Devillard family

5 Names: Devillard, Helard, Ivanovs, Ozoliòð, Taufert-Tauper

In this Page I describe part of Tatjana Ivanova's archive. This part concerns the family Devillard. I have a lot of materials from this archive and have planned to describe many of them. At this moment I do not understand what relatives were T.Ivanova and Devillards, and why the photographs of that family were found in T.Ivanova's archive. As no documents connecting both families genealogically are discovered, it is easy to describe the information on Devillards separately. It would be interesting to understand how a Frenchman Rene Devillard from Thiers lived in Latvia and what he did here.

While buying the photographs, I had to browse through a great stock of photographs in the shop to pick up all of the photographs belonging to this archive. So it is quite possible I skipped over some of them and quite clear I included something in the archive that did not belong to it.

Sorry, I write the first name Rene without the obligatory accent on the last e and the name Devillard without it, but I wanted to limit the number of alphabets needed for reading the texts of the Site.

The photographs in this Page could be enlarged by clicking on them.

The best way to start the story on Rene Devillard is from this photograph. It is very small photograph, but, when enlarged, it shows five French officers rather well. All their names are also mentioned, but I could decipher only names of Bodichon, Devillard and Gobuec. (Devillard is in the center). The photograph was taken in June 1919 in Liepaja [Libau], according to the inscription on it. This was rather critical period for the new state of Latvia, and France, as well as other countries, supported it.

In T.Ivanova's archive an invitation of Latvia's President, that asks R.Devillard to take part in the rout devoted to the 20^th anniversary of Latvia Army (in 1939), was found, and, what was very important, he was mentioned as L.k.o.k. which means Lâèplçða kara ordeòa kavalieris or in English - the Bearer of the Lâèplçsis Military Order, the highest military order of Latvia. (You may have a look to this invitation) These persons were very well registered, luxury albums with their biographies were printed in the 1930s and recently reprinted. In these albums the information on R.Devillard is very poor, it is mentioned only he was a lieutenant of the French marine and practically nothing more.

R.Devillard married Irene Ozoling in Latvia

2	However the materials of the archive clearly show he married here and stayed in Latvia. There is an inscription on the backside of the photograph N2: Unserem lieben Papi zur dankbaren Erinnerung. Reny, and by another hand a signature is put on - Devillard. This is just a usual inscription in German on a photograph devoted to the father - evidently that should be the father of Reny because Rene's father would prefer texts in French. I understand that in this family Reny was used as a nickname for Irene.
3	4	It becomes more clear from these two photographs. N3 is signed by Irene Devillard but N4 by Reny Devillard, Riga 1921. Of course, I have no strict proofs that the photographs N1, N2 and N3 bear images of the same person, but I am rather sure, and the signatures are quite similar. In spite of the fact that the text on N2 was written in German, I think Irene's family was of Latvian origin. In this archive there are some postcards (in German) that were sent to Latvia from France in 1921-1923 by Reny and Rene to the father Jânis Ozoling (Ozoliòð). He was Reny's father, I guess, because Rene's fathers would expect a letter in French and most probably had the name Devillard.

More about Ozoling family

5	6	The photographs of J.Ozoling's family are made available here. The photographs N5 and N6 on the left show one and the same family, but the first one also includes R.Devillard. It would be normal to suppose he was photographed with his wife's family.
7	On the photograph N7 made on July 13, 1906 the same family should be pictured, which I concluded from the father - he is the same person as on the two previous photographs what is easy to decide from his excellent mustaches. He and all other family members are very young, of course. His younger daughter could be 1 year old and the elder about 3-4 in 1906.

It is very easy to recognize the father in all the photographs, but it is more difficult to find his wife on different photographs. The fragments of the photographs N6 and N7 seen on the right are her pictures in 1906 and at the beginning of 1920s, if my understanding is correct.

Margote Ozolins, the sister of I.Devillard nee Ozolins

Some of the postcards from France I mentioned above were addressed to Madame and Monsieur Osoling at Aspazijas bulv. 10, Apt. 4. Additionally a document was found in the archive that was written by Ottilie (Otilija) Ozoliòð, and it informed that her daughter lived in France (1946). The document is the application to the Soviet authorities for the acceptance that O.Ozoliòð supervised the real estate of her daughter in Jûrmala town.

Another document is the power of attorney made in December 1943 by Miss Margote Ozolins living in Yzeure (Allier), rue de Bellecroix 19. It gives the legal power to represent M.Ozolins in all legal deeds to Ottilie Ozolins born Taufert-Tauper living in Riga, von der Goltz Ring 10, Appt. 4. Now you should know that in 1943 Aspazijas bulv. was called von der Goltz ring, and then it becomes clear that Ottilie Ozoliòð was the wife of Jânis Ozoliòð and the mother of Margote Ozolins. Taufert-Tauper is a German name, which explains why the German language was widely used in this family.

In my opinion, Margote was Irene's sister and the second daughter from the photographs N5 and N6. As it became clear from some letters T.Ivanova received from Margote in 1960s-1970s even after the death of O.Ozoliòð she lived in France together with Marcelle after the War.

Marcelle Devillard, a daughter of Rene and Irene Devillard

Irene and Rene Devillard had a daughter Marcelle born in May 1922. There is in the archive her photo at the age of two months with an appropriate inscription.

As far as I understand, Marcelle was photographed on photograph N8 and she also made an inscription that sounds "Papa, Tante, moi, mon amie Rasma, Monsieur Helard, le chien Grook et Omamie dans notre jardin. Mars 1934." The text translated from French means "Dad, Aunt, me, my friend Rasma, Mister Helard, the dog Grook and Grunny in our garden. March 1934." It is easy to recognize R.Devillard on this photograph, and as there are only two male persons on the picture one should decide that the second one should be Mr. Helard and R.Devillard was the Dad.

One can also recognize O.Ozolins as the Omamie i.e. the granny. It follows that the another women should be Tante i.e. aunt. Unfortunately her image can not be easily compared with pictures of Margote Ozolins, but as Marcelle's mother had only one sister, I am sure she was Margote. Two pictures on the right should be of Margote. One from N6 and another from N8. Another possibility that the aunt was a sister of R.Devillard is less probable, I think, but should not be excluded.

It is not known which one of the girls is Marcelle and which is her friend Rasma. Strictly speaking, one have no proofs that the author of the inscription is Marcelle, not an another unknown daughter of Devillards.

Marcelle married Mr. Poulet-Goffard at the end of the 1940s and had at least two children - Didier and Ghislaine. Ghislaine sang in Opera of Strasbourg and married Pierre Fernandez on Oct. 27, 1973.

I am going to continue the investigations of the documents of this family, but may be you have any first hand information.