Since we first wrote this post, fifteen years ago, much has changed, and we have updated the post accordingly. If you do not wish to read about our visit to the old facility, skip down to the 2024 Update. ***... Read more →
We have received a query by e-mail from Madame Y, the response to which we think might be of interest to all. "What documentation was necessary to marry during the war in France?" This has entailed a bit of research... Read more →
What on earth is it about the baby-selling racket that so appeals to Catholic institutions? The subject is in the news again, (watch this clip on France 24) this time in Belgium and it concerns us because the people of... Read more →
The English section of Radio France presents a regular podcast "Spotlight on France". It gives pithy and perky summaries of the events of the day, with occasional fillers of historical or cultural interest. A recent edition contains something of interest... Read more →
From Monsieur E, we have received the most astonishing of responses to our series attempting to identify Marie Fouyol. He sends us a beautifully told and well-researched study of a lovely sampler by Marie Fouyol's daughter. Read on. Fanny Mansell’s... Read more →
If you have been researching your French ancestors for quite some time, you almost certainly will have come across a birth register entry on which the father was not named, père non dénommé. The father may have been present when... Read more →
Years ago, when we were enjoying a lazy afternoon in the Arsenal branch of the Bibliothèque nationale, we came across some remarkable and fascinating lists of women prisoners sent to Louisiana in the early eighteenth century. We knew there was... Read more →
We have been extremely busy, Dear Readers, working with a wonderful set of passenger lists from the early nineteenth century. Though England and France were at war from 1803 to 1815 (with a small break for a tenuous victory), travel... Read more →
Dear Readers, let us take a moment to step away from the ChallengeAZ to look at a topic that we find most curious and well worthy of further study - by someone else. A few years ago, we wrote a... Read more →
To summarize, Dear Readers, we have looked at our few records in a number of ways in an effort to find the origins of Marie Fouyol: We have analyzed the Paris baptisms of three of her children, the burial record... Read more →