Suzanna Catherine Daree

Nova Scotia's Montbéliard Names by Terrence M. Punch (Reprinted from the Nova Scotia Genealogist by permission of the author) Each of us who practices genealogy takes some interest in the origin and provenance of the names of the families upon which our researchers focus our attention. In the case of the great majority of people of British Isles origins it is simply a matter of going to the library and looking up the surname. The surnames of people from Montbeliard are generally not among those to be found in the standard references consulted by anglophones. This article offers an English language presentation of information on the subject of the French Protestant family names which reached Nova Scotia from Montbéliard in the middle years of the eighteenth century. Between 1954 and 1960, a Lutheran pastor in Montbéliard , named Charles Mathiot, published a treatise noting 463 surnames which were found in the former Principality of Montbéliard. It appeared in the French Lutheran montly, L'Ami Chrétien, as a serial item. With the permission of Professor J.M.Debard, president of the Société d’Emulation de Montbéliard, I have translated that work. By this agency, I am able to offer the Mathiot articles on about thirty surnames which continued (sometimes in garbled form) to be used in Nova Scotia beyond the first few years of arrival in this province. To assist those readers who are unclear as to the location of Montbéliard, it lies north of Switzerland, west of the Rhine and of Alsace. MENEGAL, Menegol, Menegay, MENEGAUX: The stem Menegal or Menegaul under many forms means, according to one authority "Seigneur" and is borne by very many Montbéliard families. In 1443 we already had Menegay at Mandeure; in 1448 at Corcelles-lés-Mandeure; in 1494, Menegal and Menegaux at Dambenois and Montbéliard; in 1500 Menegal and Menegauit at Semondans, and in 1510 at Désandans; in 1542 Menegay at Blamont; in 1600 Menegal at Héricourt; and, in 1616, at Luze. In the 18th century Menegaux at Allenjoie and Courcelles-lés-Montbéliard. In modern times the name has become spelled Menegaux. A French branch settled in Alsace spells it Menegoz. The local family includes the scientist, Auguste Menegaux, while the Alsace family includes two professors of theology, Eugéné Ménégoz of Paris, and his nephew, Fernand Ménégoz of Strasbourg.