In the sixteenth century, apart from going on foot or horseback, the means of transport were inexistent. Most people did not leave their village, except from time to time, a walk to the nearest town.

A village was nothing more than a small community of people closed in on themselves, where everybody knew everybody. Moreover, sometimes there was no other choice than to marry someone from the village, which means that almost everyone belonged to the same family.

This  was the case for the Bastogne town, which in those days was only a handful of about several hundred inhabitants. The arrival of a stranger did not go without notice. When towards 1635, a certain Henri Hansy arrived with his wife Catherine Colens, everybody knew soon that his origins were from a small village Erpeldange situated about forty kilometers south-east of Bastogne.They thus called him "the Hansy de Erpeldange",which very quickly became Hansy d'ERPELDANGE ,Hansy d'DELPERDANGE, and finally just DELPERDANGE.

No official document relates to the arrival of Henri HANSY and his wife Catherine COLENS at Bastogne.The first written trace of his existence can be found in the baptism certificate for his first child Laurent who was born on 15th March,1639

Microfilm of Baptism certificate  - Bastogne - March 15th 1639
"Laurent son of Henry Hansy presented by Laurent Le Reu et Jeanne Veneur"

Pierre Hansy was born in 1644, Marie in 1646, François in 1647 and Catherine in 1648. All their birth certificates mention the father, the godfathers and godmothers without mentioning the children's mother..

The name Delperdange appeared for the first time on the certificate of baptism for the 6th child of Henri. The 19th September 1650 ,indeed, Jeanne daughter of Henri d'ELPERDENGE was baptized.

Microfilm of baptism certificate - Bastogne - September 19th 1650
"Jeanne daughter of Henry D'Elperdenge presented by Claude Foise and Jeanne, wife of Laurent le Gondu, inhabitants of Bastogne"

The proof that Henry Hansy and Henri d'Elperdenge are one and the same person is given on the baptism certificate of the seventh child Claude, baptized on 20th January,1653. This certificate mentions "Henri Hansy d'Elperdange and Catherine his wife" as parents.

Microfilm of baptism certificate - Bastogne - January 20th 1653
"Claude son of Henry Hansy d'Elperdenge and Catherine his wife, presented by Claude Foisse et Marie second wife of Jan Lera"

From that time on, the name HANSY no longer appears. The acts of baptism for the  next three children, Engelbert in 1654, Catherine in 1656 and Marie in 1659 mention as their father Henry d'ELPERDENGE. The last certificate finally shows the complete name of his wife Catherine COLENS

Microfilm of baptism certificate - Bstogne - October 3rd 1659
"Marie daughter of Henry d'Elperdenge ... and Catherine Colens his wife presented by Marie Stassin wife of Pier de Bauigne known as....... "

On the basis of information found on the certificates of the 10 children of Henri HANSY and Catherine COLENS, one can conclude that the migration of the name HANSY to DELPERDANGE happened between 1650 and 1655.

The table hereafter shows the information that can be found on the baptism certificates of the 10 children of Claude et Catherine, born between 1639 and 1659 :

There remains more to understand : being originally from ERPELDANGE, why did the name of Henri HANSY change into DELPERDANGE rather than DERPELDANGE. 

The explanation is simple, and often occurs in linguistics, and particularly in genealogy. It can be explained by a phenomenon known as a METATHESIS, which means "a  change of a word or a group of words by inversion of letters or syllables inside of this word or group of words".

This phenomenon has become less frequent since writing and spelling came to reinforce the pronunciation of words, despite that it can still sometimes be found in our everyday conversations ( like in French aéroport and aréoport - renumération instead of rémunération, ...).

But centuries ago, when few people were able to read and write, it was normal that, from time to time,  phonetics helped change the spelling of names and expressions.

Try and pronounce quickly "DERPELDANGE", you will see that nearly quite naturally you drift towards "DELPERDANGE". This is without any doubt, what happened about 1650!