He was born on April 8, 1761 in Périgueux, a town that is 140 km from the castle of Trenquelléon. So, Adela and William Joseph were not only born in distant places, but Father Chaminade was 28 years older than Adele.
Blaise Chaminade and Catherine Bethon already had a very large family, but they received with great joy their fourteenth son: William. His father worked in the guild of glaziers for a while. He was an artist, William inherited some of that artist inclination, but when Blaise married, he took care of his wife’s family business, a fabric trade. Today we would say that the Chaminade family belonged to the middle class. The two older brothers had left to be religious and Lucretia, Francis, Luis and the newborn William remained at home. The other brothers died when they were small.
Parents were very concerned about the education of their children; it was not easy in those years in the middle of French Revolution. His parents and brothers loved William a lot, they all taught him something: to pray, to think, to sing, to play, to obey and to strive to get what he wanted. In Périgueux you could only learn to read, write and little else. In order to continue his studies they sent him to the school of San Carlos de Mussidan, where his brother Joseph Baptist was priest and professor and his brother Luis was student.
The years in the school were fundamental for William, he learned a lot from his professors also his brothers.
Los años en el colegio fueron fundamentales para Guillermo, por lo que aprendió de todos sus profesores, y también de sus hermanos.