Genealogist Tony Neulat discovered that approximately 63% of the 240 residents in the French village of Beauregard descend from Jeanne Delmas, a 17th-century matriarch who died in 1626, according to regional reporting by Le Dauphiné and La Dépêche. The finding emerged after Neulat inspected a moss-covered tombstone in the village cemetery in December 2022, prompting a multi-year archival investigation into parish registers and notarial acts.
The Discovery of the 1626 Tombstone in Beauregard
The discovery began on December 26, 2022, in the municipal cemetery of Beauregard, located in the Lot department of France. Tony Neulat, a Parisian genealogist with paternal family roots in the area, visited the cemetery after a planned meeting was cancelled due to COVID-19, according to La Dépêche. While walking through the grounds, he met his cousin, Solange Mercadié, who directed him toward an unusual horizontal stone slab partially obscured by green moss.
After clearing the vegetation, Neulat uncovered a Latin inscription bearing the date 1626. According to La Dépêche, the text read: “HIC IACE DELMAS OBIIT DIE 10 SEPTEM ANN… 1626.” Subsequent review of the parish death registers revealed the deceased was Jeanne Delmas, who died on September 10, 1626. The death record, written in old French, noted she was the widow of Antoine Martin, a village notary, and that her burial took place late the same day during a severe summer heatwave.
Archival Research and the Delmas Lineage
Following the cemetery discovery, Neulat consulted digitized parish registers and departmental archives starting from 1619. Historical records showed that Jeanne Delmas belonged to a family of notables from the neighboring village of Vidaillac, born between 1550 and 1560. She married Antoine Martin, and the couple had nine children who all survived to adulthood—a notable survival rate for the 17th century.
Through cross-referencing land registers, tax records (compoix), and notarial acts, Neulat mapped out the family’s local influence. According to La Dépêche, the family owned approximately 12% of the village’s land, and descendants achieved local roles as counselors and procurators, with one branch acquiring the Château de Marsa.
Tracing Thousands of Descendants in the Lot Department
Neulat identified approximately 5,000 descendants connected to Jeanne Delmas across multiple generations. Based on the 1926 municipal census, Neulat calculated that 63% of Beauregard’s 240 inhabitants share ancestry with Delmas, a proportion that rises to 77% among residents specifically born in the village.
