Luxembourg: https://anlux.public.lu/fr/documents-numerises/photos/section-historique-manuscrits.html#
https://query.an.etat.lu/Query/detail.aspx?ID=122632
A-XIII-9 Put this in search in the archives. Then D71494 for pdf download.
Das Feuerstättenverzeichnis des Jahres 1656 by Edward Oster
https://query.an.etat.lu/Query/detail.aspx?ID=1811571
Summary of the number of towns, boroughs, villages and censuses of the Duchy of Luxembourg and County of Chiny, conforming to and counting of fires made in the year 1624, together with that made in the year 1656 which is noted in the margin. See image 17 for Virton.
https://query.an.etat.lu/Query/detail.aspx?ID=227878 1611 Census of Virton
A-XIII-6-1 Dénombrement des feux pour Neufchâteau, Herbeumont, Orchimont, Ivoix, Lafferté, Chauvancy, Montmédy, Damvillers, St-Mard, Virton, Chiny, Etalle et Arlon, 1611 (Registre)
https://query.an.etat.lu/Query/detail.aspx?ID=227878 [This link takes you to the source. The pdf must be downloaded].
Year 1611 Census of Virton
I searched this series for Descouvier and found the following in Virton Ville:
Image 109 Jean d'Escouvy
Image 111 Claude d'Escouuy
Note: Villers devant Orval is on image 152
The fireplace directory of the year 1656
Introduction
In the “Lëtzebuerger Bauere-Kalenner” (Lëtzebuerger Farmers Calendar), Edouard Oster, the director of the capital’s girls’ high school, published a series of articles in 1953 which he entitled “Peasant Property Conditions 300 Years Ago.”
In fact, this is nothing less than the “Fireplace Directory” of 1656, which he wants to present and explain to his readers. It not only covers the agricultural holdings in Luxembourg City at that time, but also introduces us to the ordinary, simple people who survived in the villages after the Thirty Years’ War. We learn to which lordship the individual villages and houses belonged; what the situation was with the communal property, with its forests and meadows; what common debts the residents bore and who was entitled to this oppressive tax, how high the village’s “assessment” was; but also who the village’s mayor, alderman, and centner was. whether the houses were free or serf, bailiwicks or farmsteads; we even learn how many of these existed before the war (1635) and what remained of them in 1656; he tells us the structural condition of the houses after this terrible catastrophe; he gives us the name and occupation of each individual landlord; the document mentions his ownership of buildings, land, and livestock, even the number of hay wagons he brought in; then the endless, crushing debts that weighed on each individual. Thus, a fairly clear picture of our villages emerges in those unfortunate times. But the extortionists of the masses are also clearly identified.
This work first deals with the entire provostship of Luxembourg, i.e., almost the entire territory of the so-called Gutland. Then also the Moselle region with Remich and Grevenmacher, the present-day Luxembourg towns of the provostship of Arlon, the provostship of Echternach, and the market bailiwick of Diekirch with the lordships of Wiltz and Clervaux. This extremely important document thus practically testifies to life in the entire present-day Grand Duchy after a disastrous period of war.
Professor and honorary director of the girls' lyceum, Edouard Oster, died in 1965 before the edition of this work was completed. J. Flammang took over the pen, who, according to the author's legacy, continued the publication until 1981. The result is a document from its era, with a few minor human shortcomings.
Conscious of the historical value of this work, both for general archaeological research of this period and for genealogical research in an era when parish registers are still silent, I have incorporated this usually inaccessible publication into a book as faithfully as possible. I have only deleted the annually repeated introductions to the text, insofar as they offered no new information. I then compiled a place index, which not only refers to the book, but also indicates the year and page in the original edition. Mr. Oster had already published a personal index of the hearth censuses of 1611 and 1656 in 1965 in the 13th volume of Jules Mersch's Biographie Nationale. It should also be mentioned that the author had already published a large number of family names from the censuses of the 15th and 16th centuries in the "Cahiers Luxembourgeois" (CL1950/1,2,3) and (1951/3,5).
Alphonse WILTGEN
(Le dénommbrement des feux de l'année 1656 de la prévôté de Luxembourg et other publié jadis par le Professor OSTER)
Source: https://www.luxroots.org/DisplayNew.php?articleid=953&langue=fr
https://luxemburgensia.bnl.lu/cgi/luxonline1_2.pl?action=fv&sid=luxbio&vol=13&page=20&zoom=3 Jules Mersch Vol. 13