Thursday 9 May 2013

Genealogical Oddities (XXVIII): A Flemish Soldier is Laid To Rest in Aragon

On 18 January 1722 a soldier named Gil Hallfaste died in the remote Aragonese town of Estadilla. He was stated to belong to the Company led by 'Don Bernardo Macsuini' (Bernard MacSweeney) in the 1st Batallion of the Hibernia Regiment. The burial record states that the deceased soldier was about 50 years old, a Flemish native of Maastricht, and that he dropped dead suddenly and was buried that same afternoon.

I cannot venture a guess as to what the correct spelling of the surname, rendered here as 'Hallfaste', may be; his superior MacSweeney's name was rendered pretty far wide of the mark. His Christian name was perhaps Gillis.

SOURCE: Parish of Estadilla (Huesca), Sacramental Records 1693-1721, P. 391