Genealogie

I am learning French.

The genealogie way! LOL

It is funny that my daughter just began taking French in high school, as I just began "taking" French in genealogy. I'm working on my dear husband's family lines and, as I often do, I like to look at the oftentimes neglected maternal lines.

I think the push came because it was time to renew my membership to ancestry.com and they came at me with a much lower cost for their super-duper-world wide records access plan and it was only about $25 more than the regular plan for a year, so I decided to do it. I figured, well, I will see what I can do with my family lines as well as Tony's lines. Yeah, there's not a lot on ancestry for either one of us across the pond.

However, it made me start looking at what information I do have and looking for information. And I discovered that, in fact, there is the Archives Departementales online that has loads of information. However, it is not indexed. You must go page by page and dig... Yes, you have to *gasp* do good old genealogy research just like the old days. The good thing is, you can do it at home in your pajamas with music playing in the background! LOL There is a 1906 Census, Marriages, Births, and Deaths, in 10 year chunks. Luckily, it is alphabetized, so you're not having to go by year. http://www.archivesdepartementales.cg59.fr

Another wonderful site for the area I'm working in - Dunkerque - is:
http://www.gennpdc.net/ It is: Les forums de genealogistes du Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Especially helpful for me has been this page:
http://www.gennpdc.net/releves/tab_mari.php?args=Dunkerque

It is refreshing to see people helping people.

I love doing genealogy. I love the research, the looking, the finding, the connecting. Now, if I can just find pictures of some of these people to "flesh out" the names and dates and places. :-) That would be the icing on the cake!

I wish you happy searching and finding in your genealogy pursuits,
Dece