Adolphe Monod’s maternal ancestors

Frédéric de Coninck

In his monograph “La famille Monod” (“The Monod family”, 1890), Gustave Monod dedicates a chapter to his maternal ancestors, and in particular to his maternal grandfather, Frédéric de Coninck. The document (in French) can be downloaded here ; for the time being I have no translation to offer.

One can easily understand Gustave Monod’s fascination for this man whose commercial genius made him acquire an enormous fortune and who lost all of it in the struggle for influence that opposed the great powers of Europe.

It is a pity that Gustave Monod presents his grandfather as a holy man. He shows him as a very gifted man, both for sports and for business, he praises his perseverance in the face of adversity and his generosity, but he does not tell us anything about the dark side of this person. It seems hard to believe that there weren’t any. Was he a ruthless businessman? What were his weaknesses? We will never know.

By the way, Gustave Monod does not tell us very much about the ancestors of his great-grandmother, Suzanne Esther de Rapin Thoyras (1710-1785), Frédéric de Coninck’s mother. In my personal copy of the booklet “Souvenir d’une belle journée” (“Memories of a beautiful day”) edited by Sarah Monod in 1908, I have found a document of 1923 (“Cent Ans, tome 2, n°30”) which mentions a discovery by Philippe Mieg : according to him, Louise de Coninck’s grandmother was a descendent of Louis IX of France (also known as “Saint Louis”). 

Here is the corresponding graph (“Ancestors of Louise de Coninck, mother of the twelve Monod”):

 

Also published on my Monod website (here).