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Durand Heritage Foundation Newsletter Summer, 2003 with a cover that incorporates a painting by— you guessed it—Asher Brown Durand. Then there are the English Durands we ain't. You may recall that a couple of years ago a Heather Smith of New Zealand wondered whether her family was connected to ours. Her grandmother had kept a newspaper clipping announcing the marriage of an Alan Algernon Durand. Predictably we found no connection between Alan and our family. However, it was interesting to learn of this line of English Durands. I suppose these English Durands crossed over from France either with or sometime after William the Conqueror, whether as knights or foot soldiers or wine merchants we don't know. Chances are that if we have common ancestors they were foot soldiers or wine merchants. Nonetheless, these English Durands have made their mark in the history of the British Empire. Alan Algernon Durand, the subject of the newspaper clipping, later became Brigadier Sir Alan Algernon Durand, 3 rd Baronet, but not before being wounded twice in World War I and receiving the Military Cross. Alan's forebears had also distinguished themselves with military service in the farflung British Empire, including India and the Middle East. In the recent war in Afghanistan, reports sometimes referenced the Durand Line, the political boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan established in 1893 by Alan's uncle, Sir Henry Mortimer Durand. Too bad that in drawing his line Henry split an area that had been inhabited by the Pashtons for centuries. The Pashtons now find themselves living in two different counties -- Pakistan and Afghanistan—a situation that has caused all kinds of problems since. According to Burke's Peerage (sniff-sniff) these English Durands pronounce their name "du rand." Of course the great mother lode of Durands we ain't is found in France itself. Today there are an estimated 90,000 people who About 90,000 Durands live in France according to this population survey taken from the internet. The numbers in the color-coded provinces indicate how many Durands there are per 1,000 people. The concentration of Durands is low in the province where Doeuil-sur-le-Mignon is located, birthplace of our primogeniture Jean Durand dit La Fortune. 4 carry the name of Durand in the land of our ancestors. Some of them go way back, like the two Guillaume Durands, both high officials in the Catholic Church. The first Guillaume (c.1230-1296) wrote a book about a very obscure subject (Rationale divinorum officiorum) that kept being reprinted from 1459 to 1866, which, if you stop to think about it, is longer than Shakespeare has been in print. The other Guillaume (d. 1334) was also a learned man who was called to Italy to be the theological advisor French on the left, English on the right, these Durands were probably at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Left is French feminist Marguerite Durand. Right is British imperialist Sir Henry Mortimer Durand. and preacher to Pope John XXII. Whether this younger Guillaume was
Summer, 2003 Durand Heritage Foundation Newsletter The Luigi Durand De La Penne is a first-of-class destroyer built in 1993 of 5,000 tons, a multi-role Italian warship able to perform anti-air defense, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare operations, assistance during landing operations, and coastal bombardment. the son of the older Guillaume we don't know. Neither do we know whether these Guillaume Durands from the south of France had anything to do with the heavy concentration of Durands in the south of France, as the population graphic of Durand names shows. We would also be remiss in our inventory of Durands we ain't if we failed to mention Madame Marguerite Durand (1864-1936), an early French feminist who, in 1897 launched a daily feminist newspaper called the Sling. Today the name of Marguerite Durand identifies a library in Paris devoted to the collection and preservation of documents concerning the history and struggle of the feminist movement in France. Of course there are many other things Durand that we could boast are somehow connected to our family line but, in truth, probably ain’t—at least within the last several hundred years. A mountain pass in the Alps that leads from Zermatt to Zinal and is snow-covered year-round at 11,398 feet is named Durand Pass. The Italian navy has a modern "Animoso class" destroyer named the Luigi Durand de la Penne. I have no idea who Luigi Durand is or was, but chances are he is also a Durand we ain't. Back in the New World we find another Durand who has been compared to Karen Silkwood (who raised concerns about the safety of Kerr-McGee nuclear fuel rods- -remember the movie Silkwood?) and also Jeffrey Wigand (who exposed the tobacco industry's lies about tobacco addiction). A couple of years ago a man named Douglas Durand blew the whistle on the corruption rampant in an outfit called TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. and saw the firm fined $875 million, the largest health-care fraud settlement in U.S. history. For his 5 trouble Durand was awarded $77 million as part of the settlement. Too bad he is from the family line of Durands we ain’t. There’s a lot more Durand's we ain't. Several years ago I clipped a newspaper article about a French vintner by the name of (I believe) August Durand whose family has been making wine for generations. Now there’s a Durand I’d like to meet! And today there is a vintner named Guilhem Durand who is supposed to have an excellent chardonnay. Then there’s JG Durand Industries in France, founded by Jacque Durand in 1825 and manufacturer of, among other things, JG Durand crystalware (including wine glasses that can run $40 and up per glass—without the wine. Then there's a race car driver on the east coast named Mike Durand who seems to do pretty well in the professional racing circuit. He may or may not be related to a whole bunch of Durands who are involved in the world of drag racing, car racing, boat racing, and horse racing, not only in the U.S. but in France too. There's even a Durand who seems to specialize in photographing races. It doesn't take long in surfing the web to find that there are also Durands who are doctors and professors and bureaucrats and just plain folks who may or may not be Durands we ain't, including some of Hispanic origin, although the most common form of the name for those people is Duran, as in Roberto Duran the professional boxer. Some of these many people have got to be Durands we are. The thing is, all these many Durands all over the world indicate that the name has a certain—how shall we say—cachet. It's a name that has been around for a long time and a name that is associated with a lot of achievement. It's a good, solid name. And I like to think that even if much of that achievement has been by Durands we ain't, the rest of us are hardly chopped liver, and we can still take pride in being Durands too, because we're a pretty good, solid people, and it looks like we’re going to be around for a while longer. The forthcoming book that delineates the family line of Dr. Jean (John) Durand is described below. Persons interested in a good genealogical website should take a look at Dr. Smith’s website: www.alvyray.com Dr. John Durand (1664-1727) of Derby, Connecticut His Family Through Four Generations Featuring The Branch of His Youngest Son Ebenezer Durand Through Ten Generations to 2003 by Dr. Alvy Ray Smith
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