french family history

[congletonian]

Hi
just wondering if anyone knows of a site where I could search for descendants and ancestors in France.This arises from a marriage to someone called Pierre Viger in 1908 at St Pancras London but no sign of them or any children in 1911 so assume they went to live in France soon after marriage.I know they were there in 1916 from a french memorial card for my grandmother's cousin.
Thanks
Liz

[kylejustin]

i think you would have to know roughly what part of france of your relative was from.
there are plenty of viger's in england, but no pierre.

i assume this is the marriage:
Marriages Mar 1908
Casutt Maria Pancras 1b 112
Meeson Ida Prince Pancras 1b 112
MONTORSI Eligio Baldassare G Pancras 1b 112
VIGER Pierre Jules D Pancras 1b 112
VIGER Pierro Jules D Pancras 1b 112

which is the english ancestor you are trying to trace?

[congletonian]

Thanks Kylejustin
problem with that as no address on the memorial card so I guess that's a dead end then?
Liz

yes it's the marriage of my grandmother's cousin Ida Prince Meeson.Her brother was Edward Hickman Tucker Meeson ,engineer commander of HMS Defence,killed at the battle of Jutland 1916.

[kylejustin]

there are ways around it. have you looked at the shipping lists on findmypast?
i think they have records of france. maybe your french man was a soldier?
if they were in france in 1916?
do you know of any kids? you could look for there births in england, and if they're not there, they might be registered under the overseas index on findmypast. do you have pierre's father's name?

[congletonian]

No I haven't tried findmypast yet but will have a go.As for children I need to get out the memorial card as I can't remember if they were mentioned.Just having minor problem locating where I filed it

Thanks for help

Liz

[taffyfrog]

What about the records on The Genealogist site.

" RG33: Foreign Registers & Returns 1627-1960 which contains Overseas Birth, Marriage, Death and Burial of British Subjects including those onboard ships."

Hopefully they will be cross-indexed with mother's maiden name!

I'm wondering whether it was possible at that time for a child born in France to have both British and French nationalities and consequently have two birth certificates. This is the case of my children but perhaps dual nationlism didn't exist at that time. Finding a British cert would pinpoint where in France they were born. But getting any French BMD cert under 100 years old might be difficult - you usually have to prove you are the person concerned or a direct descendant.

Ida and Pierre might not have bothered registering any children with the British authorites of course but worth a go.

[congletonian]

Thanks for that Carole

Found the memorial card now but for Edward's sister it just says "le docteur et madame Viger,son beau-frere et sa soeur" and no named children.Edward's wife ,daughter ,father,step-mother and 1/2 brothers and sister are named. At the bottom of the card "ses oncles,tantes,neveux,nieces et toute la famille" so that covers all the large extended family branches in England but no names.
My mother-in-law is from Belgium,Geraardsbergen and we have several memorial cards from her family which vary in the amount of detail given,some of them give alot of family details others very limited.
Today I've been wondering if Ida and Pierre went to french Canada so will look into that too if I fail with France.Thanks for helping

Liz