This is the more annoying, as there are circumstances that particularly incite our curiosity.

The "Journal de Rouen" of December 1, 1849, contains an article, probably by Amedee de Mereaux, in which it is stated that Frederick Chopin was descended from the French family Chopin d'Arnouville, of which one member, a victim of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had taken refuge in Poland.
[Footnote: In scanning the Moniteur of 1835, I came across several prefects and sous-prefects of the name of Choppin d'Arnouville.

(There are two communes of the name of Arnouville, both are in the departement of the Seine et Oise--the one in the arrondissement Mantes, the other in the arrondissement Pontoise.

This latter is called Arnouville-les-Gonesse.) I noticed also a number of intimations concerning plain Chopins and Choppins who served their country as maires and army officers.

Indeed, the name of Chopin is by no means uncommon in France, and more than one individual of that name has illustrated it by his achievements--to wit: The jurist Rene Chopin or Choppin (1537--1606), the litterateur Chopin (born about 1800), and the poet Charles-Auguste Chopin (1811--1844).] Although this confidently-advanced statement is supported by the inscription on the composer's tombstone in Pere Lachaise, which describes his father as a French refugee, both the Catholicism of the latter and contradictory accounts of his extraction caution us not to put too much faith in its authenticity.