This group of GINOUX (or GINHOUX or GIGNOUX with or without a particle) may have come from the same family group located in the Lyon region which split into two:
a group emigrating in the years 800 or 900 AD and settling in the Cévennes
a group emigrating perhaps at the same time or later in the 1200s and settling in the Alps, in today’s Italian Piedmont.
The earliest trace of GINOUX in the Cevennes dates from 1008 and has been found in the digitized records of the Bishopric of Uzès.
The sources used to develop the GINOUX families of the Cevennes are:
- the Chassin du Guerny funds on GENEAWIKI,
- the platform of digitized documents BROZER,
- the Association of Researchers and Genealogists of the Cevennes (ACGC)
- the archives of the departments concerned (Gard, Hérault, Lozère, Ardèche…).
- The family memory (in particular the descendants of the GINOUX de Mollans)
At present, research focuses more particularly on:
- the GINOUX Sirs or Lords of la Liquière, la Coste, du Bouc, de la Reignery
- the GINOUX who emigrated because they refused to embrace the Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion
- the illustrious descendants (such as Coco CHANEL, GUIZOT, Madame GINOUX, or more exactly her husband, painted by Vincent Van Gogh and his friend Paul Gauguin, the oxygenated water GIFRER (GIGNOUX brothers)…
- places outside the Cévennes where some GINOUX settled in the 1500s (Mollans sur Ouvèze in the Drôme, Chateaurenard and Eyragues in the Bouches du Rhône…)
- individual requests for research of ancestors of current descendants.
Places of life of the GINOUX des Cévennes (enlarge the map France, Cévennes side, small purple men)
The Cevennes, a GINOUX cluster
From 1400 to 1500, there were about ten places inhabited by the GINOUX in the Cevennes:
- Mercoirol, commune of Saint Florent sur Auzonet
- La Lèche, commune of Saint Julien des Points
- Portes where the famous castle in the shape of a ship’s bow is located
- Aubarine between the communes of Rochegude and Rivières
- The mas of Aleyrargues in
- Barjac
- Saint Ambroix
- the mas du Bouc and Reignery, commune of Saint Germain sur Cèze and very close to Saint Ambroix
- Alès and nearby Larnac and La Bedosse
- Vézénobres
- Sabran
- Bagnols sur Cèze
All these places will be occupied by GINOUX several hundreds of years during, even until our days.
A hundred years later, there are more than fifty places occupied by GINOUX including the first ten places above. And not included are the more distant places occupied by some of them, such as the one that settled in the Provençal Baronnies, in Mollans sur Ouvèze or in Chateaurenard in the Bouches du Rhône and certainly others to be discovered…
Below are excerpts from Cassini’s map (years 1700 to 1790) and landmarks of the places occupied by GINOUX between 1377 and 1499
The first GINOUX of the Cévennes
Around the year 1350, the GINOUX family was located on a very busy road at that time, the Régordane road linking Le Puy en Velay to the abbey of Saint Gilles du Gard and in the Cèze valley.
At that time, the father was named Bernard GINOUX. His sons :
Guillaume and Raymond who owned land in Vézénobre (1377)
André settled in Mercoirol, commune of Saint Florent sur Auzonet. He married his daughter Jeanne in 1402 to Bernard COTELIER from the village of Portes.
Pierre settled in Aubarine, between the communes of Rochegude and Rivières
Jean, perhaps the youngest son who will become a notary, then lord of Bouc and Reignery, will settle in several places. Starting from Mercoirol, he settled in La Lèche, commune of Saint Julien des Points, then near Saint Ambroix at the mas du Bouc and at Reignery very close, as well as in Aubarines between Rochegude and Rivières.
It is Jean who seems to have had many children with several women in several places. The family legend indicates 22 children. He died around 1466.
Below are the presumed children of Jean by place (we will detail, when possible, the life of each child):
Aubarines
- Georges, became a notary of Alès in 1460, married Gilette de Monteils and became lord of Larnac and La Bedosse near Alès and salt keeper of the city of Alès. He died around 1514 without descendants. His wife continued to manage his property and that of his niece until her death. The goods will remain with the de Monteils.
- Guillaume
- Raimond
- Vincente married Raimond PORTAL in 1466 and went to live with her husband in the village of Sabran near Barjols. She will have 3 daughters and 5 sons.
- Pierre, a carder in Alès, made his will before going to Santiago de Compostela in 1500. He bequeathed his property to his wife Claude BORNE and his brother Guillaume.
- Guirand
- Louis
- Martin
- Simon
- François
Saint Ambroix
- Antoine
- Jean
La Lèche
- Jacques
- Jaumette
- Etienne, married to Charlotte N. He settled in Saint Jean de Valériscle and became its bailiff. Later, he became the bailiff of Saint Ambroix. He died around 1549. He has several children among whom
- Anthonie, married to Claude REY, dressmaker in Grézac, one league from Puy en Velay
- Gabrielle, married to Jean FESTE chaplain of Nîmes
- Antoine
- Claude
- Marguerite, married to Jean BRETON de la Lèche
- Thibault, married to Isabelle d’Aghulac, deeply Protestant, engendered, among others, the lineage of François GUIZOT, first minister of King Louis Philippe, historian, member of the French Academy
- Barthélémy
Bagnols
- André