Searching for long lost French relatives

jamiecooke

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking for some advice from anyone in the know regarding ancestory/tracing long lost relatives. My mother's maiden name is French and from what we understand her long lost relatives came from the south of France.

I've done some google searches and I can see that the name is quite common in France but is virtually unheard of here in Ireland. We are very interested in learning more about our link to France but don't know where to begin. Anyone here ever successfully traced their family tree? I find it all very fascinating. Any advice much appreciated.

J

the_syco

Perhaps search back as far as you can, and then look at what boats visited that area from France during that time?

pedroeibar1

jamiecooke wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking for some advice from anyone in the know regarding ancestory/tracing long lost relatives. My mother's maiden name is French and from what we understand her long lost relatives came from the south of France.

You do not mention when the first member of your mother’s family came here from France – was it her parent(s) or further back e.g. Huguenots?

French genealogy is much easier than in Ireland – about the only good thing the Revolution and Napoleon did was to establish an administrative system that is logical & comprehensive. Huge amounts of records are online and free. However you need to read the language. There are gaps in some records, from various wars, but generally they are easier and better than those in Ireland.

French records are organized by Departement, so you really need to know which of the 100 or so the person comes from. For example, you mention the “South of France” – the Departements with big populations there are Bouches-du-Rhone (Marseilles) and Alpes-Maritimes (Nice) and their records are online. There is a very good portal site for French genealogy HERE that will get you started - it has a translation facility built in

jamiecooke

Hey guys!

Thank you both so much for your replies! I was unsure if anyone would write back lol. I've done some more digging around and I see that the link is with the Revivation of the Edict of Nantes so I think this means they were Huguenots?
Thanks a million for the link too I will look into this!

J

pinkypinky

Do you have any proof of this already or is it just a family story?

There is a French surname in my family too but we're (notionally) RC and Huguenots were Protestants. They mostly came in the late 17th century. While my mother's dna shows a French connection, there are no paper records to connect my confirmed family tree to the 17th century so I cannot prove it.

jamiecooke

Hi Pinky Pinky,

Ya we are RC too but from what I see my mother's maiden name is of protestant origin. We were told they first came to Ireland via Cork. I really don't know much more if I'm being honest I'm just trying to join the dots really. Would love to see if we have any long distant relatives in France lol.

J

pedroeibar1

jamiecooke wrote: »

I really don't know much more if I'm being honest I'm just trying to join the dots really. Would love to see if we have any long distant relatives in France lol.

J

Not much point in asking for help if you are that vague………FWIW most of the Huguenots who came to Ireland were from La Rochelle, not from the South of France. Also, quite a few did not come directly to Ireland, many came via England. There were several waves of them, the two biggest were in the Williamite wars (officer class) and then in the early/ mid-1700’s (poorer class).

Admiral Beaufort (he of the Scale) was of Huguenot descent, his father a clergyman settled in Ireland but was born in England. The paternal grandmother of the recently deceased Captain Sir John (Jack) Leslie was of Huguenot origin, Leonie Jerome, whose ancestor left La Rochelle for the Channel Islands, then settled in England before emigrating again to the USA.

I’ve a possible connection too, but not direct, a brother of a 18th century Co. Limerick ancestor married a Guerin, a Huguenot name. However, it is equally likely that she was one of the O’Géaran family (Irish family name centred in that locality) that anglicized the name to ‘Guerin’. No records, no hope.

pinkypinky

Mine are Guerin too, although ours has an S on the end.

jamiecooke

To be honest just chancing my arm lol. Never professed to be an expert on this sort of thing so my vagueness I think can be forgiven. I just literally got the idea to explore this a bit yesterday. It's all very interesting, I'm going to try my best to learn more about the link and if there ever were any records. Many thanks for all your advice anyhow guys.

J

pedroeibar1

jamiecooke wrote: »

To be honest just chancing my arm lol. Never professed to be an expert on this sort of thing so my vagueness I think can be forgiven. I just literally got the idea to explore this a bit yesterday. It's all very interesting, I'm going to try my best to learn more about the link and if there ever were any records. Many thanks for all your advice anyhow guys.

J

The surname you edited out of the above post is Huguenot, originally from an area about midway between Bordeaux and Toulouse (the Gers region). The family of that name which came to Ireland descends from one that had fled to Holland prior to the Revocation of the Edict of N , remained there and a descendant came to Ireland with King Billy.
The Huguenot Society has an Irish section, have a look at this

jamiecooke

Thank you very much pedroeibar1. I will take a look at this link now. Some of the things I've read so far were double dutch to me but this looks very straight forward. Would be great to see how far I could trace back! Much appreciated!

J

tabbey

I came across an ancestor in the RCB, named Jacques ( almost as many spellings as records). As Dr Refausse was passing, I asked him was this a Huguenot name, he replied it was French anyway, and gave me some Huguenot books to study, and subsequently researched in DCLA. I found one Huguenot with this name who had come to Ireland under the 1660s law encouraging protestant immigration. There was no evidence that my ancestor was connected to this gentleman.

My suspicion is that most people in Ireland with French names, were descended from people who moved from France to England, and later generations from England to Ireland from 1600s onwards, indeed Jacques were in England from the Norman conquest.

Unless there is a reasonably complete line of descent, it is difficult to be sure.

pedroeibar1

Searching for something quite unconnected I came across this interesting paper on researching Huguenots