Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
Erin:
Hope you will look at this site after 15 months or more.
Your people were from Alsace-Lorraine, the two provinces on the French-German border which were bounced back and forth between the two countries during the 19th century. You have to remember that in the 1840's and 1850's, France had just finished with Napoleon and was a (temporary) royal state again under Louis XVIII. Germany was NOT a country as we know it now; it was a group of principalities (counties, districts, zones, etc.) that were brought together around 1870 by Otto von Bismarck when he united them in a new federation for the first time (and took Alsace-Lorraine away from France for a little while).
Look at some of the following sources of info for family details: **NOTE: some of these sources may charge a FEE.
YOU WILL LIKELY NEED TO BUY 3 TO 5 INTERNATIONAL REPLY CARDS (IRC's) FROM YOUR POST OFFICE TO SEND WITH YOUR REQUEST. THEY MAY NOT REPLY IF YOU DO NOT SEND the IRC's.
The maps called “Cartes administratives” will give you the different “départements” (counties/provinces - total 100) in France. With a regular size map, you will not get all 36,000 towns in France. Regional maps also exist with “guides for travel” maps.
Don't send stamps or IRC since this service is provided for free for records less than 100 years old. If you are making enquiries about records or family research older than 100 years, don't forget to send 3 International Reply Cards (buy them at a post office) for the response.
Centre Départemental d'Histoire des Familles
5, place Saint-Léger
68500 GUEBWILLER (ALSACE)
FRANCE
Tél: (+33-3) 8962.1240
The director is Monsieur A. Ganter
E-mail: - cdhf@telmat-net.fr - ask him first if your enqiry should go through France or Germany. Website - http//cdhf.telmat-net.fr/ - Please contact him directly by e-mail or post, he hasn't enough time to look at the forum. Don't forget to buy and send the IRC for the postal reply.
French Genealogy - - http://www.urec.cnrs.fr/annuaire - or - http://www.worldnet.fr/ - start researching in France
- http://www.genealogie.com/rech-fr/welcome.html - is a guide in English for family research in France.
NOTE: Mairies (city halls) don't have all records. They are only required to do research for you when records are less than 100 years old. Most of the older records are in the département's archives and they will not do any research for you. You can try to put a message on the -fr.rec.genealogy- forum to ask for help, or pay a professional researcher to do the research for you.
Laurent Desché, Président de la Bibliothèque Généalogique d'Orléans, is related to Queen Elizabeth II and King Juan Carlos of Spain. Part of his website - http://perso.cybercable.fr/bgorlean - is in English.
Laurent Desché
Bibliothèque Généalogique d'Orléans
29, rue Porte Saint-Jean
45000 ORLEANS - France
You might want to try a letter in French (use the following words and phrases):
père - father grandpère - grandfather né - born (male)
mère - mother grandmère - grandmother née - born (female)
fils - son neveu - nephew marié - married (m)
fille - daughter nièce - niece mariée - married (f)
enfant - child oncle - uncle mort - died (male)
enfants - children tante - aunt morte - died (female)
naissance = birth mariage = marriage décès = death
janvier - January juillet - July
février - (February) août - August
mars - March septembre - September
avril - April octobre - October
mai - May novembre - November
juin - June décembre - December
EXAMPLE: (on) (MONTH) 1st = le 1er (MONTH in French)
EXAMPLE: (on) (MONTH) 2nd (or any number after that)
= le (2, 3, 4, etc.) (MONTH in French)
EXAMPLE: on August 15, 1842 = le 15 août 1842
SAMPLE OF LETTER TO FRANCE (if possible, run it by a person who writes French) ** YOU SHOULD ONLY ASK ABOUT ONE EVENT (birth, marriage, death) PER POSTAL CARD THAT YOU SEND. THEY WILL NOT DO MULTIPLE LOOK-UPS AND PUT IT ALL ON ONE CARD FOR YOU.
Monsieur l'officier d'état-civil,
MARRIAGE INFO:
Je désire obtenir une copie intégrale de l'acte de mariage de mon/ma (relationship to you) (first name + surname) marié[e] (full date “le ...” or year “en ...” ) avec (first name + surname).
BIRTH or DEATH INFO:
Je désire obtenir une copie intégrale de l'acte de (naissance, décès) de mon/ma (relationship to you) (first name + surname)
USE THIS PARAGRAPH ONLY FOR PARIS:
Ne sachant pas dans quel arrondissement a eu lieu (cette naissance, ce mariage, ce décès), j'adresse un courrier identique aux autres mairies de Paris.
Avec mes meilleures salutations,
(your signature and printed name here)
**DON'T FORGET YOUR FULL RETURN ADDRESS
_______________________________
European Countries - http://s700.uminho.pt/europa.html - click on map of most countries in Europe (including the Balkans) - Find out a bit more about your ancestor's country of origin.
AltaVista International Search Network - http://www.altavista.com/av/content/av_network.html - AltaVista has partnered with sites in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America, Northern and Southern Europe, as well as the US. Our international network lets you take advantage of AltaVista's vast Web index with regional Internet connections. The AltaVista Web index features pages from across the World Wide Web, in 25 different languages.
German Genealogy Home Page - http://www.rootsweb.com/~wggerman/ - Click on map of Germany’s 16 Bundesländer (states) and German areas in 7 other countries. Find that elusive ancestor in Germany - a good German research site
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/bernard/messages/349.html | ||
 |
Agreement of Use Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|