Robert GRAVET
46, Rue du General Brunet
PARIS

29 December 1958  

Dear Madam

...I have been surprised to learn that perhaps one of my ancestors had emigrated to North America, more than two centuries ago, and that he was a Huguenot.  

My family is traditionally Catholic...(and) originates from Thierache, a region in the northeast of France, near Belgium.  

The most important towns of this region are St. Quentin (80,000 inhabitants), Hirson, Fourmies.  

My name is still widespread there, equally with variations:  Gravey, Gravez. One finds some of them equally in Belgium.  

My great-grandfather lived in Hirson, from about 1815 to 1830. Unfortunately I have no other information.  This region has always been the route of the invasion of France.  For a century and a half there has been a great deal of destruction.  It is the reason without a doubt of the scattering of the archives and the difficulty of making the necessary research.

My grandfather was born at Hirson in 1849, was married at Rheims (120,000 inhabitants) in 1871.

I believe that I will have told you all in telling you that in Lyon (third city of France) there is a branch of the family which has been installed there since 1895.  

Your lines have interested me greatly, but what intrigues me most is the change from Gravet to Gravat or Gravatt.

(Letter addressed to a Gravatt relative in  Nebraska, now deceased.)