While their base of operations was in Paris, the family's roots is in the Auvergne region of France.

Of Antoine's and Catherine Marion de Druy's 20 children, only ten would survive childhood- but 9 of them would become involved in the Port-Royal projects, going on variously to become poets, authors, translators, monks etc.

1591, d. 1661) would become an abbess of the Port-Royal Cistercian house, where she is remembered for her reforms (prompted by St. Francis de Sales).

1612, d. 1694), who spent his efforts on attacking the Jesuits from his position in the Sorbonne, while his elder brother (and sister of Madeleine) Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, (b.

1588, d. 1674) spent his life at the Port-Royal translating texts and writing noted religious poetry.