Casteel / du Chastel Family of Blangerval
On the Holley / Casteel side, a FamilySearch tree traces Mary's ancestry to Captain Edmond du Casteel (Du Castle), a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who arrived in 1682 and married Christian Boon in 1693, and who may descend from the family of du Chastel-de-Blangerval — seigneurs of Blangerval (now in Pas-de-Calais, France), Rolleghem (Belgium), and other fiefs back to the 15th century (source: Holley-family.pdf).
> Caveat: Christy's research states plainly that this line was not validated — "I did not validate their work, but want to show if you were interested in diving deeper" (source: Holley-family.pdf). Treat the medieval connection as a lead, not an established fact. The Ancestry "Holley Family Tree" GEDCOM does not contain this line at all — no du Chastel/Casteel, Blangerval, or Netherlands/Belgium places, and the Archibald branch there stops in Ohio — so it rests entirely on the unvalidated FamilySearch tree (source: Holley Family Tree.ged).
The places named
The Casteel line touches several countries (source: Holley-family.pdf):
- France — Blangerval (Blangerval-Blangermont) (Pas-de-Calais), plus Mello, Laprugne, Lille, Toulon-sur-Arroux
- Belgium — Court-Saint-Étienne, Hainaut, East Flanders
- Netherlands — Rotterdam, Haarlem, Amsterdam (the emigration route to Philadelphia ran through Rotterdam)
The du Chastel family held Blangerval (Blangerval-Blangermont) longest, and their crest is incorporated into the modern Blangerval-Blangermont coat of arms (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blangerval-Blangermont).
Could it fit the trip?
Blangerval (Blangerval-Blangermont) is a tiny farming village in the far north of France — a genuine detour from the wine regions, with little tourist infrastructure of its own. The realistic way to incorporate it is from the Champagne end of the trip:
- Reims → Lille by train is ~1h48–2h20 (TGV/SNCF, one change) (source: thetrainline.com / sncf-connect.com). Lille is the natural base — a major Flemish city worth a stop in its own right.
- From Lille or Arras, Blangerval (Blangerval-Blangermont) requires a car (~39 km from Arras; no rail) (source: francethisway.com).
So the choice is: Lille as a worthwhile northern add-on (easy by train from Reims), with Blangerval as an optional sentimental side-trip by car for those who want to stand on the ancestral ground.
Related pages
