Geneanet. Mathei Gilet marriaged to Beatrice Descouviers https://gw.geneanet.org/jblaise?lang=en&n=gilet&p=mathei
Online records in France: https://en.geneanet.org/explore/french-ancestors/post/online-archives-in-france#ad-censuses
Migrations to Luxembourg from Switzerland: https://www.cdmh.lu/resources/pdf/_base_3/9786780055485.pdf?ac=1400484551
a) Parish registers
Parish registers are far from offering the researcher all the expected information.
- Luxembourg priests showed little enthusiasm for keeping these registers, which were imposed on them by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Also, it is only exceptionally that acts of Catholicism date back to the first half of the 17th century. The rare documents that meet this condition, such as those from Thionville (4) and Bastogne (5), show us that the initial phase of Alpine immigration is therefore partly lost on us. Indeed, around 1600, Tyroleans were indeed settled in Thionville (6), and Savoyards in Bastogne (7). To appreciate the true extent of the migratory phenomenon, we must therefore take into account the multiplication of sources during the 17th century
-Moreover, records rarely allow for consistent observation of migration. Unfortunately, they are almost never complete. The vicissitudes of time, wars, fires, and floods have caused losses and gaps
Finally, the quality of the information recorded is very uneven. Comparing the registers of the different parishes of the capital offers a telling example of this: while the registers of St-Nicolas are kept with a certain precision, those of St-Michel and St-Jean are written economically: a baptismal inscription can be summed up as a mention of the child's first name and the godfather and godmother (8)
b) The Bourgeois Books
As it currently stands, we know of two registers for the former Duchy of Luxembourg.
The register of the City of Luxembourg spans the 16th and 18th centuries in three volumes, starting in 1615 (9). The data provided has evolved over time. Not very verbose before the mid-17th century, these documents provide, at best, the civil status of the candidate for bourgeoisie, their profession, any protections they may benefit from, and the amount of taxes payable. A place of origin is also generally recorded. This information should be handled with caution, as it does not always correspond to the migrant's native parish. Sometimes it simply indicates their previous place of residence.
The Thionville register is older, but cannot be used currently, having been damaged during a flood (10).
Regarding these registers, it must be remembered that they only concern a proportion of the migrants actually present in the city. We still know nothing about the rules governing admission to the bourgeoisie. Was access freely granted to anyone who applied? Were there any quotas, professional or otherwise? Did the registration conditions change over the years?
Given all these imponderables, it seems extremely risky to deduce conclusions about the overall volume of Alpine immigration from the number of mountaineers applying for bourgeoisie.
c) Notarial deeds
Luxembourg's particularly rich notarial collection has been little explored to date. Since it is not accessible through directories or tables, it poses serious problems for researchers. Moreover, it reveals a real cultural divide between Savoyard and Valtellinese migrants on the one hand, and Tyroleans on the other. In the Latin world, notaries are readily used for day-to-day business, whereas this is not the case in German-speaking regions (13).
The notarial collection allows us to discover wills, marriage certificates, incorporations of commercial companies, bills of exchange, acknowledgments of debt, sales or construction contracts. As far as Alpine migrants are concerned, these documents preserve many testimonies of attachment to their homeland. People often wait until the second or third generation before transferring the last asset to their country (14). When making a will, they rarely forget the church, the school, or the poor of their native parish (15).
10) AMT Information
11) SPRUNCK A., People, houses and streets of the city of Luxembourg from 1671 to 1697, Collection "Les amis de l'Histoire" VIII (1970), pp. 4-265
12) At the National Archives (ANL) in Luxembourg
13) In the Germanic world, going before a notary was rather a sign of defiance; for the establishment of notarial practice in Savoy, see CANCIAN P., Notaries and cancellaries: circumnavigations of the Alpine slopes from the 12th century to Amedeo VIII, in The border, necessity or artifice, Proceedings of the 13th Franco-Italian conference on Alpine studies, Grenoble, 1987, pp. 43-52
14) See for example ANL, Notary Pierret 26 II 1720 (act No. 34) Joseph Paccard sells to Pierre Grignet, a bourgeois of Flumet, residing in Saint Gervais, his share of the inheritance "movable and immovable" in the parish of Passy "in Faussigny." This includes a house and "barns, stables, enclosures, meadows, fields, pastures, orchards, vineyards, woods, and ripets (?)." He also transfers the property that came to him from his "grandfather."
15) See for example ANL, Notary Pierret 26 V 1723 (act No. 91) testamentary disposition of Joseph L'Empereur, originally from Ste Foy in Tarentaise, "ten écus or pattacons" to be distributed "to the poor in cash according to the custom of the place."
d) Corporation registers
Registers allow us to follow the progress of newcomers in their professional environment. Note the importance of the register of the Confrérie St-Thiébaut, which brings together the building trades of Luxembourg City (16). It allows us to discover a large number of Tyrolean masons, joiners, and carpenters (17). The directory of the Haberdashers' Trade of the capital records Savoyard, Comascan, and Valtellinese merchants. Such documents exist for many other localities, but have not yet been systematically "discovered" for migratory history (18).
The reservations expressed with regard to both of the sources mentioned will have made it clear that only the cross-referencing of a very large number of documents allows us to make reliable progress
For other online articles in this migration study see: https://www.cdmh.lu/p/138