Poitou

Hello All,

Would like to know. Was Poitou in the year 1650 already an province or
could it be a town? I'm still searching for my anchestor Jean Charité born
around 1670-1680.
He was a Hugenot fugitive that came to the Netherlands at the end of 1600
and married in 1701 in the town of Leiden..
Is there a place or town that sounds or pronounced like Poitou in France?

Denis Beauregard...

Poitou was a province until about 1790 when the whole France
was transformed into departements. Poitiers was the capital
of Poitou and head of the Poitiers diocese. It was a large
town at that time, but not the only town of Poitou. Because
Poitou is now a part of many departements, and has a good
concentration of protestants, if you have only his name and
no parents, trade, age, etc., it can be quite complicated
not only to find him, but to be sure it is the same Jean.

Protestantism was outlawed in 1685, if this may help you.
If born around 1670-1680, there is a good probability he
left France with other members of his family.

One thing you could do is to put online the people near him
at his time of arrival. There is a dictionary of notable
people of Poitou (unfortunately, not completed), so if you
are lucky, there is someone with him that was noble or similar
and this could be a good clue as to where he is from.

Thanks for the help.

Fred Charité