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Translation to be reviewed. This page is a translation of the French original, which remains the reference. Read the French version

Event · July 2017

Dutilh reunion in Clairac — July 2017

One weekend in July 2017, descendants of the Dutilh family, scattered across the world since the 17th century, meet in Clairac, their ancestor’s town. [E]

Key facts

Date
July 2017 [B]; a weekend, announced by Sud Ouest on Thursday 20 and Saturday 22 July. [D] [E]
Place
Clairac (Lot-et-Garonne)
Plaque
Placed on Saturday 22 July 2017, rue Gambetta (text of the plaque).
Family
Dutilh.
Participants
The sources do not give the same number: “about sixty” descendants [D], 66 descendants [E], 70 members of the family. [B]
Initiative
Chris Dutilh, who lives in Amsterdam. [E]
What the documents say

Three sources, read separately

The newsletter of the Société des amis de Clairac (May 2018) [B]

The newsletter reports that in July 2017, 70 members of the Dutilh family, from Holland, England, Switzerland, Spain and Turkey, gathered in Clairac. It does not say who organised the gathering.

Sud Ouest, 20 July 2017: “Une passionnante histoire de famille” [D]

A few days before the gathering, the journalists meet Claude Martin, then aged 90, who tells them the family’s story: a Protestant family from Clairac, driven to emigrate after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), devoted to trade, which left for England and Holland and later had trading posts as far as Turkey and the United States.

According to the article, Claude Martin carried out this work for the family with another Clairac man, Clair Morizet; with the help of the mayor, Michel Pérat, both of them accompany the visit of these “cousins from around the world”. The stories gathered were to appear in a book published for the reunion. Programme announced: visits to places linked to the family, outings on the Lot, a picnic at the Pech de Berre, the unveiling of a “Lux Clareat” plaque bearing the family’s arms and a Protestant service.

Sud Ouest, 22 July 2017: “Les Dutilh de retour aux sources” [E]

On the day itself, the newspaper announces “an impressive cousinade” (cousins’ reunion), organised on the initiative of Chris Dutilh, bringing together 66 descendants living in France, Holland, England, the United States, Spain, Turkey and Brazil. A first family reunion had brought together 40 members of the family in Philadelphia in 2014; this time, the family meets in the footsteps of its common ancestor, Moïse Dutilh, a tailor in Clairac.

Chris Dutilh traced his family’s history through his own genealogical research, with the help of the departmental archives and of “two local historians, Claude Martin and Clair Morizet”; this research led to a book published for the occasion. Programme announced: the unveiling of a plaque on the ancestral house of Moïse Dutilh, rue Gambetta, a reception at the town hall by the mayor, Michel Pérat, and a ceremony at the Protestant church on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Claude Martin’s role

Both articles describe him as one of those who helped the family reconstruct its history: he worked for the family with Clair Morizet [D], and both helped Chris Dutilh in his research, alongside the departmental archives. [E]

Neither article credits him with organising the gathering: the initiative came from Chris Dutilh [E], and the Amis de Clairac newsletter does not link Claude Martin to the event. [B]

This link with the family goes back a long way: from the 1960s, descendants of the emigrant families Saffin, Dutilh, Darné and Cobet came to meet him. [A]

The Dutilh family Claude Martin and the Huguenot descendants

What the sources do not say in the same way

These discrepancies are pointed out without being settled; an archival document or an account from the participants may resolve them.

  • Number of participants: “about sixty” [D], 66 [E], 70 [B]. The two articles appeared before or during the gathering, the newsletter ten months later.
  • Countries of origin: France, Holland, England, the United States, Spain, Turkey and Brazil [E]; Holland, England, Switzerland, Spain and Turkey. [B]
  • Who did the research: Claude Martin, for the family [D]; Chris Dutilh, helped by Claude Martin and Clair Morizet. [E]
  • “For the first time”: the newspaper presents 2017 as the family’s first reunion in the footsteps of its ancestor [E], whereas Dutilh descendants had been coming to Clairac since the 1960s and Claude Martin gathered descendants of emigrants there in 1978. [A]
To be completed

To be documented

Research in progress — contribute. No photograph of this reunion can be published yet: those in the articles belong to Sud Ouest and are not reproduced. The book published for the occasion (title, authors) and the plaque on rue Gambetta also remain to be documented.

Were you in Clairac in July 2017, or do you have photographs, the family’s book or the programme of the gathering? Documents are reviewed before any publication, which only takes place with your consent.

Send a document Share a memory

During this reunion, at the request of a family member, Laure Leblond recorded an interview with Claude Martin de Robert on the Protestant history of Clairac and the origin of its church.

Read the interview

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Sources