Welcome to the website of the VVA
The “Vereniging van Vrienden van
Auvergne”
(literally translated as the “Association of
Friends of the Auvergne”).
The
VVA is a Dutch social club, founded in 1984. Its members are mostly
Dutch descendants of migrants who left the region of central France
known as the Auvergne, some 150 to 200 years ago! Documents indeed
prove that, towards the end of the 18th century, groups of
Auvergnat migrants traveling north crossed national borders, aiming
for the regions now known as Belgium and the Netherlands. Most of
these travelers were itinerant tradesmen: coppersmiths and tinkers,
or umbrella manufacturers and salesmen. Some of these carried out “campaigns” and returned to their homes after lengthy
absences (18 months up to three years). Others however decided to
stay and settle, starting new lives in the northern low lands. Today
there are some 42 Dutch families with proven Auvergnat roots.The
VVA was founded as a seemingly natural and logical consequence of
work initiated and carried out by two French researchers Odette
Meynial et Geneviève Coupas. Indeed, some 25 years ago, while
working on a research project of their own in the archives of
France’s “département du Cantal”, these two
ladies came across recordings of passes issued between 1776 and 1806
to local inhabitants wishing to travel to “la Hollande.” This triggered their curiosity and they undertook to study this
relatively unknown, past Auvergnat emigration. In 1984 the outcome of
their research was published under the title Les Auvergnats en
Hollande et en Belgique in a special issue of the Bulletin du
Groupe de recherches historiques et archéologiques de la
Vallée de la Sumène (nr. 29-30). As a
next step, Dutch genealogists Nico Balkenende, Pieter Lestrade and
Tiny Lestrade-Aarts undertook to check Dutch archive records and
phone books to see whether the Auvergnat family names were still to
be found in the Netherlands. This was the case and subsequently a
number of Dutch families were contacted. Many of these were aware of
their French origins but admitted to being totally ignorant as to
which part of France their ancestors had come from. The discovery of
the Auvergnat origins triggered a keen interest and lead to the
establishment of the VVA (1984). This is turn stimulated further
research: the first edition (in 1992) of Pieter and Tiny Lestrade’s
book Ketellappers, Koperslagers en Parapluverkopers uit Auvergne
in Nederland* was followed by several updates … in fact,
it is a work in progress, new data regularly being added as the VVA’s
working group on genealogy pursues its research activities. The book
not only offers an introduction to the topic based on information
borrowed from the above-mentioned Bulletin; it also presents the
genealogies of Dutch families now known to have Auvergnat roots. A
French abridged version of the original edition appeared in 1996,
titled >Chaudronniers et marchands de
parapluie auvergnats aux Pays-Bas*.The
VVA’s main objectives are to bring together current descendants
of 18th and 19th-century immigrants from the
Auvergne, who wish to meet and discover their common origins, to
explore the land of their ancestors and become acquainted with its
historical and cultural treasures. Some VVA members have meanwhile
set out to reconstitute their family history in France as well as in
the Netherlands. Other members join the social gatherings and events,
and occasional trips planned to visit the land of the forefathers, as
well as other regions of France.
*
Tinkers, copper smiths and umbrella tradesmen of Auvergnat origin,
in the Netherlands.