Huguenots to England then America
Hello L.D. Brousse and others on this thread,
I hope you don't mind my responding to your answer to my private message on this thread. It is just the kind of thread I was looking for.
Our family story is that we were French and had to leave because of "political troubles". Story goes that we left a mansion (in the "old country") with two old maids in it and went to England for a time. Apparently some stayed and at least one Pigman male came to colonial Maryland. Others (Pigmans with an "s") were and are located in the area of Tilburg, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.
In France and up through and including the U.S. 1940 census, we were most of the time Pigmon. Indeed in Correze and in Rhone-Alpes there are a few entries with this spelling Pigmon but in France the name changed to Pimond and then around 1800 to Pimont. The spelling in the earlier 1600 French records was Pigmon, Piemond and/or Pyemont.
The earliest records of my branch are in the Non-Conformist records in England in 1620's Hunstanton, Norfolk, England (spelled Piggeman and Piggman, and Pigman) and in Norwich, Norfolk, England. Just can't seem to find the records that apply to the parents of my ancestor John Pigman who is in Maryland in 1695 purchasing a plantation.
My wife and I finally figured out that to purchase land in America prior to independence you would have to be a British citizen. So we fit the same mold as the Huguenots mentioned on this thread. This and
familysearch.org recently put up a bunch of Norfolk, England records that helped find my the general vicinity of my ancestors - Hunstanton and Norwich.
Now if I could just find a Pimont or Pimond in France to do the y-DNA test I would have someone to compare with!
Any suggestions to aid my quest? Help!
Curtis Pigman/Pigmon
(in France Pigmon, Pimond, Pimont, Pÿmond, Piémont,
Piémond, etc.)
(in England Pigman, Piggman, Piggeman and Pyemont)
(in Holland Pigmans)