William Robert Marx
Table of Contents
Revision 11/1/06

Full Family Pedigree Tableau

Welcome to my roots web site!  I've been able to trace my ancestry back to 17th century Germany (Prussia) and 16th century France.  My French ancestors came to North America about 1685 as part of the French army's protection of their province called Nouvelle France, now called Quebec in Canada.  My German ancestors emigrated to the USA in 1857 and settled in Illinois. 

Searching for my ancestors has turned into quite an adventure in research.  I've done most of my searching on line and have had wonderful help from many others.  My cousin provided some family history to get me started.  After a lot of false starts, I ran across a web site with ancestors who married some Marx's from Treis, Germany.  Further research verified the ancestry and I was on my way.  A couple of Rootsweb Message Board volunteers from Canada and Springfield provided invaluable help on my French-Canadian family.  Who would have thought that my maternal grandfather, Fred Credit came from the Peloquin dit Credit family of Quebec.  I thought I had hit a brick wall trying to sort through thousands of financial returns from searches of the name "Credit".  French-Canadians with dit names apparently thought nothing of using either surname so a Peloquin dit Credit search turned out to be the key.  That little tidbit of information allowed me to find ancestors back over 400 years in France. 

So what's the most useful piece of information for research?  Church Records such as baptism, marriage, and death, though some clergy made mistakes.  Next would be civil records such as birth, marriage, and death records.  I found you can't rely on on Census Records except as a check point.  For example, my great grandfather Calixte Peloquin-Credit, emigrated to Rhode Island with his family about 1876.  By chance, we found his 1880 Census record as Calis CREDILTY, just by using soundex on the names.  The family had changed their surname to Credit and the census taker hadn't understood the French accent very well.  We did learn from the census that a new daughter was born in Rhode Island and the mother was no longer living in the household, leading to speculation that she died in childbirth, so you can gain more information.  The bottom line, you need at least two sources before you can really believe all the data.  I don't have two sources for all my data, but I believe enough of it that I'm happy to share.

Feel free to use and compare any of this data; if you see any conflicts or errors, please let me know.

Our family has some interesting history.  It seems that all of my ancestors were common people; there's no royalty here!  Many of them likely never made it past the 8th grade in America.  I was probably the first Marx to graduate with a college degree.  My French ancestors were probably all military or farmers, or later, factory workers; my early German ancestors served in the Prussian army and worked in the grape fields.  My great-grandfather was the janitor at the Springfield, IL courthouse.  Our family notes that he was a friend of Abraham Lincoln.  My German grandfather and sons all worked on the newspapers; my father was a stereotyper and was a Union president.  My French great-grandfather moved from Quebec with his family to Rhode Island to find work in the textile mills and my French grandfather was a house painter.  My Springfield relatives were all "staunch Democrats" according to their biographies.  Both the French and German ancestors were devout Catholics.  I can find no evidence of divorce.

Our family can lay claim to at least one priest and a couple of nuns.  We had at least one who died in a mental institution, and my French grandfather was labeled "the horse-thief from Canada" (he apparently stole a horse when he was a teen-ager in Rhode Island and ran away to Springfield, IL.).

What is the derivation of the surname Marx?  "In ancient times people were sorted not by birth dates but by their father's first name; 'Marx', Marks, Markus, means 'son/daughter of Mark (short form of Markus)' = Mark's (son/daughter)."  The Name Marx, Mark, Markus can be used as a given name (first/middle) name and there is no specific religious or nationality derivation.

My maternal Grandfather was born in Three-Rivers, Quebec to French-Canadian parents.  His name was changed to "Fred Credit" from "LIBOIRE EDOUARD ALFRED PELOQUIN dit CREDIT", probably when his parents migrated to Rhode Island.  In my case the Credit surname traces to the Peloquin dit Credit family of the Trois Rivieres and Sorel, Richelieu areas of Quebec; however, there was some 'intermarriage' with the Peloquin dit Felix side.  "Dit" in French means "say" and in this context, it means "called."   In other words, a person might be Joseph Peloquin dit Credit, which means that he had an ancestor named Peloquin, but he chooses to use the name Credit instead. So he is Joseph Peloquin called (or aka) Credit.  Thus my grandfather (or his parents) chose the name Fred Credit.

Close Families

Interestingly, the German Marx and the French-Canadian Peloquin ancestors, each lived within a small geographical area, and married within a small group of families.  There are certainly instances where you can infer that sons/daughters married daughters/sons of their uncles-once or twice removed.  For example, the grandfather of Fred Credit was Joseph Peloquin dit Credit and the grandmother was Catherine Lavallee from the Peloquin dit Felix side.  Fred's paternal gr-gr-gr-grandfather was Pierre Peloquin dit Credit, and his maternal gr-gr-gr-grandfather was Pierre's brother, Felix Peloquin.  His gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather on both sides therefore was Francois Peloquin dit Credit, the founder of the French-Canadian Peloquin family.  In Germany, nearly all the Marx ancestors came from the small villages of Treis-Karden, separated only by a bridge across the Mosel River.  In Canada all the Peloquin-Credit ancestors resided within the small Three Rivers area of Quebec.   Also, it appears that many husbands fathered offspring well into their 70s.  It was not uncommon for both men and women to be married more than once.

Catholic Religion

People seem to be very interested in the religion of their ancestors.  In my case, tracing German ancestors back to 1700 in Prussia, I can only find Catholic, some of whom became priests and nuns.  Tracing French ancestors back to 1650 in France, I can only find Catholic except in my maternal Grandparents' case; they were married by a "Minister of the Gospel".   Maternal Grandfather Fred Credit however, was born into a devout Catholic family, while it is believed that his wife, Martha Scholl, came from an Evangelical Christian family in Germany.  My mother Elsie Credit married William J. Marx who was raised as Catholic, as was I.

My French Connection

My German Connection

Trois-Rivières, Quebec was founded on the north shore of the St Lawrence River in 1634 by Sieur de Laviolette as a trading post. The town, located between Quebec city and Montreal derived its name from the three mouths of the St Maurice River, on which it is located.

In 1760, the fall of Quebec to the English brought about the end of French rule in what is now Canada. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, France lost all its territories in North America except the Louisiana territory (which was later sold to the United States).

Members of the Péloquin family in North-America are descended from François Péloquin dit Crédit who served as a French soldier in Canada in the 1680-1690 time period. He married Marie Niquet in 1699 and had two sons, Félix and Pierre.  They resided in the St-Pierre-de-Sorel Catholic Parish in Three Rivers, Quebec. In  the mid 1700s, the local priest started the French fashion of adding a suffix to the names to tell each family apart. The descendants of Félix were known as "dit Félix" and those of Pierre as "dit Crédit". (ref. Jean Peloquin, 8/22/03)

The fifth generation after Pierre dit Credit, a son called Calixte was born. Calixte married Marie Collet dit Beausejour in 1837 and they subsequently had 9 children, among them Fred Credit, my grandfather. Calixte and his family moved to Woonsocket, RI about 1876 to seek work in the Textile Mills. Fred Credit was about 5 yrs of age at the time. About 1887-8, Fred Credit apparently stole a horse and made his way to Springfield, IL where he became a house painter and married Martha Scholl, the daughter of his employer.

Treis is a small village on the Mosel River noted for it's wine growing; with at least a two thousand years tradition.   Most of the people were involved in wine growing during its early years.  The population in the early 17th and 18th centuries was probably less than 1000; today it is about 2000.  Treis is located about 20 km SW of Koblenz and is connected by a bridge across the Mosel to Karden thus the area is commonly known as Treis-Karden.

My great-great-great-great-grandparents, Johann Jacob and Anna Katharina (Rengel) MARX were born about 1704 in Treis, (Prussia) Germany, christened and married (in 1742)  in St. Joannes Catholic Church in Treis, and had four known children.  Johann Jacob was a vineyard laborer.  Their grandson, Jacob MARX, my great-grandfather, emigrated to North America.  He sailed from Germany May 9, 1857 landing in Quebec, Canada.  He traveled directly to Springfield, Illinois where he settled and married Margaretha BLESER, also from Treis, on November 22, 1859. 

Jacob MARX's Springfield Biography is located here.  Jacob and Margaret had 7 children, one of whom was my grandfather, Joseph Marx who married Elizabeth Meicho in 1837. 

As near as can be determined, all my 18th and 19th century Treis ancestors were laborers and served in the Prussian Army.  They were mostly vineyard workers in Treis, and Jacob Marx first worked as a nurseryman in Springfield where he developed the practice of grass sodding (putting grass sod down instead of seeding).  He went to work as the custodian in the courthouse where he became good friends with Abraham Lincoln.