Hi,
As Steve hasn't posted here recently I've written to him asking for an electronic copy of the birth certificate. I've managed to get one generation further back than Blaise to his parents, Antoine and Constance. I have an electronic copy of his father's death certificate which someone posted on Ancestry.
I have no idea why he came to England, but given that the Revolution occurred in 1789 I think there may have been very good reasons! Many Huguenots left France after revocation of the Edict of Nantes which caused an exodus of Protestants. Many of them came to London and he may have had relations already there, or at the very least might have had a community that he could have become part of. I don't know how much of a community there would have been, though, as the Revocation was in 1685. This was about 100 years before he was born, so any refugees would have had quite some time to become assimilated. My granny, a Henocq, was born in 1897, less than 100 years after Blaise came, and she certainly wasn't part of any French community.
All in all he is quite a sketchy character.
* He was born about 1778 or 1788 (depending on who you believe) in Paris.
* He married Elizabeth Smith on June 16 1811 at Christ Church in Southwark. I have electronic copies of the Banns and the marriage certificate. He was a tailor.
* He had three children with Elizabeth. I don't have their birth certificates.
* All three were baptised at St Margarets, Westminster on the same day, October 26 1819. I do have an electronic copy of the baptismal record which I got from the Westminster Archives a couple of weeks ago.
* On the baptismal record the dates of birth of the three children are given:
Louisa: May 31 1810
Joseph: April 25 1812
Anne: March 22 1814
His occupation was 'Tayler' and he was living in Dartmouth Row.
* On March 20 1820 his father Antoine died in Paris. I have a copy of the death certificate. He was a wine merchant and was 82. Note that this does not correspond with the date of birth everyone has for him which is 'about 1751', which would have made him 69 years old.
* Two years later Blaise Antoine died on March 26 1822 at 3 Rue du Doyenné, Paris.
And that is as much as I can find about him. A couple of things are notable from what little we have.
* Louisa, the first child, was born in 1810 but Blaise and Elizabeth didn't marry until 1811. I would guess that might have caused a bit of an upset!
* All three children were baptised as a job lot and five months later his father died in Paris. Could it be that his father was ill and the baptism was part of Blaise's getting his affairs in order before going back to deal with family business? I have no idea, but it's certainly possible, don't you think?
I seem to have managed to trace most of his descendants in the UK, at least those that are Henocqs. I haven't taken much interest so far in the branches formed when the various daughters married. As I now live in France I'll have a go at seeing what more I can find out about his family here. However it's much more difficult than it was in the UK. Many records were destroyed, and although some have been rebuilt from other sources they aren't very accessible. I do live in France (although I'm Irish) but I'm about as far from Paris as it's possible to be whilst remaining in mainland France so it won't be as easy as you might expect or hope!
By the way, Blaise Louis was my great x 4 grandfather and my grandmother was Gladys Amelia Henocq, 1897-1964.
Bryan
