KELSEN Nicolas

KELSEN was born in Ehnen on 3 March 1820.
KELSEN’S father, Mathias, born on 8 September 1790 in Sehndorf (on the German side of the Moselle, close to Schengen), was a Weingärtner. KELSEN’s mother, Marie CALMON (CALMAN, KALMON, CALIN), born in Luxembourg-city on 2 January 1798, was of French origin; she was the daughter of a sergent major of the French army stationed at the time in Luxembourg.
KELSEN’s father died in 1831; he was then a cafetier in Ehnen. The KELSEN family is not mentioned in the Wormeldange/Ehnen Census of 1843 (the first Census available).
The 1847 Census, however, situates the KELSEN family in Echternach.
It is not known when and to where the family later moved but, according to the1847 Echternach Census, Nicolas had joined the French army contingent stationed in Echternach and held the rank of sergent.
By 1851 Nicolas KELSEN was living in Paris. About that time he must have married Dorothée MEYER. The couple KELSEN-MEYER had 6 children, born in Paris between 1851 and 1868.
Nicolas worked as cocher (1851), ébéniste (1868-1881). In 1871 he took part in the so-called Commune, the popular insurrection of Paris against the French Government (see Addendum).
The “Maitron” database contains the following information about KELSEN:

Il avait été condamné le 1er février 1867, à Paris, à 25 f d’amende pour outrages à agents. Capitaine, sous la Commune de Paris, au 238e bataillon fédéré, il fut condamné par contumace, le 29 octobre 1872, par le 6e conseil de guerre, à la déportation dans une enceinte fortifiée. Il fut amnistié en 1879.

It is not known where Nicolas resided in the years 1872 to 1879.
Nicolas KELSEN (cocher) died in Paris in 1887.

FamilySearch database (G4C3-L94)