If you're interested in Huguenot history, check out the November 2009 issue of "Family History" magazine. There is a great article entitled "The French Connection." that details Huguenot history in Great Britain. The estimated 250,000 of them married into the populace after arriving there in the 1500s and 1600s and it is now reported that 80% of the UK population has Huguenot blood.
There is an excellent synopsis of the persecution of Huguenots in France that caused them to scatter to places as widely diverse as the "new colonies" that became America, to Africa. The writer references the book, Days of the Upright, a History of the Huguenots, in describing the meaning of the word "Huguenot":
"It is a combination of a Flemish and a German word....In the Flemish corner of France, Bible students who gathered in each other's houses to study secretly were called Huisgenooten, or 'House Fellows', while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed Eidgenossen or 'Oath Fellows. Gallicized into Huguenot, often used deprecatingly, the word became, during two and half centuries of terror and triumph, a badge of enduring honour and courage.'
The magazine is published in London, England. I found my copy in the Barnes and Noble store in Eugene, Oregon.
