We are fortunate to have images from the vintage church registers of Lehaucourt and St. Jacques in St. Quentin that show the signatures of many of our earliest known ancestors. However, when a name like 'Adrian Crommelin' is the same for various ancestors it takes some detective work to 'sort out' which signature applies to which wife and children, etc.

I first encountered this problem with Adrian Crommelin when I tried to match his name with Marie Le Maistre because of references to him found in the Bastille Archives. [He was imprisoned for a year in the Bastille, 1685-6.] However, in Scheffer's book I discovered that Andre Crommelin [not Adrian] was the wife of Marie Le Maistre. I must conclude, therefore, that Andre was also known as 'Adrian' to the Bastille prison system. This puzzle challenged me to try to sort out all the other 'Adrian' signatures I found, and the chart below summarizes my findings.