Home : History : Thouvenin family : Footnote 17

Claude Alexandre Thouvenin, who was born in 1850, was 20 years old at the time of the 1870 war. Each young man was recorded in a register in his birth place to become a potential soldier. The army was recruited by a lottery. If you got a drafting number, you could pay someone to replace you. According to Aline, Claude had a good number and was not required to go in the French army. Therefore he hid with a friend in the vineyards so that he would not be taken in the Prussian army.

We do not know how he had learned the trade of carpenter. We can only suppose that he went in apprenticeship which would have required a notarial document. To this day we have not searched for such a contract.

© 2004, 2005 Jean-Marc Samson and Yvette Longstaff