Maison Deman

Genealogical investigation · Polleur · 1813

Jean Joseph Lexhardé

Revolution, a forgotten life and a son born after his death — a long-suspected story, finally established by the original records.

Polleur · Septroux · Aywaillec. 1756–1813Updated 19 October 2026
ATwo original 1813 records examined87Days between death and birthCAntoine–Ladneux ancestry unverifiedOpenMunicipal office unproven

Audio version · English

Listen to the 1813 investigation

This recording preserves the investigation just before the scans were opened; the text below gives the final conclusion.

For years, two dates faced one another in family trees: 21 July 1813, the death of Jean Joseph Lexhardé, and 16 October, the birth of his namesake son. Exactly 87 days separated them. The original Polleur register now turns probability into proof.

The sentence that settles the story

At six in the evening on 21 July, two neighbours reported that Jean Joseph Xhardé, aged 56, a labourer living at Polleur and husband of Marie Augustine Leloup, had died in his own home at five that morning.

On 16 October, Angélique Hubert, a sixty-year-old midwife, presented a boy born at four that morning in Augustine Leloup’s house. He was named Jean Joseph. His mother was described as a spinner and the widow of Jean Joseph Lexhardé, a labourer of Polleur during his lifetime.

Level-A conclusion: the birth record names the deceased father and calls Augustine his widow. The son was born 87 days after his father’s death.
Historic postcard of the old bridge at Polleur over the Hoëgne
Polleur’s old bridge, late nineteenth or early twentieth century. A later illustration of the village, not a family scene from 1813. Ghent University Library, public domain.

Polleur, not Aywaille

A secondary search placed both events at Aywaille. The records register and locate them in Polleur, then in the canton of Spa and the French département of Ourthe. Aywaille remains part of the wider family story, but it was not the location of these two events.

The surname itself moves between Xhardé in the death record and Lexhardé in the birth record. Le Xhardé, Hardé and Le Hardé must also be searched, without automatically merging people.

Map of the French département of Ourthe in 1811
The département of Ourthe in 1811, the administrative setting of the records. Joostik, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

A labourer, a spinner and four children

The records give two occupations: Jean Joseph was a labourer and Augustine a spinner. There is no evidence that the father was a stonecutter, a trade suggested only for later descendants. Nor has the claimed position of Aywaille municipal councillor been proved.

An index of the 20 September 1806 marriage calls Jean Joseph a son of Antoine Le Xhardé and Élisabeth Ladneux, and widower of Marie Barbe Couturier. Anne Marie Auguste Leloup is called a daughter of Lambert Leloup and Anne Marie Havelange. This remains level C until the marriage record is examined.

Four children are indexed at Polleur: Marie Anne (1807–1811), Marie Élisabeth (1809–1810), Antoine Joseph (born 1811), and Jean Joseph (born 1813). Only the last birth record has now been examined directly.

The widow after 1813

A document in the 1839 Lorcé marriage file is an official extract of Augustine’s death record. She died at Septroux on 23 June 1828 at eight in the evening, then wife of Antoine Brevers. The certificate also states that she had been the widow, by her first marriage, of Jean Joseph Lexhardé.

Historic postcard of Aywaille showing the Café Muséum and railway station
Aywaille around 1901. A later illustration of the place. KU Leuven Libraries, public domain.

Revolution and restraint

Jean Joseph lived through the Liège Revolution, the 1789 Congress of Polleur and French annexation. This context explains the administration that produced the 1813 records; it does not prove that he joined the Revolution or held public office. The prefectural lists still need a name-by-name search.

Noël, Thomas and the people not yet connected

Five baptisms dated 1717–1728 name Noël or Noël Arnold Xhardé as father, while the mothers alternate between Maillard, Maillart, Foyr and Foyre. Variant names, transcription errors or two namesakes remain possible and require the Latin originals.

Thomas Xhardé appears as mayor of Grand-Rechain in a Theux court index dated 3 November 1739. No document yet links him, or Noël, to Antoine Le Xhardé. They remain research subjects, not proven ancestors.

A forgotten fact recovered

The central question is settled: the son was born after his father’s death. Still missing are the father’s baptism around 1756–1757, the 1806 marriage, the first three children’s records, the 1822 remarriage, the complete 1839 marriage file and any evidence of public office.

Two register pages are enough to recover the human outline: a man dies in July; in October his name returns in that of a child presented by a midwife. Between those records lie 87 days.