Thomas Andris' Study of the Andris Genealogy

I interviewed my brother Thomas Franklin Andris many years ago about a trip that he took to Europe. Part of the time, he was accompanied by our father, Fernand Andris, and our uncle, Alphonse Octave Andris. He spent about a year in Binche, Belgium and met many fascinating people, including at least 15 direct descendants of my paternal granfather's parents. I have provided his story below, along with two large charts at the bottom of this document which show the exact relationship of the people whom he met. If a name appears in bold face in Tom's document, it is shown on the genealogical descendant tree. One of the charts documents the descendants of León Dorval ("Papa Saus") and Josephine Sebille that Tom met when he was in Binche. The other chart documents the two descendants of Arthur Andrisse and Louise Lebrun that he met, Yvonne and Octave Andrisse.

Tom's story

1969 or 1971 I went over to Belgium with a lot of documentation concerning relatives and I stopped in Brussels to learn French. I settled in a place called Hotel Du Limburg on Rue De Pelican. I met lots of colorful people, one of whom was an elderly lady named Anna Petroff. We became good friends, I talked to her a lot and learned good French from her.

When I finally got enough courage and confidence in my French, I decided to go to Binche, Belgium and look up a girl with whom I had been corresponding, Collette Hupin, daughter of Nellie and Georges Hupin. Nellie was the daughter of Julia Navez, married to Paul Navez. Julia and our Aunt Julia were very good friends. Julia was a sister to (maybe) Charlotte and Cyrille.

I went to Binche and stayed with Nellie and Georges Hupin and Collette. He worked in a foundery with arc furnices. He was very surprised to find out that I made as much per hour as he made working overtime on Sunday. They introduced me to Cyrille Rousseau and Fernande Rousseau-Buisseret (Buisseret is her maiden name), and they introduced me to their children. One of Fernande's relatives, Louis Buisseret, was an artist and painted the famous poster of the Gilles (clowns) du Binche. Cyrille Rousseau was Felicité Dorval's son. (grandmother's sister's boy)

Cyrille Rousseau's children (our second cousins) were as follows. Christine was about 17 when Tom [Andris] was about 26. Married. Lucy married Jacques Fagot. Jean Jacques Rousseau married Annie. Cyrille always said, "Tom, restez encore une semaine (stay another week)," and Annie would say "Quand est-ce que tu partes. (When are you leaving?)" Vincent was the youngest one, at that time, only 12. One day, I asked Vincent "They call Binche the Village of a Hundred Towers. Is this really true?" He said that we ought to go out and count them. So he and I went from tower to cafe, tower to cafe, and Tom doesn't know how that day ended.

Felicité Dorval and Victorine Dorval were sisters. Felicité Dorval married Jean Rousseau, a coal miner. Cyrille and Tom have pictures of him. Their children were Cyrille, Charlotte and Julia.

Victorine's father was called "Papa Saus", and was kind of a nut. He was the guy who ate limsommes (snails). Victorine first married Albert Munier. They had one child, Julia. Then she married Arthur Andris.

Cyrille Naves' children were Mireille, who married an Italian guy named Ferdato. Mireille made marvelous spinach cannelloni. She also made a most interesting thing called pommes de terre roche (Rocky Mountain Potatoes). His other daughter was Michelle?

The family in Belgium was in dispute, just like the family in America was in dispute, brother against sister. When I went over with dad and Alphonse in 1971, I had never met Cyrille Rousseau's sister Charlotte. When we first got into Binche, I stopped over to see Georges and Nellie and Collette, and when I came up to Georges and said to Hello to him, he didn't seem too surprised or happy to see me. This was kind of a precursor to what was going to happen.

Dad and Al and I went into Cyrille's Rousseau's Cafe au Zouave across the street and had a great big picture of a Zouave soldier outside next to the catholic church. He has since sold it. He hadn't seen Al and dad for 45 years, and his eyes filled with tears, and he grabbed them and kissed them right on the mouth. The beer started flowing. After dad's beer, dad said, "Hey, Cyrille, where's Charlotte?" Cyrille made some comment like, "She lives in the next city." The year before, he had told me, "She is mean." Dad immediately left the Cafe and set out to find her, asking every cop, person in town and disappeared into the distance, while Al and I stayed there and had a good time.

Two and a half hours later, the phone rang at the Cafe au Zouave. Cyrille gave me this astonished look and said, "Tom, it's for your." Dad was calling from Charlotte's place. (Charlotte's son, Gerrard, had a brother named Pierre and a sister named Susanna. Susanna's husband was named Arseno and had a Shell service station in the area of Binche. Pierre's wife was named Yvette, and he was a forman at a tailor's shop? Gerrard was the youngest one, and Charlotte and dad were at his place. His wife's name was Collene. They had two beautiful children called Dominique and Pascal. This was at a bakery (Patisserie au Mano) where they lived. Dad had found his way there, and Charlotte was staying there with a broken leg.

On the phone dad said, "She's not mean at all, Tom, she's a nice lady. Come on up and bring Alphonse and Cyrille with you. " You cannot imagine the courage it must have taken for him to go with me and Alphonse to Gerrard's place, but he did. You could tell that he didn't want to do this. When he got there, he gave his sister a big kiss. Comments were later made to me that this was in poor taste, because they hadn't spoken to each other in years.

Colorfully and ironically, Cyrille Navez owned another cafe, called Du Folklore, on the opposite side of the Grand Place beside the Hotel du Ville. Which was why I was drunk all the time the second year.

Yvonne Andris and Mother Marie
	Yvonne Andris and Papa Bronze

Octave and Yvonne Andris, Waterloo, Belgium. 18 Avenue de Lilas. There they lived with Bobbie, their little dog, who would chasse sa queux (chase his tail). After dad and Alphonse left, which was one week before the carnival started, I met Yvonne and Octave during the carnival. They were there asking for dad and Alphonse. I think that they had heard that we were there. I went over and met them, they were very affectionate and asked me to come and visit them in Waterloo. I was so drunk so much. She was a little woman, played the piano quite well, was an actress, lived with her brother. She showed me all the pictures of her acting career. She showed me all the glass that Bronze had made. Canes, angels, teakettles. Bronze didn't want his kids to work in the Verrie (glass plant). They were the children of Louis (Bronze), who was grandfather Arthur's brother [our Uncle Arthur, dad's half brother]. They bought a theatre in Charleroix and ran a successful business there. Coal mines underneath the theater caused it to collapse and then they moved to Waterloo. They were Bronze's only kids and never married.

One time I was sitting at the table eating dinner. Octave made his own cigarettes. One time I went to the store with Yvonne and Bobbie on a leash. The sign said no dogs in the store. She walked in to the store with the dog. Someone said "Madame, votre chien!" She said, that's all right, the manager's a personal friend of mine. We went over to the mushrooms and started to put all the mushrooms into one box. She said to me, "Tom, I'm not stealing mushrooms, there just wasnt enough mushrooms in that one box. Yvonne took me home and made my first real vit-allez. Mixed ground meat, onions and garlic, bread. Broke an egg and separated it. Put the yolk in the meat, rolled the meatballs in the white.

Octave always used to look over at me and say "Korean!" whenever I'd do something strange. For example, one day I was down visiting them and they invited me for dinner. They said, "We're having tounge." Tom said, "I hate tounge!" He said "Why?" I said, "I can't stand the thought of something that's going to taste me back." He said, "Korean."

Descendants of León Dorval ("Papa Saus") and Josephine Sebille

Descendants of Arthur Andrisse and Louise Lebrun