Notes:

Born: 1765 (new info found 4/28/2000)

See database for parents listing and brothers and sisters)

Married: Eugenie Vitrac, July 15, 1815

Eugenie Vitrac parents were: Jacques Paul Vitrac and Marie Clemence Lacour

Eugenie Vitrac was born: March 9, 1791

Sieur Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont died before the 1820 census

Eugenie Vitrac and Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont had only one child: Pierre Daigrepont born 1819.

It appears no one seems to know anything more about Sieur Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont except he was from Moulin, province of Bourbon, France. The document I have written by Mack Daigrepont says, he can be placed in Pointe Coupee, Louisiana about 1810 and that Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont was a merchant about 1811 - 1818.

This is going to be a 'notes' page as the story unfolds to my question: who was Sieur Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont?

If you want to know something I guess you have to go to France. Virtually I went and found a search engine that found some information for me.

Let us first look at Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont, the name.

The search engines we have in the genealogy databases in America show Vernin is not a common name. Someone that names their child with that many names tells me there are some last names involved.

So my first search was Vernin and I found 8 entries in France:

VERNIN 1760 1794 2 MOULINS FRA R

VERNIN 1768 1768 1 Moulins, 03 F03 AUV FRA R

VERNIN 1768 1768 1 Moulins, Allier, 03 F03 AUV FRA R

VERNIN 1793 1794 3 Paris F75 IDF FRA R

VERNIN 1793 1793 1 St Helmon FRA R

VERNIN 1793 1793 1 St-Helmon FRA R

Vernin/V. d'Origny/V. d'Aigrepont 1500 Moulins F03 AUV FRA G

Vernin d'Aigrepont 1700 1900 Bourbonnais F03 AUV FRA G

AUV is a region called Auvergne, France.

Notice the spelling for Daigrepont in the above search: d'Aigrepont

Notice also there is a Vernin d'Aigrepont and the last name Vernin in Moulins. The d'Aigrepont shows the year 1500 in Moulins, France. The Vernin d'Aigrepont shows years 1700 - 1900 in Bourbonnais, France. Moulins is said to be where Sieur Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont was from.

* Note: As of 4/28/2000 documentation in France shows Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont name is spelled: Jean-Jacques Vernin d'Aigrepont

The following information was given to me by Joel Morin about Sieur infront of a name. "Sieur means "Lord". French Canadian operated under the seignorial system (basically a feudal arrangement) and the local "seigneur" ran the place. The term "sieur" indicates a seigneur."

This link explains how the seigneur system worked:

Apanages in the French Monarchy

An apanage is a portion of the demesne of the Crown which is given by the sovereign to a younger son. The apanagist was given a certain number of fiefs. That meant that he was put in place of the king as feudal lord owner of the real estate of the fief, as well as owner of feudal and seigniorial rights.

An excerpt from "History of Names"

Surnames developed from bynames, which are additional identifiers used to distinguish two people with the same given name. These bynames tend to fall into particular patterns. These usually started out as specific to a person and became inherited from father to son between the twelfth and sixteenth century. The aristocracy usually adopted inherited surnames early on and the peasants did so later. Some of the specific types are: the patronymic (referring to the father or mother), a locative or toponymic (indicating where a person is from), an epithet (which describes a person in some way) or a name derived from occupation, office or status. Most cultures use surnames developed from one or more of these types of bynames. P. H. Reaney's Origins of English Surnames covers the formations of these various types of bynames in much greater detail than is possible here.

Patronymics are common in almost all European cultures. These are usually formations that mean "x son of y" or "x daughter of y". The parent indicated is usually the father, but the mother's name may also occur in some cases. Patronymics were formed in various ways in English; Johnson, Richards and Henry are representative. Johnson shows the full development; it obviously means son of John or John's son. The "son" could also be understood, by the position in the name, so Richard's son Martin might be called Martin Richards instead of Martin Richardson. At the same time, Henry's son Martin might be known as Martin Henry, because to the medieval mind the position of the name Henry would imply that Martin was Henry's son. Other cultures used different ways of indicating patronymics. In Welsh, the usual form was ap X. If the father's name (X) was Rhys, it would form ap Rhys. Over the centuries this form yielded the names Reese and Price. In Scotland and Ireland the typical patronymic form was mac X, yield names such as MacAndrew, MacDougall, MacGregor and MacLeod.

Locative and toponymic bynames are another common form of byname. Locatives are very typical of the aristocracy in England and France. A locative byname indicates that you are from some named place. Typical forms in Old and Middle English are: aet x, atte x, de x, of x. For example ft Lintone, atte Homwode, de London, de Ebor. Sometimes the name of the place followed the given name directly, without a preposition, thus forming the bynames Linton, Homwode, London and York. An excellent list of place-names in England can be found in Ekwall's Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names.

Toponymic bynames are derived from topographic or other local features of the landscape. For example, a man dwelling near a prominent beech tree might use "atte Beche", " de Beche" or " de la Beche" as his byname. A man dwelling on or near a hill might use "del Hill," "atte Hil" or "of the Hill." A man dwelling near marshy ground might use "atte Fen" or "del Fen." Names of this type are quite common in England. Eventually, of course, these usually wore down to Beech, Hill and Fen.

Epithets are bynames that refer to some personal characteristic of the bearer. In the Middle Ages, a person acquired this from friends and acquaintances. An appellation of this sort can be complimentary, uncomplimentary or simply descriptive. Nicknames can take various forms: descriptive of physical characteristics of some kind like Blakloc, the Small, Armstrong or Grenehod, or descriptive of character or mental or moral characteristics, such as Wastepenny, Slyman, Careless, Bonfaith. Sometimes a nickname can be metaphoric (i.e. "John is like a -") yielding names like "Peppercorn" for a small person and "Fairweather" for a cheerful, sunny person. A wonderful source for English nicknames is Jan Jvnsjo's Studies on Middle English Nicknames.

Occupational names are often the most obvious in origin. Baker, Brewer, Weaver, Taylor and Smith are fairly obvious in meaning. Some of these occupational bynames also have feminine versions which became hereditary surnames. For example, the feminine of Baker is Baxter, the feminine of Brewer is Brewster and the feminine of Weaver is Webster. However, more than half of the recorded people with these feminine surnames are male. Occupational surnames as a class are considered to also contain office names. Examples of office names are those such as Marshall (a tender of horses, or an office of high state) and Steward (a manager of an estate) and Abbott (the head of an abbey).

This is a brief overview of a vast amount of material.

Found at: http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/namehist.html

It is my opinion that Daigrepont is a byname that became a surname after Sieur Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont came from France. Sieur Jean Jacques Vernin Daigrepont settled in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana in around 1810. It is my opinion that Vernin is the surname and Daigrepont (d'Aigrepont) is the byname. I recieved the following information 5-4-99 and is as follows:

I received the following information by e-mail from Jean-Paul DENISE, from France. He is working for the "Centre Genealogique de la Marne", which is a genealogical center for the French department "La Marne"

FRENCH Documents about the VERNIN (d'Aigrepont) Family in France.

Melvin Daigrepont on May 19, 1999 took a trip to New Roads, La., Parish seat (area formerly known as Fausse Rivere or today's english False River.) He visited the Pointe Coupee Parish visitor center, and then to the Court House. He was able to view 3 original documents each signed by Jean Jacques Daigrepont.

The first document was written in French and it was the consumation of marriage between Jean Jacques Daigrepont and Eugenie Vitrac. The document was signed by the following as: Marque Ordinaire, Eugenie Vitrac, Charles Gremillion, Jean Jacques Daigrepont, and others (names were hard to read).

The second document read: ESTAT de LA Louisiana dated 1818. Appears to be a land purchase by Jean Jacques Daigrepont. It was signed by the following as: Marque Ordinaire, de Made Daigrepont, Vitrac, B. Gaizon, Charles Gremillion, E. Martind, Lemoine, Doomenon, Judge de Parion.

The third document was another purchase of land. Sold by Charles Gremillion to Jean Jacques Daigrepont. (also written in French). This document was signed by the following as: Charles Gremillion, Jean Jacques Daigrepont, F. Gremillion (Tessiors), Judge de Paraipy. The judges signature looks different then the other signature but it was Melvin's opinion it was the same judge.

Melvin wrote the names down as they appeared. He then went to the Pointe Coupee Parish Library and found a book written by Judy Riffel called Pointe Coupee Parish History. In the book was the article written by Mack Daigrepont and that article showed a signature of Jean Jacques Daigrepont (see above).