As November 11th approaches – Veteran’s Day in America, Remembrance Day in UK (held yesterday) – I find myself learning the story of two young French girls supported by a small group of women in Hanover, Indiana for a period following the WWI Armistice of November 11, 1918. What started for me as a document preservation project turned into a history and French genealogy adventure I never expected. And I wondered, could I possibly find living family members of these girls?
I acquired an old volume of handwritten minutes from the disbanded (1932) Williamson Dunn Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) of nearby Hanover from a member of my own John Paul Chapter in Madison. Member Marty Murray, and her daughter Mary Beth Masi from Knoxville TN, brought the minutes book to our October meeting in hopes that the record book found in Marty’s historic Williamson Dunn home in Hanover could be properly taken care of. Marty’s great-grandmother, grandmother and great-aunt were all charter members of Hanover’s chapter. Inside the book of 18 years of meeting minutes, there was a little bundle of letters written in French in 1919-1920. Before turning the book & letters over to the Indiana State DAR Historian for archival storage, I knew I had to learn more about the stories these documents might tell.
A day or two after the October meeting, I started looking through the letters. My high school French gave me the gist of the messages, and I started putting a timeline together for the letters and mentions in the minutes. I didn’t know until I did some online research that the Chapter’s “project” was in participation with a binational humanitarian relief organization known as the Fatherless Children of France Society (FCFS) to support a child whose father had been killed in the war – for $36.50 for an entire year. Through FCFS between 1915 and 1921, Americans provided for the material needs of some 300,000 orphans across France, and DAR members nationwide embraced this philanthropic effort.
A March 1920 entry in the minutes book explained why there were letters from two different girls. Germaine Cougout was the Chapter’s original “orphan”, but when her mother eventually remarried and no longer needed the financial support, they “adopted” another young girl, Etiennette Hierle. The Fatherless Children of France Society used the terms orphan to denote the fatherless and adoption to describe the commitment to send funds on a regular basis. From New York City, with committees across the United States, the Franco-American private philanthropic organization raised a rapid wave of humanitarian response.
The first letter received by the ladies of the Williamson Dunn Chapter was written in May 1919 and read in the group’s July meeting. It contained a one-page message from little Germaine Cougout and a one-page message from her mother, Marie Cougout.
Finding out about the philanthropy was amazing, but what about the little French girls that corresponded with the ladies of Hanover? What were their stories? Could I learn more about their soldier fathers, their families, their adult lives? Those were the questions that sent me down the rabbit hole of French genealogy, exploring census, birth/marriage and military records and enlisting the translation expertise of my children’s high school French teacher, Madame Cambron! After gathering what documents I could find through extensive online searches, I discovered the French ancestry site, Geneanet.org and found family trees for both the Cougout and Hierle families. I was finally able to learn more about the lives of our two girls. What luck!
GERMAINE MELANIE COUGOUT
From the minutes entries and the letters, I knew Germaine Cougout was a girl around 10 years old when she was “adopted”, and she had a sister, Jeanne; her mother’s name was Marie, and she worked in a military uniform manufacturing establishment; they lived in Aubiere, Puy-de-Dome, France; her father was killed in the war, and Mrs. Cougout remarried by March 1920.
This note was written on the back of the photo of Germaine and Jeanne. “My dear benefactor, I thank you very much for the money order I received yesterday. You are truly good to me. Mother also thanks you. I send you my photo and my sister. Receive my dear benefactor all my affection and thanks. Germaine Cougout.”
Using Ancestry.com, I found Germaine, her older sister Jeanne and mother Marie in the French 1911 Census of Puy-de-Dome, in the household of Eugene Cougout whose profession was “boulanger”, a bread baker. I also found Germaine’s birth record (28 June 1909) in Ancestry’s Puy-de-Dome Births/Marriages records which gave her middle name as Melanie, her father’s full name as Eugene Jean Cougout and her mother’s maiden name as Marie Detour. It also further described her father as a “boulanger domicile”, or a baker who operates from their own home rather than a commercial bakery.
The French government created a database of those who died for France in the First World War, and it contains the war record of Germaine’s father, Eugene, who died May 8, 1916. So her mother Marie was a widow on her own supporting her girls during the war for two years before Williamson Dunn Chapter DAR, through The Fatherless Children of France, began to send assistance.
Shortly after the mother Marie remarried, she is listed as Marie Montel with Germaine & Jeanne in the French 1921 Census of Puy-de-Dome in the household of Pierre Montel, who worked in tire production for Michelin. A marriage notation was added to Germaine’s birth record in 1932, the spouse given as Antoine Francisque Montel, her stepfather Pierre’s nephew. According to the online Cougout family trees, Germaine and Antoine went on to have a daughter, Yvette, and a granddaughter, Corinne. Antoine died at 54 years in 1964 at Aubiere, and Germaine passed away at 80 years on 25 October 1989 in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
ETIENNETTE HIERLE
From the minutes entries and the letters, I knew Etienette Hierle was also a girl around 10 years old; her mother signed her letters Widow Urbain Hierle; they lived in Tornac, France; her father was killed in the war, and support for Etienette began when support for Germaine Cougout ended.
I discovered Widow Hierle’s first name of Marguerite in the French 1921 Census as head of household living with daughter Etiennette, son Urbain, and mother Nathalie Foulc. A 1896 Census lists Marguerite as a 12 year old girl living with her parents, siblings and paternal grandfather, Etienne Foulc – likely Etiennette’s namesake. The transcribed documents found on Ancestry gave Marguerite’s maiden name as “Foule”, but the online Hierle family tree records that line as “Foulc.”
Etiennette’s father, Urbain Hierle, died 6 October 1914, just two months after the start of the war – and only one month before the birth of his son, Rene Urbain Hierle. Etiennette was 5 years old. Marguerite, with the help of her mother, cared for her two young children as they endured four years of war and hardship.
Etiennette was a seamstress and did not marry. She passed away 11 October 1984 at Ales, Gard, France. Her mother,”Widow Hierle”, never remarried after the death of Urbain, and she died in 1980. Their son Rene Urbain Hierle became a metalurgist, married, had 4 children, and passed away in 2011. It was Rene Urbain’s son, Michel, that I messaged through Geneanet.org about Etiennette, and I was so pleased when he messaged me back. It was really a thrill for me to connect with a living family member 107 years after Etiennette wrote to the ladies in Hanover! The photos of Etiennette and her parents are from his online tree. I hope I’ll learn more about Etiennette. I can’t help but wonder how they managed during another world war, WWII.
So the little French girls grew up and went on to live their lives in the south of France near where they were born. Eighty years for Germaine Cougout and seventy-five for Etiennette Hierle. All of the letters from the girls and their mothers expressed sincere gratitude for the support they were receiving, and the women of the Williamson Dunn Chapter DAR expressed their care for the war’s children through their support of The Fatherless Children of France Society to these two young girls.
DAR’s “War Effort” During World War I
This 2017 DAR blog post excerpt describes the National Society’s involement: “At the [DAR] 26th Continental Congress, which was held a mere 10 days after the United States declared war on Germany, President General Daisy Allen Story read a letter from former President Theodore Roosevelt, encouraging the DAR to assist France in their time of need. Roosevelt reported that half a million French children had lost their fathers in the War and that the French government “staggering under the stupendous financial burdens of the war,” could not fully support these orphaned children.” (To view an online exhibit of DAR’s service in WWI, click here.
In addition to finacially supporting The Fatherless Children of France, the ladies of Williamson Dunn Chapter brought their “wool and needles” to meetings to knit for the French children and our soldiers in hospital. I absolutley loved this.
In 2023, we visited the National WWI Museum & Memorial in Kansas City. Pictured below, my husband Ken and friends Lois & Thomas Roszak stand above a “field” of poppies – one bloom for every 1,000 combatants killed during the war. The displays, weapons, uniforms, posters, “trenches”, films and personal effects told a very grim story exceedingly well. Quite a thought provoking experience. If you’re visiting KC, this is one attraction not to be missed.
