Xxxx - Manage blockages in genealogy

Small precise to learn how to get around obstacles in genealogy and raise your family tree.

Genealogy is not for everyone. You have to have a detective soul and accept the constraints that practice requires. So yes, it's true, we will necessarily miss time to put our paper tree online, to decipher decades of 17th century registers or to move directly to the departmental archives.

A first name, a date of birth or marriage, a place, information on a parent or on children, we may already know a lot, at one point, it blocks. And with all that, inevitably, inevitably even, we end up lacking courage.

Mais pas de panique ! Nous vous proposons une petite liste (non exhaustive) de sources et astuces utiles – des rappels pour certains et des idées pour d’autres : 

 Échanger avec ses proches

It is often recommended to start with that and even if it is already done, a quick phone call for new tracks can quickly refresh the memory!

 Find out in town hall or departmental archives

Useful to find a particular act or to have confirmation of the absence of archives (destroyed or lost). 

 Consult population censuses

Provided you know the place of life, you can then reduce the dates fork for the desired individual. 

Consult the ancestor's registration sheet

This makes it possible to find the date and place of birth, as well as the date of death (if he died in service or before his 50 years). We can even find annotations on his physique, his military exploits as well as the conditions for a possible death.

Search for children and their weddings

Wedding acts are very often the keys to the mystery since there are a lot of information (the parents of the spouses, whether they are alive or not, the municipalities of origin and the witnesses, often family members or close friends). We can then apprehend a fork of dates for a birth as well as "roughly" from the place of life of the ancestor sought.

Rechercher les lieux de vie des personnes de la famille qui ne sont pas dans la filiation directe

Again, this can give indications in an approximate place of life for a sought -after ancestor. 

Consult the notarial archives

A mine of information! Inventories after death, donations, marriage contracts, wills, succession tables and absences ... Immerse yourself in the heart of the life of your ancestors. 

 Consult the naturalization file (with decree number) of a foreign ancestor

 Go to cemeteries and read epitaphs

Ideal for a Sunday walk, but especially to find missing dates or names, photos and even tracks (brothers/sisters unknown so far, cousins, uncles and aunts ...) 

Consulter les registres des hôpitaux/hospices des grandes villes environnantes

Consult the electoral lists

Attention toutefois aux dates, une large moitié du monde, les femmes et les militaires, n’a pas toujours pu voté  - à partir de 1944 pour les femmes et 1945 pour les militaires en France. 

Do research in the old press

The local old press has often been digitized and made available on the sites of the departmental archives. Also be aware that you can do a quick nominal search in the search engines of Gallica and Google Books (tested and approved!) 

Research on local and national historical events

Take into account the profession of the ancestor

Il existe des registres particuliers pour certains métiers (ex : chemins de fer).

 Faire des recherches dans les cartes postales proposées en ligne (payantes ou non)

Et si malgré tout cela, vous êtes toujours bloqué.e, pensez aux choses suivantes :

• Contournez l’ancêtre sur lequel vous bloquez en faisant des recherches sur ses frères et sœurs et/ou ses enfants pour trouver de nouvelles informations.  
• Pay attention to spelling (very common) family names. Also pay attention to legal change, on civil status, named after an ancestor, it happened!  
• Also pay attention to the changes of first names, that of civil status is not always the usual first name, that given to baptism.
• Some places have also changed their names over the centuries. 
• Compare the signatures of your ancestors to the acts of the same era.

And finally, it's obvious but all the same: 

Check, check and check - The oral information of a contemporary, the information in the decennial tables as well as that presents on the online genealogical trees.

Take a step back!

Good research! 

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