Bonjour à tous
Let me introduce myself. My name is Laura Hootman Edwards. I’ve been passionately addicted to French genealogy since 1998. It’s in my blood. And I’ll tell you why. It started with my father. You can’t keep secrets from an inquisitive and nosey daughter.
I will be turning 69 years old in December. The younger crowds, think I’m ancient and near death. The older crowds think my age bracket consists of rowdy youngsters.
I was born in Coronado, California, USA. Since my father was in the US Navy, my family moved to one Naval base to another, including one in Japan. After he left the military, we still moved every two years or so because of contract work with companies until we landed in Idaho. I lived there for 16 years, My travel claim to fame is as living several states in the ‘Northern Rocky’ region, in the North East, on the West Coast, and in the South of the United States. I understand each of those states ‘dialect’ and culture. My husband and I now live in West Virginia, though my heart is in Tennessee.
I’ve been married two times, and have 6 grown children; 3 sons, and 3 daughters. I had an additional son named ‘Benji’ who died in 1982 at the age of 7, of bacterial meningitis. I still miss him very much, and wonder if he would be bald like my three other sons !
I became a Born Again Christian in 1983, and love my Lord Jesus with all my heart. I taught Sunday school for years, but I was drawn to those who were suffering and suffered from a lost of a child. From then on I made the decision to homeschool my younger
What I knew
My father’s maternal grandfather’s name was Jules Nicolle, and he was French, his great grandmother’s name was Justine Morenier (spelled in several different ways) was from Belgium. My grandmother, Mathilda Nicolle, was born in Upper Peninsula, Michigan and had several brothers and a sister. But other than that, nother. My father would not divulged anything about his mother’s life or what happened to her. As I said abover, You can’t leave it at that with a curious and nosey daughter.
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. I was hoping to find death, probate, marriage, birth, ships lists, schools, newspaper clippings hoping it would led me to more information of ancestors that seemed to have been living under rocks. 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.. Surprisingly, I uncovered direct ancestors were also rooted in Belgique.
After all the years of nitty gritty research, I finally found out about my grandmother, her parents, her siblings and where they came from. Sadly, the family faced hardships and suffered many tragedies. Diseases, infant deaths, suicides, skeletons in the closet, and what we now know as mental illnesses were constant reminders of life as they know it. I believe their home life was of a toxic family structure. How do I know? Descendents of Jules’ first wife talked about how cruel Justine was to her step-children. A young daughter marrying an much older man, then moving to Saskatchewan as soon as posible. Two “disappearing uncles” of my father, who left Michigan to be heard of no more. I was informed later from documents I procured they didn’t want to have anything more of the family. Very sad.
(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 wanted to start a French Genealogy Website, and to my astonishment, there were only 2 or 3 French Genealogy websites available in search results pages. A definite need here. I wanted to spare my fellow sojourners as much headaches and frustration as possible.by sharing what I have learned and what has worked: How-to tutorials, how to equip yourself with the tools, resources, articles, what kind of records there are, and how to find them. I’ve created navigational guides through difficult documents and websites, and my site has continued to expand beyond that. So the later part of of 2009, I registered the domain ‘Genealoft.com’ and named my new website ‘Researching French Ancestry” and added 8 or 9 tutorials for finding, examining and deciphering French Civil and Parish records.
Then, the worst happened, my website was hacked into, and every html page I worked so hard on was lost. I think it took a year of on and off work to get it back up again.
As I added more pages and tutorials to make researching French genealogy easier, it had became apparent I was hyper focused on helping others with their research and success, that nothing else existed. So I registered a French focus domain; frenchgen.com and 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 one 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!