52 Ancestors in 52 weeks : favorite find…

Version en français

Undoubtedly, the one on the tomb of Elisa KOEPPEL born COQUEREL... This article was published on my blog, in French, on February 11, 2018 !

I dwell a little on the photo : it's the kind of recumbent that can be found in churches... She is beautiful this woman who rests there, for nearly 144 years... Elisa KOEPPEL née COQUEREL, 1839-1874! I read more carefully the names inscribed on the base, finally, on the side of the base that I photographed: Victor MONCEAUX, medicine's doctor (1826-1898), Robert BEDEL (1889-1915) and Maurice BEDEL (1887-1894). I regret not having walked around the grave at the time of the photo, 2009. So I have nothing else and this challenges me: no name is linked to another, except the two BEDEL. Would they be brothers? 

I don't need more to go on a hunt for clues: who are these people whose names were engraved on the base of Elisa's grave, because I am convinced that she is the first to have been buried there. And that's what I discovered, with online searches only.

Virginie Marie Elisa COQUEREL was born on January 14, 1839 in the Parc d'Anxtot, in Seine-Inférieure, daughter of Aimable and Rose Anasthasie. A maid, she married Henri KOEPPEL, a servant, in Paris, in the 6th arrondissement, on 15 May 1860. The couple had a daughter Elisa Victorine, who was born on July 15, 1861, in Paris, in the 15th arrondissement. Henri died on November 30, 1868 in Paris, in the 6th. Six years later, his wife, Virginie Marie Elisa, died on February 24, 1874, in Paris, in the same arrondissement.

Little Elisa Victorine, fourteen years old, is orphaned by father and mother. She was adopted by Pierre Victor MONCEAUX, medicine's doctor, forty-eight years old, single. Why this adoption, when? I don't know, the information is given in Elisa Victorine's marriage certificate...

On January 24, 1883, Elisa Victorine KOEPPEL-MONCEAUX married Georges BEDEL, twenty-eight years old, director of furniture storage. The couple had four sons: Georges Victor Adrien, born in 1884, Marcel Eugène, born in 1885, Maurice Paul Joseph, born March 31, 1887 and died February 19, 1894, and Robert, born May 31, 1889. Pierre Victor MONCEAUX died on September 14, 1893 in Paris, in the 6th.

Robert BEDEL, born may 31, 1889 in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, lives with his parents in Bernières-sur-Mer, Calvados, in 1909, the year of census of his military class. The family does not appear in either the 1906 or 1911 censuses. In the draw of the canton of Dover, having had the number 1, Robert joined the 25th Infantry Regiment on October 4, 1910. The certificate of good conduct granted, he returned to his homes on September 29, 1912.

Marcel Eugène BEDEL married on May 2, 1914 in Paris, in the 5th arrondissement, with Madeleine Marie Eugénie PROUHARAM. Georges Victor Adrien BEDEL married on October 23, 1922 in Tunis, Tunisia, with Rosa Fortunata MICALEF – marginal mention of his birth certificate.

The Order of General Mobilization recalled the three sons to the activity and Robert joined his regiment on August 3, 1914 and went directly to the front with the 70th Infantry Regiment. Promoted to Corporal on 5 September 1915, he died at La Harazée, near Vienne-le-Château, in the Marne, on 8 September 1915. 

Georges BEDEL died in 1921 and Elisa Victorine KOEPPEL-MONCEAUX in 1923 – non-precise sources on the net. Marcel Eugène BEDEL died on March 7, 1952 in Paris, in the 16th. Georges Victor Adrien BEDEL died on December 2, 1957 in Casablanca, Morocco.

That's it, a family discovered from the photo of a tomb...