HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L Archives

From:
Subject: [HWE] Waiting for Documentation
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2002 21:10:52 -0800 (PST)

Hello fellow listers,

Studying family history can be fun, specially if
someone else has done the hard work for you already.

For no reason other than to perhaps offer an indication
to those who are new to this type of research, the
things that can be involved and why somethings do take
some time.

For the Francophones I shall put here how part of an
email arrived on my machine from a cousin. He is
explaining why he has taken so long (in this case
nearly 4 years to send me some information. ( I wish
that I could show the list the image of the document
which would explain even further).
-----------------------
Les plus anciens documents étant de 1442 ( un seul à
subsisté ), on peut dire qu'ils ont traversés parfois
plus de 5 siècles.
Ils ont perduré malgré les guerres, destructions,
révolutions dans un petit village comme le notre, ce
qui ne peut que laisser rêveur ...
Parfois, ils durent être cachés ( dans l'église ) ou
emportés lors d'exodes plus ou moins lointains ..

-----------------------
He says, and my translation may not be exact, "the
oldest documents are from 1442 (there is only one from
that time),
you could say that they have been around for 5
centuries. They survived in spite of the wars,
destructions, revolutions in a small village like ours,
which only makes me wonder... Sometimes, they have been
hidden (in the church) or some other places.
--------------------------

So next time you contact a friend or genealogist and
demand that they give you the information that you know
they have, think about the document that they may be
working on.

If you have ever seen or touched your own family bible
or marrage contract that is 200 years old, imagine how
delicate an older document may be ?

Or perhaps you have attempted to understand your
grandfathers handwriting, imagine if it were your
manytime great grandfather, who wrote with a quill
(feather) in candle light, in a much diferent language
than that spoken today.

I am sure the genealogists on this list are smiling
just a little at my post.

Hurry up and wait.

Regards,
Peter Leroy

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