HomeHazebrouck, France & the Hasbrouck Family

Hazebrouck, France & the Hasbrouck Family

Hazebrouck - aerial view showing Central Square (Place du General de Gaulle). The building in the center with columns is the town hall (1807). At bottom left is a corner of the museum (see caption of next photo). The town is in northwestern France between Calais and Lille, close to the Belgian border.

An aerial view showing St. Eloi Church (1494) at center and the museum (built as a convent in 1616) at the upper right. These are the only buildings still standing from the time of our ancestors. The Hasbrouck family private entrance to the church was just below and to the left of the second window from the left. The door frame is still there (barely visible in this photo), topped with a family coat-of-arms (but not the one we use).

Translation of an extract from a 1994 French genealogical magazine article: "The first Hasebroucks were from the town of this name between Bailleul and Cassel (France North, see map below). They may have been in the 12th century the masters of what was then only a little village reclaimed from marshes (brouck). In any case they certainly owned as of a very remote time the two most important lordships of this said location: Kerkhove, so called, significantly, “Hazebrouck”, and Hoflande, which originally belonged to it."

The historian Karel De Flou cites many de or van Hasebroucks beginning with Gilles de Hasebroch, senechal of Boulonnais around 1100. However, we must distinguish in this list the members of the lord’s family from those who had the name because they came from the above-mentioned town or from Assebroeck, Belgium, (near Bruges).

Adding to the lack of clarity of the source of the family name, several d’Hazebrouck families may have existed over time. Finally, the problem gets still more complicated when we learn that the Hauweel family had similar coats-of-arms to those of Hazebrouck and possessed land at the same location. Did they succeed the Hazebroucks, were they allied to them or were they related; was it the same lineage with multiple branches under two different names? (We still don’t know.)

1914 Model of St. Eloi Church, Hazebrouck, France. The tower lost its steeple to German artillery fire in 1940. It was finally replaced in 1994.

The Territory of our European Ancestors

The Town of Hazebrouck is in the middle, and Calais (the home of Jean and Abraham was in this area) is at the upper left, 40 miles away. The Belgian border is the dotted line with flags.

Recent genealogical research, in an effort to identify the names and locations of the parents of Jean and Abraham, has found that there are no Hasbrouck's now living in Hazebrouck. Further, research in the city and region of Calais did not produce the parents' names. In the Diary of Abraham Hasbrouck, Calais was named as the hometown for the parents. So, the mystery continues.

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