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Origin of the Name and Family by W. W. Varnedoe, Jr.
All present forms of the name VARNEDOE are anglicized forms of the French VERNADEAU, meaning "An Alder grove by the water."
The root word of the name is "Verne", an old French word that meant an Alder tree. Alders are members of the Birch family of trees. In old French, "Vernet" meant an Alder grove. As French spelling became more standardized, a final "e" to preserve the pronunciation of the "t", making the word read: "Vernete" or sometimes "Vernede". D's and t's often changed places in old spellings as well as how the word was pronounced.
In the Medieval times, people began to use a family name. Often, it took the form of their locality. Thus anyone living near an Alder grove might be called "Jean de Vernede de eau." This would mean "John of the Alder grove by the water". But in French, this phrase would be condensed to "Verned'eau." Leaving out the apostrophe as in the old spellings, this is: VERNEDEAU.
Although Modern French is even more rigid than English in insisting on correct spellings, Old French, like Old English, spelled phonetically. Thus, a word such as a name that had lost its meaning, (The Modern French word for Alder is "aune") could be spelled in various ways, depending on the scribe.
Pierre Vernadeau lived in Paris until recently. Pierre wrote the author that he is descended from a family that lived in the Limousin District near Limoges. He was without children, and as far as he could tell, the last of the French family. As Pierre found out as he attempted to trace his family, the French Revolution in 1789, destroyed most records. It seems the aristocracy deliberately and systematically destroyed records during this revolution to hide their noble ancestry and thus avoid the guillotine. In addition, the viscous religious wars of the 1500's and 1600's in France, disrupted many families which caused them to hide and to move.
A fragment of data, dated 1455, from the Bishopric of Limoges lists an Amelius Vernhaudi. (This is, of course, a church record in Latin. It would be pronounced "Vern- Awe- Dee." The final syllable is a Latin grammatical ending.) But there are families of Verneda's living in Barcelona today who state that they came from the Pyrenees area of Catalan. Barcelona is the capital of Catalan, which once included Rousillon France. these Catalans speak a separate language from either Spanish or French. In their language, "Verneda" means the same as French "Vernedeau." Up until 1659 when the Treaty of the Pyrenees split Catalan into Spanish Catalan and French Rousillon, Catalan oscillated between the two counties and being independent. Now there is a village named Vernet-le-Bains in Rousillon. "Bains" mean baths. The mayor of this village has written that it is indeed a "Villed'eau."
There is a note, without reference as to origin, in the files of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina that says that our Leonard Vernedeau and his father Henri were the sole survivors of the persecutions of the Huguenots in France and came to America from the Vivarais district of France. Leonard showed up in America in 1736.
Putting all these bits and pieces together, we can speculate about our family origin: The family originated in Vernet-le-Bains area of Catalan. The terrible religious wars, persecutions and atrocities of the 1500's and 1600's caused the family to split up. Some moved south of the mountains and recently to Barcelona. Others went north to Vivarais or Limousin. Finally, the terrors increased with the 1685 recision of the Edict of Nantes, and there was a virtual flood of Huguenots out of France. Our family lingered too long and many were killed, only Leonard, and possibly his father, escaping to America.
Speculation ends and hard facts and records begin with Leonard Vernedeau in South Carolina. This story will pick with the 1st generation.