Loïc’s Search for Origins

This flow traces Loïc’s movement from family unease to a sustained investigation of his ancestor, the cameo, and the people connected to both.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Dream Opens the Case

The Dream Opens the Case A nightmare meets history Loïc dreams of Roger Bolduc inside a burning skyscraper at the moment the first plane hits the World Trade Center complex. A falling stone in the dream resembles the family cameo. Intuition becomes inquiry The coincidence pushes Loïc to contact Isabelle D’Anjou and Georges D’Anjou. His long-dormant childhood association with the stone becomes the starting point for a personal and historical investigation.

Reading Régis’s Papers

Reading Régis’s Papers An inherited archive Loïc studies the thousands of pages and research materials left by Régis D’Anjou. The papers preserve decades of inquiry into the cameo, the founder, and the family’s hidden past. A question takes shape The archive reveals how much the jewel has governed family memory without ever being openly understood. Loïc begins to connect his own dreams and childhood impressions with Régis’s documented research.

A Missing Record Emerges

A Missing Record Emerges A baby found in snow Among Régis’s papers, Loïc finds a Jesuit account of a baby rescued near Florissant in 1842 beside a dead young woman. A cameo had been pinned to the infant’s clothes. The founder gains a past A baptismal record links the rescued child to the D’Anjou name and supports the theory that he became Élie D’Anjou. The discovery changes the question from where the jewel came from to what happened to the child’s birth family.

The American Trail

The American Trail A raid in the records Loïc searches American newspapers and public records for the origins of the rescued child. Reports describe a 1842 attack on a ranch near Carthage, Missouri, followed by a suspicious retraction and gaps in the official account. A name links continents The ranch’s reported owner appears to be a French aristocrat named Castelmont. Loïc cannot prove the surviving baby’s identity, but the link gives his inquiry a plausible route from the Midwest to France.

The European Reconstruction

The European Reconstruction Archives fill in fragments In France, Loïc and Laurence d’Albignac examine family letters, memoirs, and police records. The documents suggest that twin brothers Louis de Castelmont and Charles de Castelmont fled the Revolution on opposite paths. A likely but unproven lineage The evidence points toward Louis as the ancestor of Élie D’Anjou and toward a long-running inheritance conflict. Loïc reaches a compelling reconstruction, but the decisive proof remains unavailable.

September 11, 2001, in Montreal

Autumn 2001

June 1999, discovered by Loïc in 2001

Late 2001 to spring 2002

2003 onward