welcome
This website pertains to the genealogy research of my 3rd great-grandparents:
- Pierre Francois Coquigne born 1796 in Courcelle, France, emigrated to America around 1832 and lived in the Syracuse area of New York for several years before migrating to Genesee County, Michigan in the 1840s where he died in 1879
- Cecile Huvier, born about 1786 in Courcelle, France, daughter of Pierre Huvier and Marie Anne Bouquet, married in 1817 in France, died in Michigan in 1875. Their children born in France and who survived to immigrate to America were Louisa (Larobardiere), Pierre (aka Peter), and Jean (John) Baptiste (m. Eliza Jane Root).
I am related to the line of John Baptiste Coquigne and Eliza Jane Root, but I am happy to correspond with anybody who might be connected with the family lines mentioned here.
This page also has a link to the family tree of my step-grandmother, Hilda Nielsen Coquigne Gillespie (1901-1977), who married into my family twice, first to Joseph Coquigne, and later to Howard Gillespie. Hilda was the only grandma I ever really knew, and she was a remarkable and loving person so I thought it only appropriate to include her family history here.
Hilda was the daughter of two Danish immigrants, Jacob Nielsen and Dorthea Sophie Pedersen, and she grew up in the Trufant area of Michigan where she learned to speak Danish fluently. Names included in her family tree include:
- Jacob Hansen, husband of Hilda's aunt, Ellen Marie Nielsen
- Lars Peter Jensen, husband of Hilda's aunt, Anna Sophie Nielsen
- Frederick L. Christensen, father of Hilda's sister-in-law, Marie Christensen
- Hans and Jorgen Pedersen (Petersen/Peterson), Hilda's maternal uncles
I inherited quite a large number of old photographs from Hilda's things, most of which - sadly - are unlabeled. However, I have been doing what I can to make contact with other descendants of this line so that we can compare notes and photos in an attempt to identify these old Danish-Michigan families. So please feel free to contact me if you are related to these families - I could use some help identifying these photos!