Scottish grandfather in France

[Rosemac]

Our families both originate in Scotland, however several came to South Africa (where I live).  We also have the Military Settlers of 1857 after the Crimean War, and one from Prussia. 


On my side of the family, I've recently discovered that my grandfather (Scottish) worked in Bordeaux, Dunkirk and Marseilles, and they lived in France for about 20 years, but I haven't a clue about doing any French research.  It can become expensive, so I tend to try to find free sites.


Any comments appreciated

[jorose]

Hi there,

What sort of information were you hoping to find? If he had children born in France or married there, you may be able to find bmds - some are online. Usually online records are through the departmental archives - so Gironde archives for Bordeaux ( http://gael.gironde.fr/ ), Nord archives for Dunkirk/Dunkerque (http://www.archivesdepartementales.cg59.fr/?id=archives_online ), and Bouches-du-Rhône archives for Marseilles (http://doris.archives13.fr/dorisuec/jsp/login.jsp )

In most cases there is no name search - the easiest way to find a record is to check the Tables décennales (ten year indexes) for the place and obtain the date/page reference there so you can find it in the original documents.  This makes searching difficult if you don't know the exact location (e.g. if family stories say 'Dunkirk' but the actual birthplace was a small town somewhere nearby for which the records are separate).

On the plus side, once you find the documents, they have a lot of information on them!

jorose

[quisontils]

If I can help you? I am living near of Marseille.