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The Courdins of Val Pellice

 

This book is the story of a Waldensian family that emigrated to Uruguay from Europe in 1858.  In 1875 the family relocated to southern Missouri in the United States.

 

Etienne and Catherine Courdin with their four surviving children departed from Villar Pellice and sailed to Uruguay. Their final destination was a Waldensian agricultural colony in the frontier west of Montevideo.

Conditions in Uruguay become intolerable

Strife within the church and marauding bandits proved too much to bear even after working 17 years to change the virgin land into a practical farm. In 1875 the Courdins emigrate again, this time to southern Missouri in the USA.

Welcome
   
Famine threatens Waldensian valleys
The centuries of persecution were over but now the Waldenses were imperiled by scarcity of food. Several generations with many children had enlarged the population
to the degree that it could no longer be supported by the rocky terrain.

Courdin family leaves for Uruguay

A century ago young Waldenses posed by the new church in Barry County, Missouri. Hundreds of their progeny reside in the area today.

Waldenses slaughtered in Piedmontese Easter

     At dawn on Easter 1655 troops of the Duke of Savoy invaded the haven of the Protestants in a bestial frenzy of murder, rape and pillage.