The SOHY's: from the Meuse riverside to the New World...
© Pierre AUBRY - August 2009
(Thanks
to Janelle KILSTRÖM for her help with the English text.)
During the 17th and 18th centuries, my ancestors SOHY lived in the villages of Arbre and Lesve, now part of the Profondeville commune, at the riverside of La Meuse, between Namur and Dinant.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the family moved to the city of Fosses and stayed there until around 1920. At this time, my grandfather Alexandre SOHY started a cooper workshop in Gembloux.
Their story is the history of just ordinary people: day laborers, farmers, domestics, maidservants or artisans. It is the story of the lower people who made the history of Wallonia.
Nicolas SOHY (1660/1680-1718)
My oldest ancestors on the SOHY side are Nicolas SOHY and Anne BROSTAUX.
In this time, the name was SOHIER.
They were married in Arbre, a little village in the Province of Namur, on June 16th, 1696 (Coincidence, I was born also on June 16th... but 251 years later!...)
The marriage is made after the 3rd blood degree dispensation. This means that the couple had at least a common ancestor. They are cousins at the 3th generation and had at least a common great grandparent.
The Catholic church forbade marriages between blood relations until the 6th degree. Marriages under the 5th degree are invalid if the blood relationship is discovered after the celebration.The local bishop might give dispensations until the 3rd degree. Dispensation on 2nd and 1st degrees must be given by Roma. In the canon law, one degree is one generation.
Witnesses are Henri and Ghilaine SOHIER, probably a brother and a sister of Nicolas.
Nicolas and Anne must have been born between 1660 and 1680. Place and date are yet to be found. For now, I'm looking for this in the General Archives of the Kingdom in Namur. Both died in Arbre: Nicolas on December 1st 1718 and Anne on March 1740. They had at least nine children between 1697 and 1716: 4 boys and 5 girls.
Nicolas (Antoine) SOHY (1697-1735)
I'm from the branch of their oldest son Nicolas (Antoine) SOHY. He was also born in Arbre on April 21st 1697 and died there on April 18th 1735. He was 37. His spouse Marie Jeanne BEAUPERE was born also in Arbre on July 16th, 1698. The marriage was on July 21, 1726. Between 1727 and 1732, 3 children were born: 1 girl and 2 boys.
Nicolas was probably generally called Antoine. This name appers in the christening certificate of his son Jean Joseph.
Jean Joseph SOHY (1729-1786)
Their son Jean Joseph SOHY was also born in Arbre on June 16th 1729 (Another June 16th!...)
He married Marie Anne GENIN in Lesve on Feb. 1st 1770. The couple had one daughter and three sons between 1770 and 1780. Jean Joseph was a domestic. He died in Lesve, the neighbouring village, on July 23th 1786 at 57 and is buried the next day in the churchyard. His spouse would live 20 years more: she died in Lesve on December 12th 1814 at 79. They are my direct ancestors.
Charles Joseph SOHY (1773-1814)
Their third son Charles Joseph SOHY was born on December 27th 1773 in Lesve. A nice Christmas gift! He married, on January 13d 1806, a local native girl, Marie Thérèse BUFFET, born on Feb. 27th 1776. The couple left Lesve probably between 1807 and 1810 to Fosses, a small neighbouring town. The family would stay there until the beginning of the 21st century. Charles and Marie Thérèse died in Fosses respectively on March 10th 1814 and July 24th 1860.
Three boys were born from this farmer couple. One died around ten years old. Only the oldest created a family: Théodore Joseph SOHY.
Théodore Joseph SOHY (1807-1843)
He was born in Lesve on November 9th 1807, but died in Fosses on March 12th 1843. He was 35. He was a day laborer and turner. Around 1830 he married Rose Joséphine GOSSET, already mother of a little daughter, recognized by Théodore. Rose was generally called by her middle name Joséphine. She was a domestic and born in Fosses on December 24th 1803. She died there on September 23th 1844 at forty years old.
She had borne Théodore five other children (all boys). Two of them would die at 6 years and 18 months old.
Auguste Joseph SOHY (1837- ? )
The story of this SOHY family branch continued with Auguste Joseph SOHY born in Fosses on August 8th 1837. He was a farmer.
His wife Désirée Antoinette Joséphine GUERRY gave him five children between 1861 and 1878. Auguste and Désirée were married in Fosses on September 6th 1860. So far I haven't found their dates and birth places.
Mathieu "François" SOHY (1861- ? )
Mathieu "François" Gillain SOHY, my great-grandfather, was the oldest son of Auguste. His usual name was certainly François. He used this name when he sign is wedding certificate. He was born in Fosses on September 6th 1861. He was a farmer and his little farmhouse still exists in the place called place Le Benoît, il Fosses .
He married, on April 14th, 1894 in Fosses, Léonie Marie Gillaine LEJOUR, a maidservant. She was 33 years old and already mother of a nine-year-old little boy, Alexandre, who would be recognized by Mathieu François SOHY. Two other boys would come later. One would die 13 days after birth.
So far, I don't know the birth date and place of Mathieu François SOHY.
Alexandre SOHY (1885-1969)
The Gembloux contemporary family story began with my grandfather Alexandre Fidèle Joseph SOHY on the 23rd of April 1885 in Presles (Hainaut). In 1909 he married in Namur Marie-Louise MALOTAUX, a maidservant born in Jemeppe-sur-Sambre the 5 of Ausgust 1884. They lived in Moustier-Sur-Sambre (where my mother was born in 1912) and during World War I in Tamines. In this village, the German troops shot and drowned in the river La Sambre 384 people. Luckily Alexandre escaped from the massacre because he was hidden in a water tank.
Alexandre SOHY was the last cooper in the city of Gembloux where he came between 1915 and 1920. His house was 21 rue Pierquin and his workshop was in the back side Rue Piconette. I have memories of him doing his woodworking and remember the smell of the oak sawdust in the room...
|
|
 |
| Alexandre Sohy in his workshop | Marie-Louise Malotaux |
His wife Marie-Louise was blind at the end of her life. She died in her house on 10 February 1962. Alexandre died in the Ste-Camille Hospital, in Namur, on 19 January 1969.
Alexandre and Marie-Louise had six children, three boys and three girls. Unfortunately the first – two twins – died at birth in 1910. Yvonne, René, Henri and Lucienne came in 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1923
The descendants of Alexandre SOHY are now international.
While my Mother and I stayed in Gembloux (Belgium), Henri and Lucienne would emigrate to Canada in the fifties and sixties. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are living in Canada and in the United States of America.
The son and the two grandchildren of René are living in the Grand-Duché of Luxembourg.
Yvonne SOHY (1912-1995)
What about my mom, Yvonne SOHY? She was born in Moustier-Sur-Sambre on 13 March 1912. She married my dad René AUBRY in Gembloux on June 23, 1934. She was a dressmaker. He was a mason. During WW2, she was an ambulance woman for the Belgian Red Cross in the local hospital. She died in the Ste. Camille Hospital in Namur on November 25th, 1995.
As for the rest, we'll see about that later...
Click here to see the documents about the here above SOHY's
In the descendants of Nicolas SOHY and Anne BROSTAUX they are families ART, AUBRY, BOUTEFEU, COLLART, HARTWIG, GAROT, KAISIN, LEJOUR, PELTON, POMERY, MARQUET, NOEL and ROOT
Click here to visit the Nicolas SOHY's descendants data base
