It could be part of my fully finished gallery but would I ever have finished searching for ancestors?
I have mentionned this project a few times but I'm ready this month to give more informations about my fully finished "timeline".
It's a gift for my grandson Timothé who just turn 15 this year!
When I was 20 I started to collect informations about my Dad's family as I didn't knew my grandparents. But I was living 400 km far from the archives which where not numerised in the 80e's, we are speaking of a dinosaurs age!
I spent some holidays in Reims with my aunt and drive to Charleville Mezieres to take a look on some registers.
But no photocopiers either so I only wrote some notes reading some certificates.
When computers gave me the opportunity to visit Archives easily I went back to get further details and kept copies from the pages.
Registers begun from 1660 approximately and I have been lucky to find them in an aera often destroyed by wars.
I reopened my files last June when I got the idea of making a timeline for my grandson, following only one line from fathers to sons and daughters!
From my Dad born in 1922 then Jean-Baptiste, Adonis, Ambroise, Jean-Nicolas fils, Jean-Nicolas père, Simon, Pierre et Jean (around 1633).
I made a simple table with links to historical marks and events just to provide Timothé to think that Louis XVIII was watching television or that trains already existed in the 17th century.
page 1
I found no less then five ways to write my name, lovely old firstnames as : Rigobert, Athanaze, Onérime, Théodor, Ildéphonse for men
or Ismérie, Artémise, Sophronie for women
I even discovered that my great great aunt was named Marie Pacifique!
A lot of laborers, weavers, sawyer,
Infant and youth mortality sadly fills all those books too.
I struggled with the Revolutionary Calendar used in France between 1792 and 1810, changing the names of months, the number of days in a week to 10 and the year from year I to year XI.
Hard too to deciphy writing, the spelling mouving along the years
I must say that it was very interesting to cross the path of small villages lifes and families. Kind of be a witness of weddings, see sisters and brothers becoming godmothers and godfathers. Watch laws that evolved over the centuries.
I might choose another line to follow next time on my Mum side.
Je viens de terminer mes pages récapitulatives d'arbre généalogique pour faire découvrir à Timothé, qui vient d'avoir 15 ans, une des lignées familiales.
J'ai repris les notes de mes recherches initiales dans les années 80, auprès des archives départementales, sans ordinateur, sans photocopieur à l'époque. Maintenant les consultations en ligne des registres simplifient la tâche. Je peux donc vérifier les informations, les compléter et conserver des photos des documents.
De mon père né en 1922, puis Jean-Baptiste, Adonis, Ambroise, Jean-Nicolas fils, Jean-Nicolas père, Simon, Pierre et Jean (vers 1633).
C'était très interessant de croiser le chemin de ces familles dans ces villages de l'Aisne et des Ardennes. Témoin de leurs mariages, voyant les soeurs et frères devenir les marraines et parrains des enfants. Croisant la route des laboureurs, des tisserands, découvrant tous ses prénoms oubliés.
Au long des décennies, de voir l'histoire celle avec un grand H au travers des lois et des moeurs qui évoluent.
De Louis XIII à nos jours, en passant par la Révolution Française et son calendrier si particulier qui ne facilite pas les datations précises, du déchiffrage des écritures à l'orthographe des patronymes variant d'un rédacteur à l'autre.
Je reprendrai certainement mon voyage pour suivre une autre branche de mon arbre côté maternel cette fois.
.jfif)
