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).
Captain Edmond du Castle, of Philadelphia
The speaker-notes edition adds detail on the immigrant ancestor at the head of this line (source: Holley-family-notes.pdf):
- Captain Edmond du Castle (du Chastel) arrived in Philadelphia in 1682 and married Christian Boon in 1693. He was a wealthy merchant — and, colorfully, was at one point accused of being a pirate. The DuCastel home in Philadelphia stood on Front Street at Morris Alley (now Gatzmer Street) (source: Holley-family-notes.pdf).
- The surname "Casteel" is an Anglicized form of "du Chastel" ("of the castle"), and "de Blangerval" ("from the Blanger valley") was a place-name marking the branch of the du Chastel family that held the village of Blangerval (source: genealogy.com).
- Blangerval is a tiny commune in Pas-de-Calais, district of Arras, canton of Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise — about 40 km west of Arras at roughly 50.3167° N, 2.2333° E, elevation ~106 m. In December 1972 it merged with neighbouring Blangermont to form Blangerval-Blangermont (pop. ~85). The du Chastel family held Blangerval longest, which is why their crest was incorporated into the merged commune's coat of arms (source: genealogy.com).
The same deep (unvalidated) FamilySearch pedigree carries a Scottish/Scots-Irish Archibald branch — see Holley / Archibald Family — Gargunnock & Stirling, Scotland — and the Iowa Holley/Dougherty branch on Holley / Dougherty Family — County Roscommon, Ireland (source: Holley-family-notes.pdf).
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.