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Hi everyone here is some links to places that might be a good start to looking for french people.

I am researching here and have found many good sites for help.

I have found that although in french - if you are searching parish records look for the SURNAME in the records and go from there.  If I can help anyone try to decipher I will if they need it - I am not French nor do I speak it very well - I am self taught to look at the records.

In researching my french family, I found these records on line and from Huguenot society and from others whom have Cd's I don't...  I have also shared and had much help from lots of different people -  Now - Ancestry.co.UK has these records coming on-line and it is making it easier, although you do have to subscribe -  I subscribe when I need to research more through them, other wise I am researching outside of it.

   I have found that once you have a baptism record, for example 9/10 they will give the fathers place of origin -  mine for example gave me 'mouvaux proche de l'isle'   In the old days the PLACE 'Lille' was spelt 'L'isle' - all this I have found out whilst researching -  You will also find that the earlier you get in your research the harder it gets -  as in Europe as many know France was at war -  in the beginning 'LILLE' was in the Netherlands- it became Spanish and then french..  it is in the place called   Pas De Calais.    I am not going to go into the different communes of France as there are so many to look at..   

My Research name is De SAINT-JEAN -  I am using this as explanation -  you will find in France a lone there are LOTS and LOTS of this family name - noble families, working families, and more besides,  and no they are not linked.  You will also find that as the French were very Catholic at the time -  there are parts of France that changed to the Protestant faith - for reasons I am not going into here, to much information -  You have to look EVERYWHERE - and all places to find what you are looking for -  look at ALL variants of the name you are looking for -  take one place at a time and work from there.  It takes a long long time but it is worth it in the end.

Also remember because of the Protestant religion - these people often moved their families around - 9/10 they ended up either in Leiden - UK, jersey, Guernsey, Ireland, and sometimes further a field if they could get there.   I have also been informed recently -  that back in the mid C16th moving around was often done by river more than road ways..  also that the records for C1600 and before are very, very limited because of the religious wars an awful lot have been destroyed - and not many survive prior to this date.  There were more or less three different lots of people moving out of France -  late C1500's  early C1600  mid C1600 was a huge move for a lot of people, because of the Edict of Nantes.    Also - there were some of our noble families who asked some people to come to England because of the beautiful work they produced. 


hope this is all useful to some people whom are looking in France...

Private message me if you have a question I may be able to help 

sj


Here is a list of links:

http://www.archivesdepartementales.lenord.fr/

this site is very good if you know what place you want.  for EG:- I wanted 'Mouvaux' so i click the
accept conditions first 'j'ai accepte condtitions' -  then on entry you want ARCHIVES EN LIGNE  found top right

in the box that opens  on the LEFT hand side in the orange click ETAT CIVIL

then click  in the   middle section   Actes d'état civil this gives records from around C1600 onwards

in the COMMUNE box  choose your place..

It can be very disorientating at first - but once done a few times it will become 2nd nature.


http://www.archivespasdecalais.fr/

http://www.lillechatellenie.fr/porte/

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/        family Bodine

http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/Vismes.htm#French_family       de visme  family

http://www.lillechatellenie.fr/cms/index.html      (contracts of marriage if you know the name from LILLE)

http://notairesdartois.voila.net/                    these charge

http://www.archive.org/stream/ourparishbooksw00cowpgoog#page/n148/mode/2up      overseers book Holy Cross West gate Canterbury

reading of historical things:-

http://www.pipeline.com/~cwa/Wittstock_Phase.htm

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communes_du_Pas-de-Calais              communes pas de calais

https://archive.org/stream/historyoffrenchw00burn#page/4/mode/2up     History of french and walloons in England

http://www.brh.org.uk/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/THE-SPITALFIELDS-SILK-WEAVERS.pdf

Hi Guys My tree with ancestry is public -  I did have it private -   

I always ask someone if I can have a copy of a picture or that if it is required and I have found many family members contacting me through it as well.. I did have a couple of times when I didnt know how to use the SHARE button - I do now...   and it always shows where the pictures or documents originates from..

I am considering making it private - because I have found that I am the only one whom has gone way way back,  through genuine hard research...   and some have copied as their own and that makes me sad..  But the contacts that have come to me or I can go to is amazing,  so where do you draw the line..  learn and share? or be alone?    Sharing I have found is a boon - but I wish I could make 'my work' my own -  or shown to be 'my own' if you understand me?   I have no qualms with sharing never have -   but to 'take' someones work -  that you didnt want to know in the 1st place,  until proven, I think is a but cat!   I wish you could lock it somehow...or mark it someway-   but there we go..  research is thus I suppose...

sj

Hi   I am also dealing with Huguenot and Wallons.   I have traced my family to Bethnal green to start with.   From here I used family stories and little bits of family chatter to broaden my horizons.

The reason?   Well the reason was the family believed that they were the Noble St John's and thought they had ties to the Lydiard Tregoze side of them.  Through much and many months research I found this simply not the way it was.

Through a little untold story on the family, one of my great grandfathers,  was always called the 'Little frenchman'.  Now i had this in my mind and I didnt even link it when I found the family name of a person, whom was Married as St John, BUT, on re looking at the marriage I saw that they married in the french Chapel in London..  the other fact was the brides name..  after researching I found looking at research alone,  I traced them to Canterbury all of a sudden everything clicked together.. births baptisms marriages - After getting the Canterbury CD from the Huguenot Society, I patiently went through the records and there they all were.. I have now moved Above 1712, and found my 9th Great Grandfather - 

When searching through the CD I found him in the registers and from this I found his 2nd marriage, which also told me from whence he had came to Canterbury in the UK.  I am now in France - North of France - researching for Him and his mother and father..  with the greatest of difficulty through language...  I have found that the area he was in Mouvaux, Lille, was a Protestant area, besides all this it was on the border with Belguim and the Netherlands, which part of were once Dutch, which leads to the other side of Huguenots the Walloons..

The point?   The  Huguenot Society has a lot of info, that I wish I could get all of it -  but I do have now the, Canterbury CD and the Threadneedle street CD -  all have been so helpful thus far.

Also Spellings...   WOW -  this can cause such confusion -  it helps to have a notebook to hand to see the difference in these.  My family are actually St Jean ( English - St John)  BUT there are several variations on the spellings if this simple name.   I have Monnier which is also spelt differently, as well as Hagnere, or hangnery,  Le sedt, Sedt -   all these can cause much confusion.   

The ;De St Jean's; as their name was - started to change in 1712ish when the younger children decided to be more in keeping with the English, their choice of religion also started to change as well which I have noted  - 

In the end I have arrived at between C1600 - C1613 - where I know more or less my 9th Great grandfather was born.   His 1st marriage was around C1628 when he had his 1st child in C1629.

The Younger 'De  St Jean's' moved to Spitalfeilds in the late 1680's - and were around that area and Bethnal Green..  Even today I can tell you that the majority of the family have either stayed in and around London and also Canterbury  Kent..  How strange is that!!

I can give links to sites I have found to help with research...  and  if anyone can help me I would also be grateful of help and pointers...

sj