Horace Desmoulins

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

"He was a very amiable and interesting child. I have never heard him spoke of since, and if he be still alive, it is evident that he has not made so much noise in the world as his father." (anonymous, cited by Claretie, p. 368)

Camille's orphaned son. How much do we know about him? I read Claretie's brief account--of his education, mostly--and was curious to see if any further information exists. Why did he go to Haiti? How did he die?

According to Claretie, the daughter of Horace (Madame Broom) married and continued to live in Haiti. Do we know of any later descendants?

Claretie also mentions that Horace's death certificate gives the date June 29, 1851 (p. 370). How odd, since he was supposed to have died at 33 years old (Claretie writes this in the same sentence). 

Please shed some light on this mysterious figure.

Comments

[lucieandco.livejournal.com]

All I know about him comes from weeding through genealogy pages found via Google: according to this file (http://www.ghcaraibe.org/bul/ghc020/p0203.html) (near the bottom), he died on June 29, 1825 (which would make his age ... 32, wouldn't it?), so it's likely that the 51 is a printing error. It also says Mme Boom (who apparently changed her name from Marie Thérèse Camille to Camilia at some point) had no offspring, but there are four children of Horace's listed all in all, among which one daughter (Lucile) did have further also-there-registered children (who presumably had further children, and so on). In another bulletin from the same source (http://www.ghcaraibe.org/bul/ghc004/p0032.html) somebody has apparently asked for his reason for parting for Haïti (the inquiry is referred to in the document first linked), but no answer is given. Another website of a similar nature (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~htiwgw/familles/fiches/006067.htm) defines his profession in Jacmel as 'planteur' (of coffee, the text reveals; apparently he hoped to make a fortune and rather didn't and very nearly gave all up and returned to France ... and then died of fever before he got around to it) and provides some more information on his life pre-Haïti. (There's also a page further following the Lucile trail (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~htiwgw/familles/fiches/015782.htm) here.) I'm not sure whether I'd trust either of these accounts completely, though, and anyway it's all mostly names and dates ... but still!

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks! I've never used genealogy search pages before and had no idea so many records were available online. Very impressive research on your part;) Thanks again.

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just tried the FRENCH version of Google. How silly I am not to have done this before! *palmface*

[lucieandco.livejournal.com]

Google knows everything (or at least something about everything)! It takes a lot of scrolling and/or using the highlighting function but as long as you've got a name (and, if it's a common name, a date or location), you're always bound to find at least five billion people trying to prove that their own family goes back all that way. Though the sheer mass of these results makes it difficult to track down more than, well, names and dates.

[hanriotfran.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that everyone claims that "Horace died at 33, the exact same age than her father had when he went to guillotine". But in fact, as Lucieandco wrote, he died at 32...and Camille Desmoulins died at 34, anyway, since he had lied to the Revolutionnary Tribunal when he shouted out dramatically: " I 'm 33, the same age than Sans-Culotte Jesus when he was sentenced to death!".

Yes, those genealogy sites are GREAT. Searching on them, I discovered a lot of things I wouldn't know about MY OWN family (gasp!). Try them. You'll be highly amazed, Amie de Rimbaud.

HanriotFran.