John, Ferdinand, and Clarisse Dhuy. This surname is very common in Wisconsin [no it's not], although the Dhuy family became Dhuey after 1880, a form maintained by the fifth American generation.

Genealogical tree

   After many years, Steve Dhuey asked about his ancestors. He then undertook some research with the immigration service first, and then with the parish of Ernage and the township of Gembloux, in order to trace his genealogical tree.

   He learned thus that Monique Dhuey of Blanmont is one of his petites-cousines [French term for any cousin not a first cousin], and also that Harris and Emily Dhuey, American citizens, are his own cousins. It is these last who have come to Blanmont for a few days.

   Harris and Emily are brother and sister [no, Emily is Harris' wife]. Harris, gentleman-farmer, lives with his wife Armene Delfosse [no, Armene is Harris' sister], equally of Belgian origin, at Grand-Leez, while his sister is settled with her husband Robert Delfosse at Brussels.

But don't be mistaken, these two little communities scarcely a few kilometers distant from Dhuey Hill are really in Wisconsin. The majority of cities in Wisconsin in fact carry the names of our towns or villages in Wallonia [not quite].

Walloon, the language of Wisconsin

   These four persons and their children are staying for five days in July with friends in the province of Namur. They have been able to visit the harbor of Antwerp and the capital [Brussels], and also paid a visit, last Thursday, to their cousins Jean-Paul Charpentier and Monique Dhuey of Blanmont.

 

 

   Without ever having seen them, Monique recognized them immediately at the tour bus door, and the conversation immediately began in � Walloon, the second language of the State of Wisconsin.

   On the other hand, when we met at the Charpentier home, we didn't dare express ourselves in Walloon because it was too colloquial a language for us. Therefore, we conversed in English, because these Walloons from America don't understand French.

 

 

   It is with great regret that the cousins left this weekend, but this matters little, as Jean-Paul Charpentier has sworn to visit them in turn with his wife Monique and their two children, Lidvine and Axel, who delight in simply thinking about the possiblity.

Research notice

   Monique Dhuy still hopes to discover all the related persons of the Dhuy family. She knows that some of them are settled in the region of Mons. If you are part of this great family or if you know of it, you can get in touch with Monique �