Vive la France!

It’s a funny thing…but you never, ever know where genealogy will take you!  For this reason—in my opinion—there is no other pursuit in the world that is more exciting.   This week I spent a lot of time delving into France—an area of research I had never encountered until now.  Thanks to a patron with a most interesting family story I was able to discover some of the richest areas for genealogical research in the world. 

Our particular patron explained that she would like to plan a trip to France this year in order to reconnect with her ancestors. Could I help her find some things about her family?  I promised I would give it a try.   She is a first generation American.  Her mother was born in Brest, France, and her father was born in London, England.  They met many years ago in England.   She was especially interested in finding the truth behind her grandfather’s story.  Armed with a box of vintage French military medals, she had an idea of where they had come from, but she really wasn’t sure.  And there was this certain fondness she had for the grandfather these medals had belonged to…especially after knowing that he had survived a Japanese prisoner of war camp where he had been kept in a bamboo cage and tortured.  He certainly was a brave man and a fighter.    Her grandmother’s story was just as sad as she had found herself thousands of miles away from home with two children in the midst of war-torn Indochina.  Her seventeen year old son had the misfortune of developing a brain tumor during this time.  It would have been operable except for the fact that they were in the midst of an invasion and with no medical care.  The young man died and his family was never able to forget the tragedy of his death. 

Quite frankly, I had no idea where to begin.  Of course, initially I used our regular go-to sites (www.ancestry.com , www.familysearch.org and www.google.com) but the first two really were not showing any great results.  We decided to narrow things down and look for the origins of the medals that had belonged to her French grandfather.  Maybe that would get us somewhere.  Google Image searches were excellent for this.  We typed in “French Military Decorations” and some of the words which were etched onto the medals themselves.  These searches brought up images and we were able to figure all of the medals out but one.  Most were from WWI but as her grandfather had served with the French Customs in Indochina during the 1940’s this confused her.  Plus, there was one medal which is quite unique.  Beautiful and colorful it is written in an Oriental script.   This one has proven to be more difficult to figure out.  At this point I think I will try and find someone who has more knowledge of French medals as I am stumped.   The question that stumped her the most, however, was:  why did her grandfather have all of these medals from WWI?  She thought he had only served during the WWII era and in the French colonies.  Could these WWI medals belong to him or were they his father’s medals?  We did find a record in the Memoires de Hommes, Mort pour la France, that reveal a man with the same name who died in Belgium during WWI.  As we had no birth or death dates during our reference meeting, we were not sure if this could be her great grandfather.  Of course her grandfather could have indeed fought in both wars.  But then who was this poor man (with the same name) who died on a battlefiled in Belgium? 

When our patron left and I was able to spend more time searching for French records, I ran into the wonderful Archives de France.  Apparently, the French have been preparing for us!  I was overwhelmed with the resources available.  But because of the language barriers—if you do not have a working knowledge of French—you may want to use Google to translate the web pages.  Of course, the actual digitized images are in French so you are on your own at this point! Luckily I was able to muster up some old high school French.   I did some general French searches by surname and then narrowed it down to region.  Each region has different records digitized.  As I was focusing on Brest—I found there were 21 different record types in Brest which include parish, civil, military, cemetery records and much more.    If you don’t already have Java installed on your computer, you may have to download it at this time.  Java is a programming language necessary to have in your computer to access the records in Archives En Ligne—it’s free and safe and easy to download.  These records are not indexed so you will have to scroll through the pages in search of what you are looking for.  If you have a date—it will be much easier—as the books are ledgers and information has been added through time.  Just my quick searches with the scant information I had brought me to the family name.  Hopefully when she works through these searches she will find the records she needs. 

As I had finished browsing for our patron’s family names, I found myself unable to leave a certain database, Memory of Men Who Died for France.  This type of database is much more than a “database.”  It’s one of those storehouses of information that genealogists often lose themselves in.  The Archives recently added 1.3 million records, “Mort Pour La France.”  It’s the story of the 1.3 million men who lost their lives for France during WWI.  It’s not just names and dates.  These notations are the stories of real men’s lives lost on battlefields.  And sadly, the story of the ends of many, many family lines.  But thankfully, the fact that these records are now digitized has made it possible to bring these men back to life.    If the man we found is actually our patron's great grandfather, maybe finding him will finally put some ghosts to rest. 

If you are interested in French genealogy here are some tips on using the Archives de France and some other helpful websites.  Bon Voyage!

For general French research: 

Go to:  Archives de France at  www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr/

*Or if you need it in English, type “Archives de France” into Google and click on “Translate this page”

*Plan du site—Sitemap

*Online Resources

*Databases

*Genealogy

*Put in name

*Check results

*Results with camera icon show actual record

For particular area in France search also at www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr/ 

*Look under “Online Resources”

*“Archives Digitized and Available Online”

*Map of France

*Choose: Brest (for example)

*Archives En Ligne

*Digitized Records (on left)

*(You may have to download Java—if you don’t already have it—programming language necessary to have in your computer to access the records in Archives En Ligne—it’s free and safe and easy to download)

*21 different record types for Brest (including parish, civil, military, cemetery and more)

*“Voire le register” click on this to view record

*"Voir la vue"—view page

*Not indexed, so you must have general idea of time period and browse

For the Memory of Men Who Died for France Database go to:   www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/

*WWI

*Died for France

*Search Form (to search by name)

Other helpful websites for French records and genealogy:

The French Genealogy Blog:  http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie/

(an excellent tool to subscribe to if you are interested in French genealogy)

Genealogie.com (Google this and then “translate this page”) about 426 million individual’s records

Genealogie.com has a military decorations section—Decorations Militaire

Guide to French Medals:

www.northeastmedals.co.uk/foreignguide/french/france_index.htm

A photograph of our patron's medal from her grandfather's service for the French government in Indochina, circa late 1940's, early 1950's

We would appreciate any information or input you may have concerning this medal.