If you had to sign a document or parish register and you were illiterate, you made your mark. Most people contented themselves with a cross or “x”, sometimes bold or sometimes a bit shaky and nervous. But sometimes people got creative with their marks and made unique designs.

I’m going through the French side of my family tree, fixing errors, finding more sources, writing better citations, and looking for missing family members. I arrived at Louise Amette, my 10th great-grandmother. I have three husbands for her, and four children, but not her parents. This is hardly surprising, since she lived in the 1600s, and the records are often lacking in detail in that era, or missing altogether. Who were her parents?

Her first marriage probably took place in her hometown of La Roquette, Eure, France before the birth of her first child in 1658. Sure enough, the parish register has a 20 year gap covering that time period. So there’s no way to get her parents’ names from her marriage record.

Turning to Geneanet’s online trees to see if anyone has cracked the case, I found a tree with parents for her, and a baptismal date. Louise Amette, daughter of Martin Amette and Renée Dupuis was baptized on 27 septembre 1637 in La Roquette. As is often the case, there were no sources, proof arguments, or explanations of why they might be her parents. There were a lot of Amettes in La Roquette during this time period. This could be a different Louise Amette. Still, grateful for the hint, I started looking at everything I could find for this couple and their other children. Having done that, witnesses at events that I had looked at earlier started to fall into place.

1. First, these names sounded familiar; I looked back in my notes and remembered that when Louise’s daughter Renée was born in 1658, her godmother was “Renée fe. de Martin Amette de la Roquette” [Renée wife of Martin Amette of La Roquette].¹ Was this the child’s grandmother or an aunt or other relative?
2. When Renée Dupuis was buried in 1672, she was identified as the wife of Martin Amette. One of the witnesses was Jacques Perard, but it’s very hard to read the last name. However, he used a distinctive mark, and was identified as her son-in-law.²

3. Martin and Renée had a son named Philippe who married on 17 November 1668. Jacques Prevart was present and made the same mark, much easier to read this time, although his relationship was not stated.³

4. When Louise’s oldest daughter Renée LeGay (by her first husband) got married, among the witnesses were Jacques Prevart and Philippe Amette. Again, Jacques’ surname is hard to read, but his distinctive mark is clear.⁴