Surname Origins
Based on the fact that the Piquet ancestors in my family came from France, I’m going to deduct that this is where the name originates from. But let’s do some research and see if we can find out more about it, shall we?
Initially, I always check the Ancestry.com site to see what information they have. Twenty thousand historical documents is quite a bit of information. It seems with 9,000 birth, marriage, and death certificates, there’s at least a few Piquet ancestors in the Ancestry database to research on.
According to the House of Names, Piquet is derived from the old French name of Picot or Pigot. Their website gives a lot of great information on the origins of this surname and their activity before migrating over to America. This was a distinguished family with many being prominent in social, cultural, religious and political affairs in both France and New France, now Quebec.
By 1840, Kentucky and two other states, Pennsylvania and Maine, had the highest population of Piquet families. One Piquet family lived in Kentucky in 1840 which made up approximately 33% of all recorded Piquet’s in the United States.
Piquet families had started moving around the United States by 1920. By then, Louisiana had the biggest population of Piquet’s in America. My direct Piquet ancestors came to America the following year, in 1921.
Piquet Occupations
In the late 1800s, Piquet families held a small variety of different jobs between the United States, Canada, and England.
In the United States, 29% of Piquet’s were store clerks. There were some accountants and butchers as well as some farmers. But farming was a less common occupation for this family.
There was a similar variety in England, but the occupations were different. The most common occupation in the UK for the Piquet family was 20% being Bakers. Again the least common was farming. A Baker, Chemist and Druggist, and Dress Maker made up the top 3 reported jobs in England in 1881 by the Piquet family.
Finally, in Canada in 1881, Cultivateur was the most common occupation for the Piquet family. Seriously, 100% of Piquet’s were cultivateurs in Canada at that time.
Life Expectancy
Early on, life expectancy for Piquet’s was lower than that of the General Population. The average life span in 1944 was 26 years old for Piquet’s whereas the average life span for the general population was closer to 40.
As with the general population, the average life span for the Piquet’s was at an all time high in 2001 when the life expectancy was at age 98 or so. But it has come down since then. The expected life span for Piquet’s in 2004 was 76 years.
Piquet Family Members I’ve Found So Far
- Francois Joseph – Wife: Unknown
I obviously still have a lot of work to do in order to fill this family out and discover my roots. I will be working on that in the weeks and months ahead.
Have you found any Piquet’s in your family tree yet? I would so love to know where they came from. I want to learn why my ancestors left France. Where did they go after they arrived in New York? Did they keep in touch with the family that didn’t come? Did they bring them over later? I have so many questions!
As always, I will come back and update this page as I learn more about the Piquet family.
Happy Searching!
~Kris
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