A Journey To N.E France In Search Of The Origin Of The Name Grozier As you are all aware our Grandfather, Great Grand Grandfather “Pa” as we all affectionately knew him, spent many years researching the family tree of the Grozier’s. All the activity centred around the beautiful town of Linlithgow, West of Edinburgh. Below is a gravestone in St Michael’s Church in Linlithgow. St Michaels Church is next door to Linlithgow Palace pictured below, where Mary Queen of Scots was born.
Pa had quite a fascination for Mary who figured in many of his conversations when the matter of Scottish history arose.  
 
Karen and I were fortunate to be able to visit Edinburgh recently and we walked the Royal Mile which we both felt was one of the highlights of our trip. Again I remember Pa telling numerous stories of this wonderful road and the central part it played not only in Scottish history but the connection with Mary. I was also determined to climb Arthur’s Seat which gives a spectacular view of Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile. As you know, the Scottish part of our history is well documented but there is more. Many years ago I was part of conversation involving Pa and other relatives. I would guess that I was only about 10 at the time but I clearly remember Pa saying that he had done his part but he knew that somewhere in France there would be a village from which the name Grozier originated. We now skip forward some 40 years to when our daughter Kate was enrolling for an Arts course at Macquarie University. The person enrolling her was intrigued by her name saying that it was possibly derived from the stained glass window industry. Her reasoning was that pliers used today to shape the stained glass pieces are called Grozier Pliers. They are widely available as evidenced if you put Grozier pliers into Google.
Researching back, the name is derived from a tool used in the 1200s which was called a Grozing Tool. This was a bit of flexible wire made to the shape required that was heated on a fire and then placed on the piece of coloured glass. The glass would crack into the required shape and passed to the Glazier for insertion into the window. At this point I will state that the story that follows is derived from texts and experts involved in the manufacture of stain glass windows and I have no absolute proof that the name is derived from this area but the evidence I have found would seem to involve the Grozier name in an industry that stretches back prior to the 1200s and so possibly, gives us some attachment to the building of the extraordinary Cathedrals that you find throughout Europe. Kates conversation above was the first link. Sometime after I had a long conversation with a customer of ours who is a supplier to the local stained glass window craft people. He is very knowledgeable in this field and we discussed at length where Stained Glass window production came from. From his travels and his research, he stated that the prominent area was in Northern France between the Rhine and Meuse rivers. Following are edited quotes from Alan Macfarlane;Glass in Europe 1100 to 1700. “The development of flat panes of glass for windows took two major forms in this period. These were related to pane glass used for religious buildings and domestic architecture. This led to an astonishing and magnificent expansion in the use of coloured glass in windows. With the development of Gothic Churches, the decoration changed from murals on the walls to decoration of the windows”. Thus began the construction of magnificent Cathedrals such as Chartres, Metz and Reims.   
“The resulting specialisation in window glass developed two methods of producing a sheet of glass, the cylinder method being common to the Lorraine region The resulting specialisation in window glass developed two (century,gives a full description of the above method. Meuse) and the German states”. Theophilus a monk in the 12th At this point you may be wondering what this has to do with the name Grozier apart from the fact that it relates to a tool. Well the final piece to the puzzle is that by strange co-incidence or blind luck it became very apparent when researching the name in Genealogical databases, that there was a very big concentration of the Grozier name in the Meuse River, Lorraine area of France. My sources are www.geneanet.org. Here you will find records going back to the late 1690s in a group of villages to the N.E. of Verdun. See map below. The villages along with Bar de Luc further south include, Avocourt, Malancourt, Bethincourt, Gercourt –Et-Drillancourt and Cumieres-Le Mort–Homme. 
MAP OF VERDUN AREA FRANCE WITH VILLAGES OUT TO THE WEST & N. WEST - Born before 1705 - Gercourt,55206,Meuse,Lorraine,FRANCE,
- Died between 1759 and 1776
|   | Marriages and children - Married on 27 April 1723, Avocourt,55023,Meuse,Lorraine,FRANCE,, to Marguerite DIDIER /1707-/1734, with
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- Married on 19 January 1734, Avocourt,55023,Meuse,Lorraine,FRANCE,, to Marie DARDARE /1715-/1758
- Married on 30 January 1758, Avocourt,55023,Meuse,Lorraine,FRANCE,, to Marguerite POPULUS ca 1716-1782/, with
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EXAMPLE OF COPY FROM www.geneanet.org In May 2006 we undertook a journey to these villages in N.E. France. We travelled From Paris to Bar le Duc. This is a very old town situated further south of the main area we were interested in but the records show that a Grozier was christened there in 1826. It is a very beautiful town well worth exploring. (It is also home to the worlds most expensive jam: Confiture de Grosseilles) 
We then moved on to Verdun after visiting Metz with it magnificent Cathedrale Saint Ettienne. The stained glass windows here are quite extraordinary. When walking around Verdun you start to understand the violence of the 1st world War in this area and the effect it had on the villages we were about visit. 
The battle of Verdun in 1916 was the longest in WW1 history resulting in the deaths of 250,000 people with 500,000 casualties. It raged backwards and forwards for 10 months over the area shown in the above map. 
The end result was that Verdun, the prize in the battle, was never taken by the Germans, remaining badly damaged but intact. It remains a lovely town on the banks of the river Meuse. 
The villages such as the one above and those pictured below were pretty much destroyed. Few old buildings remain and they are now basically farming villages. We did a short search through cemeteries attached to churches but very little history is to be found. It is quite extraordinary that this now peaceful and green farming area was laid desolate in WW1 by massive mortar barrages. It is therefore difficult to put together any history or link with the Grozier name as there are now no Grozier’s living in the area. As you can see from the website mentioned above, the name was quite prolific from the 1600’s through to the 1900’s. A tragic affect of a tragic war. The villages are quaint and very quiet. There appear to be no shops and they act as support centres to the surrounding farming area. 
 Bethincourt
 Gercourt en Drillancourt
 Gercourt en Drillancourt
Douaumont Ossuary holds 130,000 unknown soldiers killed in the battle of Verdun The last site we came to was Cumieres le Mort Homme. This village figures prominently in the list found in the website with many births etc over the years. This village was never rebuilt and has been left as a monument to the futility of war. 
So there it is. As I said to Karen, Ben, Zanette, Ian and Colette as we left Cumieres, I felt I had fulfilled my Grandfathers wish. It has taken some 40 years to achieve through luck, some research and a fascinating trip through the countryside and battlefields of France. I cannot guarantee that all this ties together and that our family name is directly derived from the Groziers in this area or that we had some hand in the building of the amazing cathedrals throughout Europe but it sure makes for a good story. To confirm any link would require an enormous amount of detective work which quite frankly I do not have the patience for, however I can highly recommend you go there yourselves and have a look around. It is right next door to the Champagne area which is a real bonus and is of course home to such delicacies as Quiche Lorraine Mirabelle plum liquer.etc etc.  Champagne area.
Hope you enjoy the read and good luck to everyone in your travels. Robert Grozier 2007 |
