Not ordinary lives

To South Africa

A ROCHOY branch left France between 1873 and 1878 to go to England, then to South Africa : why ?

François Joseph ROCHOY and Isabelle PODEVIN get married on 20 march 1873 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais district. Their families have settled long ago in this area.

François Joseph, born in Outreau on 19 september 1846, works with the northern railways and lives in Boulogne, 61 rue Royale, with his mother, Honorine DESCAMPS, a dress maker, married until 1866 with Louis Marc Désiré ROCHOY.
Isabelle, born in Boulogne on 13 december 1844, is a dress maker and lives in Boulogne, 10 rue d'Ambleteuse, with her parents. Her father, Denis PODEVIN, is a sailor in the 1st division 6th company in Cherbourg when he gets married in 1835 with Marie Antoinette BERTHE : he has the consent from the brand of managers of the line crews division (military or passengers ?)

Their son, Eugene Auguste, is born in 1878 or 1879 in London in England. A daughter, Augustine, is born in 1881 and dies on the same year ; another, Emily, is born in 1882 ; still in London where we can trace them in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census.

From 1881 onwards, François Joseph is said to be a confectioner.
On the 1881 census, François Joseph's mother, Honorine DESCAMPS, is living with them. She dies in France in Boulogne on 13 august 1889.

Eugene Auguste gets married with Isabella BRENCHLEY in 1899 in London, district St Saviour Southwark. They have 3 children, all born in London : Isabella Louisa in 1899 (dies on the same year), Eugene Robert on 21 may 1900 and Alice Maud on 28 december 1905.

Eugene Auguste and Isabella leaves England with their children for South Africa. Eugene Auguste works for Wilson Rowntree S.A. (he makes the chocolate coated peanuts). There are traces in this country in East London.

Their son, Eugene Robert, dies in 1962 in Umtali in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) : This cannot be verified.
Their daughter, Alice Maud, dies in 1990 in East London in South Africa.

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With LAPEROUSE

A cousin, an astronomer belonging to the clock-maker LEPAUTE branch, dies with M. De LAPEROUSE.

Joseph LEPAUTE-DAGELET is the son of de Pierre LEPAUTE and Marie Martine DEMOUZON, and the grand-son of André GROSSEPAUTE and Elisabeth DOULET, sosa numbers 798 and 799 for my children.

He is born on 25 november 1751 in Thonne-la-Long, in the Meuse district, and dies in march 1788, aged 36, near Vanikoro.

He arrives in Paris in 1768, aged 16, invited by his LEPAUTE uncles who hold an important situation in clock-making. He studies astronomy with the famous De LALANDE and is elected as a member of the royal academy of sciences in 1785. In the same year, he is chosen by King Louis XVI to be a member, as an astronomer, of the famous LAPEROUSE expedition around the world, on the ships La Boussole (commanded by M. De LAPEROUSE) and L'Astrolabe (commanded by M. De LANGLE). He dies with his companions in 1788 in the shipwreck near the Solomon Islands, near Vanikoro Island.

In 2003, a skeleton is discovered and in 2005, things belonging to Joseph LEPAUTE-DAGELET are found near the same place. DNA analysis are in progress. Maybe "the Vanikoro unknown person" and Joseph LEPAUTE-DAGELET are the one and same person.

See this website De la Lorraine à Vanikoro following Joseph LEPAUTE DAGELET and the crews of LAPEROUSE

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