Serge's World

A lot of my genealogy posts have focused on my South African ancestry, however, this story concerns my Belgian heritage.

My great-grandmother, Jeanne Leonie Moyson, was born in Brussels on the 9th of July, 1895, as the illegitimate daughter of Francoise Marie Moyson, and no father listed on the birth record. Two years later, Francoise Marie had another illegitimate child, which she named Fulgence Joseph Moyson, who was born in Dest on the 17th May, 1897.

These are the only children that I am aware of, even though she married Fulgence Joseph Delaloy in Moelbeen-Saint-Hean on 19th of March 1906.

At this point, I had reached a dead end, concerning who the biological father of the two children were. I could trace Francoise Marie Moyson’s ancestry back for several hundred years, and found a lot of details about Fulgence Joseph Delaloy, as well, but as for who the father was, I had no idea.

Until, I got a message from Jean Paul Delaloy, who was a DNA match with me.

This was exciting. Before this, I had no blood relation to Fulgence Joseph Delaloy, so how could we have a DNA match? I exhaustively mapped back Jean Paul’s ancestry, trying to find a ommon ancester, but even stretching as far back as the early 1700’s - way further back than DNA can reliably match - the only common link between our trees was Francois Marie Moyson and Fulgence Joseph Delaloy.

Now, some more background on Fulgence.

Fulgence was the son of Henri Ferdinand Joseph Delaloy (1821 - 1890) and Menalie (varously spelt Melanie) Simon (1823-1891), and was born in Waterloo, Belgium on 13 September, 1853. The family tree for Fulgence stretches back a few hundred years, but remains mostly centered around Waterloo, La Hulpe and ottignies region in Belgium.

He married several times, firstly with Adolphine Seaheijd, on 8 September 1875 in Ixelles, and the couple had one daughter, Josephine Henriette Delaloy, born 19 June 1874. Adolphine died on the 13th September 1875, just one week after her marriage.

Fulgence next married Marie Adeline Leonie Deldon, on 2 February 1880, in Florent-en-Argonne, Marne, France. They had a daughter, Pauline Elisa Henriette Delaloy on 6 June, 1888. Marie Adeline Leonie then died on the 17th March 1890.

Soon thereafter, Fulgence married Marie Lavinia Joseph Noel on the 4th October, 1890, in Montigies-sur-Sambre, Belgium. They did not have any children and Marie Lavinia Joseph divorced Fulgence in 1898, because Fulgence was having an affair with a woman in Diest, Belgium.

This is a major clue here, since Fulgence Adolphe Moyson was born in Diest shortly before this. However, that by itself is not conclusive.

But…the DNA match combined with the divorce, gives enough evidence to be able to conclude that Fulgence was having an affair with Francose Marie Moyson long before her married her, and while he was still married to his previous wife. Jeanne Leonie and Fulgence Adolph Moyson were then likely the illegitimate children of Fulgence Joseph Delaloy.

Interestingly enough, after marrying Francoise Marie Moyson, Fulgence never fully acknowledged the two children, and they kept their mother’s surname.

What a bundle of skeletons to pull out the closet!