Let me give you a short version of the Griselle-Fauts story. My great-grandmother, Rachel Ann (Annie) Griselle, the fifth of seven daughters, married Charles Washington Fauts in 1864, so it says on their marriage certificate. His actual family name was Faatz. He was a glass blower who, like his father, had grown up in Honesdale, PA. He met Annie when she volunteered as a telegraph operator during the Civil War.

Although no record tells us precisely, from what I know of the family from family stories, letters saved and in my possession, and what I can infer from a family history hand written by Paul Griselle (my grandmother's brother), cultural clash and different expectations played a role. Annie's mother, Mary Hunt (Smith) Griselle grew up in great affluence in Philadelphia, and marriage of her daughter Annie to a man with a modest occupation, lack of ambition, and a German name would have been looked upon askance. Thus, I suppose the name change presented an accommodation to the Griselle family.

Annie and Charles Fauts separated in 1869 and after a time were divorced. He remarried and fathered three or four more children. She remained single for the rest of her long life, and by the 1890s was listed in the town Directory as "widowed". Annie and her children, Maud and Paul, lived in the household of their Griselle grandparents. Maud and Paul are listed both as Fauts and as Griselle as they matured. Their Aunt Elizabeth Griselle, M.D., who lived nearby, legally adopted them to provide them with what was considered an honorable name, Griselle. With no male heirs in this family for the Griselle name, the name change required no explanation.

[Elizabeth Falor Carducci (granddaughter of Maud Griselle VanBlaricom) email, 9 November 2010]