Under Louis XI., an epoch at which the commons first made
real names of their surnames (some of which are united with those of
feudalism) the bourgeoisie of Nemours was made up of Minorets,
Massins, Levraults and Cremieres. Under Louis XIII. these four
families had already produced the Massin-Cremieres, the
Levrault-Massins, the Massin-Minorets, the Minoret-Minorets, the
Cremiere-Levraults, the Levrault-Minoret-Massins, Massin-Levraults,
Minoret-Massins, Massin-Massins, and Cremiere-Massins,--all these
varied with juniors and diversified with the names of eldest sons, as
for instance, Cremiere-Francois, Levrault-Jacques, Jean-Minoret--enough
to drive a Pere Anselme of the People frantic,--if the people should
ever want a genealogist.
The variations of this family kaleidoscope of four branches was now so
complicated by births and marriages that the genealogical tree of the
bourgeoisie of Nemours would have puzzled the Benedictines of the
Almanach of Gotha, in spite of the atomic science with which they
arrange those zigzags of German alliances. For a long time the
Minorets occupied the tanneries, the Cremieres kept the mills, the
Massins were in trade, and the Levraults continued farmers.
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