Wilmont Kreis

Carrie asked, “Why is Jacques de Noyon sometimes spelled with a small d and sometimes with a capital D?”

French last (family) names sometimes begin with an article or preposition. For instance, in LeDuc, “le” is the article “the”. In De Noyon, “De” is the preposition “from”. This can be spelled as one word, (Denoyon), or two, (De Noyon) as Jacques spells it. If it is spelled as two words, the “de” is lowercase IF it is preceded by a first name (Jacques de Noyon) or uppercase if the last name only is used (De Noyon). There are other exceptions, but this is confusing enough.
At any rate, De Noyon means “from Noyon” a town north and east of Paris, and LeDuc means “the Duke” and LeMieux, “the best.”
I will return to the question of Andrew the Indian next time. Read More 

Andrew Stevens and Jacques de Noyon:
The unusual appearance of De Noyon along with two other Frenchmen and an Indian in 1702 is well accepted by historians. Andrew being the Indian was too good to be a coincidence. The time, place and circumstances fit perfectly with the plot of FEARFUL PASSAGE NORTH. The two Frenchmen are not named in the history books but did stay with De Noyon and were taken with De Noyon, his new wife Abigail and Lizzie on the raid. I took the liberty of naming them LeDuc and LeMieux. The Indian is not named but many scholars think it was Andrew. Interestingly, there is no mention of the Indian on the march to Montréal, so this fits with Andrew’s death in the raid.  Read More