I started genealogy a long time ago, 41 years ago this year, and I haven't made much progress on my most distant ancestor...
In my early days, research was done on site in the departmental archives or in the civil registry services of town halls. It seems very easy to write like this, but it all depends on the region in which you are researching.
All areas of armed conflict have their share of a lack of destroyed archives, no matter how, the fact is there: no archives! If I don’t write archives, I consider that there are none! For the commune of my paternal grandparents, the known civil status archives begin in 1811-1813. Vailly-sur-Aisne being the capital of the canton, you will understand that, in the surrounding communes, the state of resources is the same.
The First World War wreaked havoc there – the Chemin des Dames, does that mean anything to you?…
No archives do not mean giving up on genealogical research. So, the one and only document I have on my most distant surname ancestor is his death certificate: Nicolas MENOT died on June 2, 1821 in Chassemy, in the Aisne. He is said to be a carpenter, aged 67.
The declaration of death was made by his wife Françoise GOBIN, 54 years old. His age means that he was born around 1754 – approximately two years old – but where? No indication of the parents.
I set out to find all the information I could about his wife, Françoise GOBIN.
Marie Françoise was born on 11 April 1767 in Dravegny, also in the Aisne and daughter of Antoine, 45 years old, master shoemaker, and Marie Anne MAUCLÈRE, third wife, 34 years old, without profession.
From his first marriage, with Marie CAPLET, Antoine was the father of six children, of whom only the three youngest reached adulthood and married, all in Dravegny. From the second marriage, with Jeanne DURON, he was the father of three children, only the eldest of whom married in Arcis-le-Ponsart. And, finally, from the third and last marriage, with Marie Anne MAUCLÈRE, Antoine will be the father of nine children, my ancestor being the fourth of these siblings. Marie Thérèse, Marie Françoise’s younger sister, was married in Reims.
And then, online genealogy arrived! The modernization of the Filae site, formerly Genealogie.com, gave me hope that one day, perhaps… I regularly searched the site. Until the day when… The Holy Grail! My Nicolas MENOT did marry Marie Françoise GOBIN, but neither in Chassemy nor in Dravegny, but in Braine, the capital of the canton bordering the canton of Vailly-sur-Aisne.
There I immediately realized my mistake: I had looked in the canton of Vailly-sur-Aisne while the commune of Chassemy depended on that of Braine! I could therefore have found this act much earlier !
In this deed, it is written that Nicolas is the son of Nicolas and the deceased Marie Anne BIZET, of the parish of Condé. His wife, Françoise GOBIN, is the daughter of Antoine and the late Marie Anne MAUCLERC. Their witnesses were Jean, brother of the groom, and Jean Baptiste LIENARD and Jean Louis VAUMARNE, brothers-in-law of the bride.
So I go back in my lineage from a genealogy. When it is written that Nicolas is from Condé, it suggests Condé-sur-Aisne, the « Condé » town in the Aisne closest to Braine. I have a Jean MENOT who died in Condé-sur-Aisne on May 21, 1821 and… no information about the parents! Is he THE brother who was a witness in the marriage? For the moment, there is no certainty since there are no civil or military archives…
39 long years to discover this marriage certificate... If I add the same number of years to be able to know the next generation, I would be aged by... 106 years!
Lire la version française ? C’est là…
