French Letters #NFHM2017

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There that title got your attention didn't it?  Really I will stop at nothing to get hits on this blog. ;) Just joking...

 Queensland Family History Society had an Open Day yesterday as part of National Family History Month.  It was a beautiful day and despite competing with the ever popular Ekka we had plenty of visitors and lots of people signing up.  Hoorah!

 I was delighted to see some of my friends from other parts of my life come and have look around and sign up - thank you Majella and Jeanette!

 There were prizes and booksales and discounts...what more could you ask for?


My job was to show newbies around the facilities and perhaps help them with their research a little bit.  It's always a bit scary when you ask someone about their research...will you be able to help them?  Will you be stumped?  Luckily there are so many knowledgeable folk at QFHS that I have learned to relax a bit and, if I am stumped, I just turn around and ask the person next to me for their advice.  Societies are good like that.


I was interested that two groups of people were researching ancestry in France which I don't come across very often.  It's not an area that I'm familiar with but I always tend to recommend Family Search's Wiki when I am stumped.  I do hope you know all about it.  

 And then my wise friend Sue also recommended Cyndi's List which I frequently forget - even though I have a hot link to it on my blog for goodness sake.  

 The first gentleman with French ancestry wanted to research his grandfather's death in France (near Lille).  He was concerned about being able to get any information due to his lack of French language skills. I was trying to find letter templates for him on the Family Search Wiki but was having difficulty.  

 I found a couple of books in our print library. You can search the QFHS catalogue online here.  Margaret Audin's Barking up that French Tree and French and French Canadian Research by J Konrad looked useful.  These books are a bit old I confess.  Audin's was published in 1980 and Konrad's in 1993.  There's Claire Bettag's French Genealogy Research which might be a bit more up to date; it was published in 2012.  It's available at Strathpine Library and Brisbane Square Library but is not for loan.

 Today when I looked at Cyndi's List, it was much easier to find and this particular link took me back to Family Search (of course) so...if you're interested in writing some letters to French archives or record offices - here is all the information I think you'll need.

 How's your Sunday going?  What are you doing to celebrate #NFHM2017? Do you have French ancestry?  What resources have you found helpful in your research? Have you entered the prize draw for NFHM?  Point 5 in the Terms and Conditions on this page has the critical information.

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