Our annual meeting weekend will soon be here, so please get your completed registration form submitted. We have updated the form to reflect the revised deadline – of by August 29, 2023 – to sign up for the Montpelier tour.

We must be in receipt of your completed registration by September 5, 2023.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

The Society is recruiting a new librarian to join our team of volunteers. The position is to process purchase orders for the small collection of items that we sell. It involves maintaining inventory, processing orders (shipping them and then submitting records to the Society’s treasurer), and attending our annual meeting weekends where our attendees can review and purchase items. There are no out-of-pocket expenses as the librarian will use a Society debit card.

About the Position

The position is one of two of librarians. Brian Nilsson will continue his long-time role as librarian to handle research questions.

Please Seriously Consider Volunteering

The physical maintenance of the library requires some space for storage of materials, the replenishment of materials that can be copied or made available electronically, the fulfillment of orders as they come in and the fiscal reporting for incurred expenses (copying, postage, purchases) to the treasurer. It will not incur any personal expenses.

Because research and response and maintenance of the physical library are equally important, we have decided to label both positions as Librarian and each has its own position description.

Please contact Mary Borjon at mlborjon@hotmail.com or 707-279-1050 if you would consider this position. It takes all of us to do some part in making our society function. This Library is unique and an important component of our society.

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the Society’s annual meeting weekend October 13-15, 2023, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The keystone event of the weekend is the donation of the 254-year-old Bible of Consul General James Maury (1746-1840) to Monticello. Maury and Thomas Jefferson were lifelong friends.

Please print the registration form, complete it, and send it to the address provided as soon as practical but to be received no later than September 5, 2023, the date by which we must finalize our bus contract.

There are several activities that have separate deadlines. These are all listed on the registration form. These other deadlines are:

– August 29, 2023 to attend presentation and tour at President James Madison’s home, Montpelier;
– September 10, 2023, to attend the lunch at Michie Tavern; and
– September 11, 2023, hotel reservation at he Holiday Inn Express in Ruckersville, Virginia, to receive our special group rate.

There are only a few rooms left so recommend making your reservation as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you all in Charlottesville! We’re told that Thomas Jefferson may visit us there!

The Fontaine Maury Society is seeking a new volunteer to serve as librarian for the Society. This involves maintaining a stock of 35 items (mostly photocopies of books, CD versions, Society T-shirts, and a few other items) that the Society sells.

Most sales are via mail; others are via email. On average we have about 54 individual orders a year, about half at our annual meeting weekends. The librarian also receives periodic genealogical questions via email which prompts consulting the library materials to answer them.

The new librarian will have no out-of-pocket expenses as all expenses are paid using a provided debit card. The position is not term-limited; the new librarian would remain in the position as long as they wish.

Ideal candidates should be able to regularly attend the annual meeting each year, because the materials enrich the weekend gathering and promotes sales that help underwrite Society activities, to make donations to historical places that host us during our annual meeting weekends and to keep annual meeting costs for attendees as low as possible.

Our outgoing librarian has held the position for 22 years, will remain an active member of the Society, and will be able to assist the new librarian in the transition.

If you are interested, please contact our Society president at the contact information in the attached recruitment notice combined with librarian job description.

Registration is now open for our annual meeting weekend, Friday, October 14, to Sunday, October 16, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Please download and complete the attached form and then either mail it, with your check or money order, or email it after paying via our new PayPal account. The full instructions are on the form.

Don’t forget to make your hotel reservations by September 16, 2022, to ensure you receive our special rate. See the separate June 16, 2022, announcement with the details.

See you in Louisville!

Exciting news that there is a newly published detailed article by the late long-time Society newsletter editor, Dianne Ressinger, that provides an excellent rendition of the life of Jaques Fontaine.

Entitled “This Side the Water: A Huguenot Family in Virginia,” the article then provides brief biographies of all of Jaques’ children, with an emphasis on the four children who permanently settled in Virginia.

The article concludes with brief biographies of two of Jaques’ grandchildren, the Rev. James Maury and Aaron Fontaine, who is the primary focus of our annual meeting in October 2022 in Louisville!

Dianne was a wonderful writer and researcher, the author of what is frequently considered the best and most complete version of Jaques’ memoirs, and was the long-time editor of our Society’s newsletter. She passed away in April 2018 but her family found this draft article among her papers which the South Carolina Huguenot Society (with which she was active) has now published.

The South Carolina Huguenot Society publication No. 123 contains Dianne’s article and is available on that Society’s webpage at:

https://www.huguenotsociety.org/transactions-online/

After two years of postponements, we are pleased to announce our in-person 2022 annual business meeting and gathering in Louisville, Kentucky, for the weekend of October 14-16, 2022. We will be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn Airport. Our planning team is well on its way to organizing an interesting, informative and fun weekend for all.

The primary ancestor who settled in the Louisville area was Aaron Fontaine (1753-1823), eldest child of the Rev. Peter Fontaine. Aaron sold his plantation in Virginia and migrated to Kentucky, first settling at Harrod’s Creek in 1798. He married twice, first with Barbara Overton Terrell and then Elizabeth Whiting Thruston, and was the father of 26 children and stepchildren.

During the weekend, we will take a day trip across the beautiful Ohio River and tour family-related sites in the town of Brandenburg, which is west of Louisville.

Three hundred years ago this year, on June 21, 1722, Jaques Fontaine wrote that he hoped his memoirs would encourage his descendants “to continue a strict union in true reciprocal love, one to the others and all to God.” It is amazing to reflect that, on this 300th anniversary of Jaques’ writing, that we are gathering in Louisville to celebrate our 50th anniversary – since 1972 – of honoring his wish.

More detailed information about our weekend will follow in subsequent announcements on our webpage, our Facebook page, and in upcoming newsletters. Mark your calendars now for a Fontaine-Maury gathering in beautiful Kentucky, a prime destination for those who joined the westward movement on the Wilderness Trail or the flat barges that came up the Ohio River, and join our 50th anniversary gathering.

With the new year comes time for our members, old and new, to send in their membership dues. The benefits of membership include receiving our electronic newsletter, typically three times a year, meeting extended family members and other interested individuals to collaborate on research, and attending our annual meeting weekends.

Dues are a modest $15.00 per year. Our Society is a non-profit pubilc charity which means your membership and any expenses to travel to and attend the annual meeting may be tax deductible, as advised by your tax advisor.

Dues help us to do preservation work, keep costs down for our annual meetings, and contribute to places and organizations that host us for gatherings.

Won’t you renew or join today? The membership form is on our webpage at:

http://www.fontainemaurysociety.com/membership.html

It has come to our attention that the Fontaine Maury Society is being targeted in an online fundraising scam. Some of you may have noticed a box on the page adjacent to our Facebook page. THIS IS NOT A LEGITIMATE FUND RAISING EFFORT BY THE FONTAINE MAURY SOCIETY. We do not solicit donations. Please do not donate to this website. The money will not come to the Fontaine Maury Society. We have reported this to various authorities.

If you click on the screen, it takes you to a payment page and asks for credit card information. Their disclaimer clearly states that the money will not go to FMS, rather it will go to a similar organization. Below is a copy of the image: