House of Poligny

The earliest known ancestor of this family is Charles Moreau and his wife Jeanne Marie Meuze. They came from Nivelles in Walloon Brabant (Belgium).

 

Their son, Pierre Joseph Moreau married Jeanne Thérèse Malingrau in 1785 and together they had two sons: Albert, François Xavier Moreau (Agent de Casernement) in 1789 and Ferdinand Léopold Moreau in 1791.

 

Ferdinand Moreau (1791-1872) was mobilised from 14 May 1811 to 09 December 1812 and joined the 70th Line Infantry Regiment of the French Empire, which was at the front in the Iberian Peninsula against the Anglo-Portuguese armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington.

He took part in and survived the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812, despite a crushing defeat that forced the French Empire to abandon Madrid for a time.

In 1817, he married Marie Joseph Flament (1786-1876), the daughter of Guillaume Flament, a musician at the court of William I of the Netherlands.

Together they had 3 children: Joseph Marie Moreau in 1819, Jules Moreau in 1821, who became an Artillery Officer, and Léon Moreau in 1829, who became Head of Division in the Brussels municipal administration.

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Joseph Marie Ferdinand Moreau was a Belgian mathematician who enjoyed a remarkable academic career from an early age.

At the age of 17, he became a teacher at the Vandevelde geographical school.

At 18, he taught descriptive geometry at the Ecole Centrale de Commerce et d'Industrie.

At 20, he was a teacher and Director of Studies on the training ship L'Oriental.

He continued his career as a mathematics professor at the Collège de Charleroi in 1841,

That same year, he married Elisabeth Jorez (1816 - 1870).

She was the daughter of Louis Auguste Jorez, who owned Belgium's leading oilcloth factory, which won an award at the 1851 London World Fair for its technological innovations (printed oilcloths, waterproof fabrics, etc.). In recognition of his contribution, a street in Anderlecht was named after him.

Four years later, Joseph Moreau was appointed professor of mathematics at the Collège Royal in Brussels.

In 1863, he was put in charge of the perspective course at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and was a permanent examiner at the Ecole Militaire.

Joseph Moreau is best known for having published several works on elementary geometry, thereby contributing to the teaching and dissemination of mathematical knowledge in Belgium.

He also co-authored with Dubois and Drapiez the complete works of Leonhard Euler.

Joseph and his wife Elisabeth had 3 children: In 1843 Georges Moreau, in 1847 Alphonse Frédéric Moreau van Berchem, who was to become a Doctor of Medicine and Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, and finally Alfred Marie Moreau in 1854, who was to become a Lawyer, Legal Council of Anderlecht, and Deputy Judge.​

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His maternal grandfather, Louis Auguste Jorez, appointed Georges Moreau heir to the family oilcloth and linoleum business.

The factory and home are now at the same address, chaussée de Mons in Anderlecht. 

The company's policy of technological innovation and product quality enabled it to prosper and win a silver medal at the Universal Exhibition in Antwerp.

At the same time, he was a successful politician. 

He was elected local councillor at the age of 35 in 0ctober 1878 and was appointed Alderman by royal decree on 8 January 1879.

He was in charge of the registry office, accounts (which he set up), finance and legal affairs.

In 1898, he married Baroness Julienne Marie Françoise de Fierlant.

She died of puerperal fever when she gave birth to Simonne 5 years later. A year after her marriage, she had given birth to two tiny premature twins, Georges and Georgine (‘Georgette’), who were placed in cotton wool because there was no incubator. She also lost little Yvonne to whooping cough at 5 months. One of her granddaughters was given the same name.

Appointed Burgomaster by Royal Decree of 16 April 1885. On 3 July 1904.

In 1906, he married Gabrielle de Man.

His 25th anniversary in office was solemnly celebrated throughout the town of Anderlecht (which, under his mandate, went from being a rural town of 20,000 inhabitants to an industrial town of 60,000). His marble bust was unveiled. It emerged from the speeches that he belonged to the liberal - Christian Democrat - movement.

Praise ranged from the socialist left: ‘The working class wholeheartedly associates itself with the movement of sympathy that is being shown today in your honour and which is the expression of the feelings of attachment that the entire population of Andersen has for you’, to the right: ‘our enthusiasm is the most precious praise we can offer you’.

His direct achievements include the construction of the hospital, the town hall and the magistrates' court, the veterinary school, the cemetery, numerous schools (he paid particular attention to public education issues and decreed that it should be free), including a music school in a street that now bears his name following a council decision on 28 December 1903.

He was also responsible for the city's drinking water supply and sewage system, as well as for the creation of major roads and waterway facilities. He also focused his attention on workers' housing at the Lycée Français and the Franco-Belgian Chamber of Commerce. As such, he was awarded the rosette of Officer of the Legion of Honour during an official visit by President Fallières in the spring of 1911. Provincial councillor for Brabant since 22 May 1892. Georges Moreau received a number of distinctions:

August 1893 Knight of the Order of Leopold for the Interior and Public Education October 1906, Officer of the Order of Leopold Sept 1904, Civic Medal in February 1906, Medal of Leopold II on 27 June 1911, Officer of the Legion of Honour received from the hands of President of the Republic Fallières.

He is known for his particular talent and his taste for stories and anecdotes: he has a robust constitution. He is a hard worker and punctual.

His dedication to public service is obvious, but so is his calm, his courtesy, his kindness and his attention to others, especially his staff.

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Simonne Moreau, orphaned 15 days after her birth, lost her father, who was 60 years older than her, when she was 16.

This kind father was more of a ‘grandfather cake’ than a father, very busy in other ways and who remarried Gabrielle de Man ‘Grany’ 4 years later.

Grany, her stepmother, was more interested in her son Freddy, whom she had had with her first husband Thelusson, an English officer in the Indian army, than in this timid little girl left in the care of German and then English governesses.

Simonne felt very lonely as a child: ‘I cried all the time’. She tells the anecdote that one day there was an aviation festival and everyone had gone to see this astonishingly new show, but little Simonne had been forgotten. A servant took pity on her and took her to the event on the luggage rack of her bicycle!

A few stays at a boarding school in England during the First World War...

When her father died at the age of 16, Grany arranged her marriage to Walter Duysters and retired to the country.

Simonne became a mother for the first time at 18 (Jacqueline Duysters 1923 - 2002) and again at 20 (Yvonne Duysters 1925 - 1993). She would succumb all the more easily, 10 years later, to the charming elegance of Charles Pétrequin, the handsome and brilliant single French officer and aviator who was a 13th cousin on his mother's side.

Walter Duysters took his daughters to boarding school.

Simonne married Charles Pétrequin in 1937, gave birth that same year to a third daughter, Arlette (future wife of Jean Loïc Reumont de Poligny), and settled permanently in Cannes, France