Announcements
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Join or Renew Your Society Membership for 2009!
Please remember to contact the Society’s Membership Secretary with any address changes, death notices, or other changes in membership status. You can use the form on our Membership page and send to:
Membership Secretary
The Fontaine Maury Society
116 Oakland Drive
Piedmont, SC 29673-9005
The Society would also like to create an e-list for our members. Please be sure to provide your e-mail address when you join!
2009 Annual Meeting is Scheduled!
October 2009
Lexington, Virginia
At the 2008 annual meeting in October 2008, Society members agreed to hold the 2009 meeting in Lexington, Virginia, where Matthew Fontaine Maury lived in later life. Please check back for details closer to the date of the event!
Report on The Fontaine Maury Society’s 2008 Annual Meeting
Lake Junaluska, North Carolina
Our Society held its annual meeting in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, on October 10-12, 2008. Our business meeting was on Friday, October 10, at which we paid tribute to late Society member Captain J. Maury Werth. Officers were elected and the new newsletter editor confirmed. The membership voted to approve the amendment of the Society’s constitution to allow for such amendments after giving all members written notice of any proposed change at least 90 days in advance. There was also discussion of disseminating the newsletter via e-mail for those members who elect to have it electronically. Lastly, as cited above, it was agreed that the 2009 annual meeting would be held in October 2009 in Lexington, Virginia. There was further discussion of having the 2010 meeting in Savannah, Georgia, a location with no Fontaine or Maury ties but near where the Nancy Fontaine Brewton and Nathan Brewton family settled in the 1790s.
On Saturday Society members took a tour in the Great Smoky Mountains, traveling through Maggie Valley to Soco Gap to Cherokee. From there the group visited Mingus Mill within the Smoky Mountain National Park, then the Oconoluftee Visitors Center, and then the Qualla Arts and Craft Shop. They had lunch at the historic Jarrett House in Dillsboro. In the afternoon the Society’s President hosted members at an open house.
After our annual dinner on Saturday night, the annual meeting was adjourned until our next meeting in October 2009. Members then attended a concert of the famous Junaluska Singers.
Possible UK Ceremony for 1st U.S. Consul to Britain and James Maury
Since April 2007 the library has been in contact with Liverpool, England, city planners who are working with developers to revitalize the Albert Docks area of Liverpool. One building part of the demolition along Paradise Street was the office of James Maury, the first U.S. consul to England. James was a son of Mary Anne Fontaine and Matthew Maury; he was appointed as consul by President George Washington. A huge Golden Eagle crest once adorned building and has been preserved. The city also owns a large portrait of Maury which hangs in the Liverpool Town Hall. The house where Maury lived still stands and has a plaque identifying it as Maury’s home.
On October 1, 2008, the city opened the second phase of Liverpool’s newest and most elaborate shopping complex, with Princess Anne in attendance. And the restored Golden Eagle crest that originally adorned Maury’s office building was lifted to its new place.
Photograph courtesy of Bob Jones of Liverpool
There are still discussions of a possible unveiling ceremony for a plaque at this new retail establishment to commemorate the original U.S. Consul General office and its first consul, James Maury. The city has indicated that it would welcome Maury or Fontaine family members to attend and participate in the unveiling if it is scheduled. Please check back as we will post details when we have them!
Fountain / Fontaine DNA Study
A group of Fountain family researchers has initiated the Fountain / Fontaine DNA study to determine if various Fountain and Fontaine families share a common ancestor. The study included descendants of Solomon and Israel Fountain, who both lived in the late 1700s in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.
There has long been conjecture that these Fountain families descend from the Fontaine and Maury families’ common ancestor, Jaques Fontaine (1658-1728), but there is no definitive evidence to prove this. This DNA study could provide the physical evidence not yet located in documentation.
At the Society’s annual meeting in October 2006, it was agreed that the Society would recruit an eligible family member to participate in the DNA test. Since most Society members are documented descendants of the Jaques Fontaine family, a Society member’s participation in the DNA study should help other Fontaine and Fountain researchers in determining if they are part of this extended French Huguenot family.
We are pleased to report that in the first half of 2007, we had two members of our Society take the 37 marker test. The men match each other, but their results do NOT match anyone else currently in the study, so this means that his DNA does not match that of the descendants of Solomon and Israel Fountain. These results mean that Solomon and Israel Fountain do not descend from Jaques Fontaine as long believed.
As in all DNA studies, there is a 5 percent error rate. For optimal study design, we had two male descendants of two different sons of Jaques Fontaine to take the test. One of our Society members who took the test is a descendant of Jaques’ son, the Reverend Peter Fontaine. The other member who took the test is a descendant of Jaques’ son, John Fontaine.
We would welcome a male descendant of one of Jaques’ two other sons – James Fontaine and the Reverend Francis Fontaine – to take the test, to further verify the current results.
If you are interested in learning more about the study and possibly participating to assist you in your research, please contact the study administrator listed on the DNA study’s webpage.
Wanted: Descendants of James Fontaine and Elizabeth Fontaine Torin
Jaques Fontaine and his wife, Anne Elizabeth Boursiquot, had eight children – of these, six lived to adulthood and had descendants. Of these, we have descendants of four who are current members of our Society. We are seeking any descendants of the remaining two, James Fontaine and his sister Elizabeth Fontaine Torin.
James Fontaine was the eldest child, born October 10, 1686, in Barnstaple, England. He married twice, first in 1711 with Lucretia Desjarrie in the Diocese of Cork and Ross, Ireland, and second ca. 1737-1738 with Elizabeth Harcum in Virginia.
Elizabeth Fontaine was the youngest child, born August 3, 1701, in Bearhaven, Ireland. She married on October 31, 1729, with Daniel Torin in London. She died around 1764.
If you are a descendant of James or Elizabeth or have information on their families, please contact our Society!
Suggestions?
Should you have suggestions or requests for postings on our Society’s Announcements page, please contact the Society’s Librarian, Brian Nilsson, at FontaineMauryLibrary@verizon.net
Revised October 2008