History and lore
The earliest known ancestor of the Merle line lived through France’s Wars of Religion (1562–1598), when Catholic and Huguenot (French Protestant) armies fought eight civil wars and thousands died in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. By his grandsons’ generation the family were Huguenots, and that faith would eventually carry them out of France to Holland and America.
Read the full article: The Huguenots: Why Our Family Left France