We are excited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fontaine-Maury Society. We are looking forward to a special time celebrating our family and getting back together after a two-year pause. Sadly, inflation has hit the hospitality industry hard resulting in higher costs for our weekend. To address this concern, we have created some opportunities for our members to help promote and support our annual meeting and gathering through sponsorships. You may sponsor as a business, a family or an individual.

“The Huguenot Happy Hour” A Friday evening fun social event with cash bar and locally flavored meal. -$100 sponsorship.

“The Travelling Huguenots” Saturday all day bus tour-$150.00 sponsorship.

“Music for the Ages” Entertainment on Friday night featuring wonderful musicians who will provide a narrative and music from the times of our ancestors’ travels. – $100 sponsorship

“That’s My Family”- Audio-visual rentals and other necessary expenses- $50.00 sponsorship

Checks or money orders may be sent to our treasurer, Mary Borjon- Callas at 64 Salvatore Novato, CA 94949. For planning and budgeting purposes it is hoped that sponsorships can be received by July 15, 2022.

With appreciation,

FMS Board of Directors

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:

At our October 16, 2021, virtual annual meeting, members will discuss and vote on updates to our Society’s by-laws, which were last amended in 2008.

Our by-laws require that proposed amendments be made available to the membership 90 days in advance of our voting at the annual business meeting. Approval of these amendments requires a majority vote of those in attendance at the meeting.

To obtain a copy of the existing and proposed by-laws, please visit our Facebook page (link at top on toolbar) or contact Society President Mary Borjon at MLBorjon@hotmail.com.

Comments are requested by September 10, 2021, to Mary Borjon. Comments received will be considered by the Executive Committee.

Thus far this year we have met virtually twice on Zoom to socialize and get to know one another better.  The groups enjoyed the gatherings and agreed to convene about every four months, bringing us to our next planned virtual gathering on Sunday, August 29, beginning at 1:00 pm Pacific Time.

You need not have a Zoom account to join the session. We hope you will join us!  Participants can join or leave any time during the social gathering.

To participate, please contact our Society President, Mary Borjon, at MLBorjon@hotmail.com, to obtain log-in information for our gathering!

Please join us for our virtual annual business meeting and then hear our guest speaker on the topic, We Were There! The American Revolution. Both will be via the same Zoom meeting, please attend either/or, or ideally, both! For log-in information, please contact our Society President, Mary Borjon, at MLBorjon@hotmail.com

We will begin the annual business meeting on Saturday, October 16, 2021, at 10:00 am West Coast time (noon Central time; 1 pm East Coast time). At the conclusion of the business meeting there will be a short break. Our speaker will begin at 11:00 am West Coast time.

Part 1: Annual Meeting

Our annual business meeting is your opportunity to briefly hear from your officers on the state of the Society. We have added past business meeting minutes and current officers’ reports, including our fiscal report, under the “Files” tab on our Facebook page, so please review in advance of the meeting.

We will vote during our meeting on an updated version of our Society’s by-laws. Please see the separate announcement with the current and proposed by-laws.

The current by-laws were last amended in 2008. They require that proposed amendments be made available to the membership 90 days in advance of our voting at the annual business meeting. Approval of these amendments requires a majority vote of those in attendance at the meeting.

Part 2: Guest Speaker Steven D. Griffin:
“We Were There! The American Revolution”

This year’s annual meeting theme will explore and celebrate the contributions the Huguenots, as an identified network, made to the American Revolution.

So, locate your tricorn hats, brush up on your American history and prepare to greet your American Fontaine-Maury Patriots!

– Do you know how many of our Fontaine-Maury family members are confirmed as DAR Patriots?
– Do you know who among our family members participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain?
– Do you know which family members were at the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia?
– Do you know who is the sole female family member confirmed as a DAR Patriot?

Our guest speaker, Steven D. Griffin, is the author of “The Huguenot Diaspora and the American Revolution,” written for his 2016 Master’s Degree in Military Science with a focus in Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Please contact our Society President, Mary Borjon, at MLBorjon@hotmail.com, for log-in information to this Zoom meeting.

Author J.C. Hallman and artist Michelle Browder will talk about Hallman’s new book, “The Anarcha Quest”, which documents the founding of modern gynecology by controversial surgeon, Dr. J. Marion Sims (1813-1883), and the enslaved woman, Anarcha (b. ca. 1828, d. unknown), on whom he performed multiple surgical experiments.   She is known as “the Mother of Gynecology.”

Browder is one of the creators of a monument honoring Anarcha and her sister slaves on whom experiments were also made.

Our Maury family has connections to this story.  Hallman and Browder will provide a slide show and documents as they share the story of Anarcha, her sister slaves, the monument project, and Dr. Sims.

The event is scheduled for Sunday, February 21, 2021, at 2:00 pm Pacific Time on Zoom.

To register to attend, please contact the Society’s president at MLBorjon@hotmail.com

Please Join Us!

About the book:

https://www.jchallman.com/book/the-anarcha-quest/

About the More Up Campus Project:

https://www.anarchalucybetsey.org/

A press article about the More Up project regarding Anarcha:

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/12/08/enslaved-women-operated-j-marionsims-get-monument-montgomery/3814683001/

Based on the popularity of our virtual annual meeting held in October 2020, the Society will be hosting another virtual meeting on Sunday, January 31, 2021, at 1:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (2:00 pm Mountain Standard Time; 3:00 pm Central Standard Time; 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time).

The meeting will be held on Zoom.  To register to attend, please contact the Society’s president at MLBorjon@hotmail.com

Please join us!