Background Information
In the beginning, as a child, I continually asked my father about his mother and her family. When did she died? What were her siblings name? What happened to her parents? My father would not divulged anything about his mother’s life or what happened to her. You can’t leave it at that with a curious and nosey daughter. He told me his mother’s name was Mathilda Audrienne Nicolle. She married Herald M Hootman who died in World War II. Mathilda’s father’s name was Jules Nicolle, and he was French. Mathilda’s mother’s name was Justine Morenier (spelled several different ways) was from Belgium. My father named three of his uncles as well. Yet he knew only two of them. He gave me their names and explained what happened to them.
My Journey Then Begins..
Here, in the USA, I searched and ordered every scrap of information and records I could find on my French grandmother. Since my grandmother and her siblings lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I wrote to the town clerks and state archives. However, I hoped to find records that would lead me to more information about ancestors. As Ancestry.com, FamilySearch and Geneanet continued to developed, I was able to discover records that, mercifully, opened the door to documents that would eventually lead me to the genealogical information and the towns they were born in.. With that knowledge, I was able to find French & Belgian volunteer genealogists who graciously helped me. I could not have achieved what I have without their help.
After years of nitty gritty research, I finally learned about my grandmother, her parents, her siblings, and where they came from. I found censuses and documents that place one uncle in Minnesota and trace our roots to Saskatchewan. This research showed how our family began and the places connected to our ancestry.
Sadly, the family faced hardships and suffered many tragedies. Diseases, infant deaths, suicides, skeletons in the closet, and mental illnesses were constant reminders of life as they knew it. Descendants of Jules’ first wife described how cruel Justine was to her step-children. A young daughter married a much older man, then moved to Saskatchewan as soon as possible, while two uncles left Michigan and vanished into the Minnesota landscape, never to be heard from again. It seemed they didn’t want to have anything more to do with the family too.
(Until American censuses came along that is. I found one of my grandmother’s brothers hiding out in a remote part of Minnesota.)
Consequently, after this exhaustive journey, with perseverance and help from generous volunteer genealogists and archives, I’ve been able to find most of the records from both sides of my great grandparents. Along the way, I’ve been able to recognize patterns of all genealogical information and then some, found on French records.
From Seed to Tree – My French Genealogy website and it’s Mission
I’ve now completed most of my French and Wallon Belgian family lines, some up to 13 generations tracing them across France and Belgium. Along the way, I planned to start a French Genealogy Website, and I was surprised to see only 2 or 3 French Genealogy websites in search results pages. This gap created a definite need. I aimed to spare fellow researchers from headaches and frustration by sharing what I have learned and what has worked: how-to tutorials, tools, resources, articles, the kinds of records, and how to find them. So, at the end of 2009, I registered the domain Genealoft.com, and named the site Researching French genealogy. I then combined my tutorials along with my webpage on finding genealogical records in online French departments. I decided to ditch my family tree, and uploaded it to Genealogy search page, with my family tree
Then, the worst happened, my website was hacked into, and every html page I worked so hard on was lost. It was before WordPress, so everything I had was hand-coded (for lack of a better word) in HTML. Of course, I did have everything backed up on my computer, but I think it took a year of on and off work to get enough internal fortitude to restore the back-up again.
As I added more pages and tutorials to make researching French genealogy easier, it became apparent I was hyper focused on helping others with their research and success, that nothing else existed. So I removed the family tree, and in 2010, I registered a French focus domain; frenchgen.com. I renamed the website to ‘a la French Genealogy” However, there was another established and impressive website with a similar name. I had to think of a name that would mirror the passion to help others make their way through the maze of ancestral discovery as painstakingly as possible . So, again, I renamed my website to reflect my mission: “Making French Genealogy Easier” was born.
I continue to research daily. I’ve added numerous census and military information, research tools, and continue to put together navigational guides. I write helpful and insightful articles on documents and records available online. I challenge you to dig deeper into new and extended research but in a much easier way! I do this so you don’t have to
Research Happy!
