The French Connection .....

[LesleyB]

Hi David
...looks like there may be a RCE then - NRH is New Register House (Edinburgh)

It might be worth your while taking a trip to Edinburgh to NRH (its in Princes Street, across the road and up the lane from the Waverley steps, behind NAS, National Archives of Scotland which has the statue of the chap on the horse in front of it!) - you could check the above RCE & look for Gabrielle, Blanche and Joyce in the birth registers. You could also try a search for marriages for them, and possibly deaths too.

Best wishes
Lesley

[dmacdiarmid]

I thought this geneology stuff was confusing enough but no, death's not that simple.I thought my father Marcel Charles Victor's final bits and bobs were with a recently discovered living Aunt.But as bad luck would have it,after his wife died in 1985,he took in and (maybe) married this other wifie in Norham on Tweed.If anybody has his bits and bobs it'll be her.I think i need Holmes on this one.

[LesleyB]

Hi David
I don't think we can help with this one - it is too recent for us. We don't deal with tracing the living on here, I'm afraid, we are much more comfortable dealing with the long departed.

If you have a name for "yer wifie" it may be possible to use telephone directories or electoral rolls. Your father's death cert. may give an address whcih might be a starting point, but this is out of our area of research skills now.

I wish you the best of luck with it & I hope you find what you are looking for.
Best of luck with it,
Lesley

[dmacdiarmid]

Hi Lesley,thanks for that .I plan a visit to Norham soon.I have an address and have a few ideas.I just wish i could find Lizzie Somerville she did'nt get buried in Lagny France,did she die in Scotland.Watch this space.David

[hg]

Hi,
Noticed this information about naturalisation and the link. I can see you managed to get loads of information.

Do you think it would be worth researching this for my ancestor born in Italy?

Helen

[david macdiarmid]

Hi Helen,sorry for the delay in replying.The answer has to be yes as the details i managed to glean from this document was invaluable,good luck,David

[david macdiarmid]

Hi All,I have been kindly been given a "Free French Air Force"badge.A copy of this badge can be found on the "F.A.F.L" wesite.Would anyone know if this badge would have to be stamped with a number on the back,to belong to a serving member of the F.A.F.L.If so why would a badge like this be unstamped,Any ideas?David

[Currie]

Hello David,

I’m not sure I can help much here. Which FAFL website do you mean?

Whether or not something is numbered might depend on its purpose. If it was a special issue to an individual and for some reason had to be recognisable as such or if it was of some particular value and was an accountable item it might be numbered. But if it was just a hand out, a memento, or part of a uniform, like a button, a stock standard uniform or cap badge etc., then there might not be any reason for them to be numbered. I’m just guessing really.

Near the bottom of this page http://www.insignesaviation.com/article-2188697.html
there’s an FAFL and squadron badges under the description.

LES GROUPES DE CHASSE DE LA FRANCE LIBRE :
Le 25 Juin 1940, l'armistice est signé entre l'Allemagne et la France .
Dès le 1er Juillet 1940, le Général De Gaulle crée en Angleterre les Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres (FAFL) .
Un insigne est choisi : une croix de Lorraine sur fond bleu dans un écu bleu, blanc, rouge , le tout sur deux ailes sumontées d'une étoile avec en bas le sigle F.A.F.L. . Celui que je possède porte le N° 602 .
etc…….

I don’t speak French but maybe there’s something there to do with numbering etc or perhaps in one of the links.

Hope this helps.
Alan

[david macdiarmid]

Hi Currie,Thank's for that link.The badge i have has wings topped by a star.It has F.A.F.L on it.I also do not have French so i will have to have it deciphered.The site i found is ,The Free French Air Force.Thanks for the help,David

[david macdiarmid]

As a belated update to the French Connection saga,as follows.My Grandfather Charles Victor Dupre 1874-1953 after his divorce he Married his Mistress Lizzie Sommerville in 1927 in Edinburgh,they returned to France to live,and he was some sort of shopkeeper on the outskirts of paris.He died in Lagny in France and was buried their,CVD had a 30 year lease on his plot.The lease is now up and his Wife Lizzie chose to return home to Scotland after CVD's death.Lizzie Sommerville 1888-1979 then remarried,to a chap called Thomas Kelly and lived in West Lothian until her death in Bangour Hospital.Gabrielle Albertine Dupuis 1881-1955 CVD's first Wife,i have current news about.By all accounts and the help of the 1911 Cencus is Swiss from the Town of Morges,her parents are from the same area,but researching further on that line is painfully frustrating.Anyway i digress,after My Granny's divorce to CVD, she Married Edward Banks from Kinghorn in Fife. She still has 3 surviving children,my biological Father Marcel Charles Victor Dupre 1906-1990 (name changed to Charles Victor Russell), Gabrielle Amelia Dupre 1909-1983 (Married Thomas Adie no children) ,Edward Charles Dupre 1914-1980 (name changed to Banks,stepfathers name) and Blanche Nora Russell Dupre 1916-1997,she marries a newspaper magnate William Bennet Livingston,they have no children. I have a firm grip on this lot,in as much as i know who they were and where they ended up.At a wee bit of a stalemate now i will admit,but there is much to do,if i can get a lead.Thank You for listening.A final wee story,my Father Charles Victor Russell Marries a Lady in 1939,then has an affair with My Mum,hence moi,but after his Wifes death in 1985 he Marries his first sweetheart in 1987 at the tender age of 81,romantic or what,David