If It Was Easy It Wouldn't Be Fun

Well, I’ve finally finished translating (as best I could) and transcribing – probably more accurately described as abstracting – the French civil records I mentioned in my last post. I still need to take the time to compare the information through the years to see if I can trace some of the individuals through time. One difficulty is that over the fifty year period I’m using the same given names are used over and over and over again.

Another major difficulty for me was the change in language. I took French in high school and, though I was a bit rusty, I managed to handle the first forty years without too much trouble. But the last ten year period (1863-1872), due to France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War – was prepared in German. Not just any German either – oh no – old German script. On top of that the given names are teeny tiny!!

I would so much rather deal with the French.

Anyway, at least that’s done and I can go back to concentrating on putting my project together. Hmmm, maybe I’ll just let the next generation of family historian do the comparisons. Oh sure, like I’ll be able to put this away without studying it!!