France and French Genealogy

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Comment by Donald Noel Hagstrom on July 27, 2009 at 8:54am

Is Haute Loire close to Paris? I have no documents I know of. Like I said, Capt. Archer seemed to want to hide his past. Paris was listed on my great grandmother's 1948 death certificate as her father's place of birth. It was probably put there by her daughter who had heard it from her mother and grandfather. By the time I had heard about it from my father, it had escalated into something to do with the French royal family. Since this was the 1840's well after the French Revolution, I'm sure it was just a (ex) nobiltiy/duel thing. A 3rd cousin I found told me about the duel, but I don't know what else he knows. He seems to think the cousin didn't actually die, and I'm not sure how he heard that.

Comment by A.M. on July 27, 2009 at 1:38am

Donald and Debra,

Without a location for a birth/baptism or marriage, it will be hard to find your ancestors. You really need to por over old documents, letters, photos, Bibles, to try to get a place, as all records are organized by place and still held locally by region.

If you read my blog about how to use geopatronym.com, you might get lucky:

http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie/2009/05/the-first-question-you-must-answer-is-where.html

Donald, a search shows a heavy concentration of Archers in the departement of Haute Loire. I would recommend starting there, looking for newspper articles on a duel. Have you the name of the ship on which your ancestor arrived?

Debra,
Everhart looks more German than French, so I tried a search on Eberhardt and got a number by that name in Bas-Rhin. Your Caroline seems too young to have been among the optants (see my blog on Alscae-Lorraine:
http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie/2009/06/alsace-genealogy.html

It also has a link to the departmental archives of Bas-Rhin.
Hope this helps!

Comment by Debra Egbert-Foster on July 26, 2009 at 1:02pm

I'm looking for the parnets of Caroline Everhart. She was born 24 Aug, 1826 in France and died 30 Nov, 1881 in Wayne County, Iowa. Caroline married Franklin D. Haner. Franklin was born 15 Aug 1821 in Germany and died 20 Oct 1891 Wayne County, Iowa.

Comment by Donald Noel Hagstrom on July 24, 2009 at 10:31pm

And of course, my great grandmother died in 1948, not 1848. Keep hitting the wrong keys.

Comment by Donald Noel Hagstrom on July 24, 2009 at 8:15pm

Sorry, I meant Shaftsbury Vermont.

Comment by Donald Noel Hagstrom on July 24, 2009 at 8:14pm

Pam, yes I do. He was known as Jonathan W. Archer when he married my GG grandmother in Shaftsbury, NY. Same name on my great grandmother's birth record in Gloucester, MA, and he claimed birth in Plattsburgh, NY. On 1860 census in Gloucester, b. NY; 1870 in Saugatuck, MI, b. NY; John W. Archer in Chicago, 1880, b. NY. But when my great grandmother died in 1848 (FL), they put her father as Capt. John W. Archer, born in Paris, France, which is what everyone in the family said he told them. When his daughters appear as adults, they list their father's birthplace as France. I'm thinking maybe his name was something like Jean Archer in France. The Archer surname does appear in France.

Comment by Donald Noel Hagstrom on July 24, 2009 at 4:31pm

Hello, all,
I have one ancestor, a great great grandfather who it is claimed fled France after a fatal duel with a cousin. He arrived in upstate New York and Vermont about 1848. He was careful to never let authorities know he originated in France, but all of his daughters passed the stories down to their children. But now it seems impossible to prove and trace him back to France. If true, that would make me 1/16 French. It has been a goal of mine for 50 years to trace this elusive ancestor.

Comment by Shirley Vildibill on July 20, 2009 at 12:15pm

Hi Ann, Thanks for the information. That was nice of you to go to the trouble. I have to tell you that early in my marriage I was told the name was Dutch and someone said they had seen it written somewhere Ville de Bille. So you may very well be correct...it's always been a mystery. Information from several people that knew my husbands grandfather said that he was "a little frenchmen".
In tracing this family I did finally find that they came from France...as you already know. The ships records (SS Henri IV) leaving France spell it Vildibille and the record from the port of New York spelled it Vildebille.
The Archives site was recommended to me before but I've had much trouble with it. At first it wouldn't translate for me and now it's not accepting my user name and password and I don't see a place to enter a new one. :(
I was in contact with a gentleman that had the name Vildibille on his family tree. Although he knew nothing about those families he gave me a list of names from Dung...most of them Vildibille but also a Vilditbille. There were several other families that I found in the US with the same spelling that so far I haven't related to ours. However all were from France and one from Montbeliard.
One day I'm sure this puzzle will be all put together. :) Thanks again for your help.
Shirley

Comment by Deborah Price on July 19, 2009 at 1:29pm

Hello, I have one ancestor who is French and the other may be French.
1. I am looking to find out what I can on Pierre Audrain who was born 1723 in Nantes, Normandy, France. We know quite a bit about his life after he arrived in America. He was active in the Revolutionary War and was instrumental in settling Pittsburgh and Detroit. He could read and write French and English, so he was educated. We are trying to find out something about his early life and why he was so well educated.

2. The other name I am looking for is Pierre Sanguinette who according to family tradition was born in Savoy around 1760. He emigrated to Northern Italy around 1787. This is all we know.

If anyone can tell me where to look for more information, that would be wonderful. My French is very, very limited so that could be a problem.

Comment by A.M. on July 19, 2009 at 12:18pm

Shirley,

The name does not seem quite right as it is spelled. Perhaps it was Ville de Bille? That makes sense gramatically (City of Bille) but not as a name. Doing a quick search on the archives site of Doubs, I looked for de Bille, and that brought up a bit. The Doubs archives do not yet have online the etats civils, but they are working on it.

I found a couple of teachers named Bille in the 1800s. There are 67 pages of the 10-year tables for the commune of Dung, from 1793-1902, if you want to search them for Bille, and de Bille. Here's how:
Go to the archives site:

http://archives.doubs.fr/

Click on "Portail de recherche"
Register with a user name and a password
Click on "Recherche guidee"
Click on "Recherche dans les documents numerises"
That brings up a search screen. In the box labeled "Partout" type Dung and click "Rechercher"
That brings one result. Click on the word "Dung"
That brings the pages of the 10 year tables for Dung.

Happy reading!

These tables refer to pages of births, marriages and deaths in the register books. They are alphabetical lists of names with the reference to the volume number and entry number. However, the actual register books are not yet online. Still, if you get this information, you can then write to the Mairie of Dung and ask for copies of the entries, if you find your ancestor, which I hope you do.

Anne

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