François Junius Furnel (1533 - 1602)

Born 3 Mar 1533 in Bourges, Cher, Berry, France

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Sep 1602 at age 69 in At Sea

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Research has shown that this person never existed. See the text for details. Join: Disproven Existence Project Discuss: Disproven_Existence

Fictive genealogy

Please do NOT attempt to reattach this profile to Jean Fernel, a real person who was physician at the court of Henri II of France.

Jean Fernel and his wife Madeleine Tornebüe had two daughters, but no surviving sons, and cannot have been the father of Francis Junius Fernald or John Fernald.

Research notes

According to the bizarre genealogy of the Fernald family, Universal International Genealogy and of the Ancient Fernald Families, by Charles Augustus Fernald, published in 1909, Francis Junius Fernel (or Fernald) was the son of Jean Fernel and his wife "Magdalene Luillier". He was born 3 March 1533 in Bourges.

Allegedly, Francis Junius "studied at Geneva and at 32 made minister of Walloon church at Antwerp, left to become Chaplain of the Prince of Orange and attended him in various expeditions". Needless to say, Fernel/Fernald's presence near the Prince of Orange is recorded nowhere outside of Fernald's genealogy. As if these accomplishments were not sufficient, Francis "studied Law and Medicine besides Military Tactics. Afterwards he read public lectures at Neustadt, and Heidelberg..." Busy Francis also went to France to try and get back his fabulous inheritance (according to Fernald, Francis's father was not only a famous surgeon at the Court near Henri II, but the hidden son of King Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany).

According to Fernald's genealogy, Francis Junius Fernel married three times. One of his wives was Maria Commenus, who is presented as daughter of John Amos Commenius and Marie, "from whom descended Louis Marie Cormenin the writer of the Public and Private History of the Popes in Rome, descendants of the Comneni families". His third wife is "Rebecca daughter of Emaneuil Tremellius & wife Rachel". He had eighteen children, including:

• John Furnius Fernald
• Francis Fernald
• Maria, who married Captain John Smith
• Anne, who married Samuel Washington whose nom de plume was William Shakespeare...

Francis Junius Fernel's alleged father, Jean Fernel, really existed and was physician at the court of Henri II of France. It is known that Jean Fernel, married to Madeleine Tornebüe, had two daughters Marie and Madeleine. There is no trace of other Fernel descendants in contemporary sources, much less surviving sons. Therefore it seems likely that Francis Junius Fernald, his brother John, his sons John Furnius and Francis, as well as his other children and their fantastic marriages were all fabrications.

Sources

• de Beauvillé, Victor, Histoire de Montdidier, Livre IV - Chapitre II - Section XXVII. Electronic version, http://santerre.baillet.org/communes/montdidier/v2b/v2b4c02b27.php : viewed 2 February 2017.
• Contributeurs de Wikipédia, "Jean Fernel," Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre, http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean_Fernel&oldid=133846056 : viewed 2 February 2017.
• Family Search discussion of CA Fernald
• Sally & Allen Fernald, "Subject: Re: [FERNALD Charles Augustus Fernald's book]," Fernald Rootsweb List, 01 Apr 2005
• Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Joseph Waterhouse (Portland, Maine, 1949), pp. 35-37, reprinted in Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis, ed. Gary Boyd Roberts, 3 vols. (Baltimore, 1996), 1:535-37, where attention is drawn to the passage in the editor’s introduction, at p. xviii.

• Ancestry Family Trees. Page: Ancestry Family Tree Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=26332013&pid=1000