The pictures below were sent in by Eric du-Trieux de Terdonck, an Association 'friend' in Belgium (yes, Europe) who found us through this website. In his e-mails, he has written:

"My name is Eric du Trieu de Terdonck and I am living in Belgium. This is the homeland of the family. I am one of the last survivor of the family which is not so great (more or less 30 people).

"Please let me know all what concerns the family in your country. I shall check from my side with my mother who has some papers.

"I have 3 view of my coat of arm: 2 are coming from books of the last century and one is an Ex-libris from a "Chanoine" (in english : Canon ??). You will notice the difference into the spelling of the name which was Du Trieu, DuTrieu de Terdonckt or Dutrieu de Terdonckt and which was modified during the years. Please note that the family sentence (as indicated into the coat of arms) is "Bien faire et ne rien craindre.

"Origin of the name: du Trieu = old french word : trieu, or in wallon language : trî. meaning is: ground remaining uncultivated, wild soil.

"Another source says that the name meaning is: a bushy field. tri (try) or trieu has the same meaning and you can find the 2 names in Belgium (Dutrieu, Dutry, Detry).

"Sorry for this but the meaning of "trieu" is surely not coming from Dreux (city where all the kings of France have been buried). It is also not coming from a small city with the name of "Trieu" in Belgium.

"All the Dutrieu (or du Trieu or Dutrieux or Dutrilleux, or ....) are coming from the Hainaut (in the oldest time the Comté de Hainaut which was much larger than now and was including a part of the North of France). Some were living in the Flandre like Philippe Dutrieux but it was not so far from the border.

"For what concern the fact that the Dutrieux are "descendants" of the kings of France, sorry but it is a common story into the French and Belgian nobilians. This is taken as a joke and no more (we say all that we are "Descendants" of St. Louis who was Louis the 9th). We are all probably "Descendant" of the Kings of France but this is only statistics. At my knowledge, the genealogy of my family is going to more or less 1200 a.c. but it remains a problem in the years 1500 where there are some gaps into this genealogy.

"Philippe Dutrieux: My mother found some Philippe Dutrieu around the year 1600 but not born in the year 1586. She found only one born in the year 1588 but without any reference to the city where he was born. My cousin, Alphonse, who is the family eldest, has the complete genealogy which was made by my great-grandfather. I shall be the next family eldest."

These coats of arms are essentially identical to the Coat of Arms #1, which was documented and diagrammed by Theodore de T. Truax in his early research. To see a full-size image, click on the thumbnails below:

Color Arms #3

Color Arms #4

'Ex-Libris' Arms #5

This website was created by Jennifer Smith and Mike Truax for
The Association of Philippe du Trieux Descendants.
Questions or Comments should be addressed to Jennifer Smith.