Re: "La Follette Family" origins
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In reply to:
Re: "La Follette Family" origins
Cameron La Follette 9/30/00
Cameron, my thoughts are as yet unformed.I have had occasion to read a lot about the descendants of Charlemagne, so when I saw your post about that book on the "3000 Years.." (which, incidentally, I could not find anywhere in any library which has catalogues on the web), I knew right away how such a claim could be linked:through Charlemagne.
Thus, the only question now is to establish whether some of Charlemagne's ancestors or descendants became known (in part or wholly) as the family "LaFollette".
The task is still like looking for a needle in a haystack.First, "LaFollette" is a french snickering nickname:it comes from "fou", "fol", "follet", all of which mean "playful irrationality" ("fou" means "crazy, mad, mentally ill", and "fol", "follet" are synonyms).So, like "Charles the Bald", is a nickame for a descendant of Charlemagne (who ruled Burgundy and later became one of the Carolingian Emperors), "Jean DuFollet" could be rendered "Jean of-the-Crazy-One".
Royalty or nobility are usually referred to by their Christian name, and have no surname;a nickname differentiates a descendant from a forebear of the same Christian name.So we may well be looking at a "Jean" who might be also a descendant of Charlesmagne, who is distinguished from another Jean by means of the "DuFollet" moniker.
Of course, the actual bloodline might not be related to Charlesmagne at all.One also has to take into account that this Jean is but one person, and it's unlikely that the entire family now called "LaFollette" descended from just that one person, especially since the author of the book you mentioned claims a 3,000-year past.
Hence, 1) the critical thing is to get that book, and trace its claims; 2) to get more information about the castle and its crest (crests are from heraldry, and heraldric origins are kept on records by countries such as England, so the crest can be traced and reveal any possible geneological links).
Sorry this reply is so long.I hope it helps!