It’s amazing who you might meet online. The other day I accepted a follow request on Google+ from someone in France. This person works for the archives.
I found a link on his profile and clicked on it. Where it lead was a big surprise–a very good surprise!
Archives en Lignes has digitized civil records from various regions of France. These included indexes as well as real records. By clicking on an area of the map on the main screen, you can find records for a wide range of cities and towns.
I clicked on number 64, Pyrenees Atlantiques. This is the region that my Lassalle, Segalas, Breilh, and Mazeres ancestors were from.
I immediately realized that my genealogy dreams had come true. I can now search through records for Ogeu les bains, Castet, and Izeste! You don’t know how much this means to me. Since arthritis took over my body, I had to give up on site research. While I got to do extensive research on my Portuguese lines before I developed arthritis, I never made it to the French records. Now the records are coming to me!
I have a lot of genealogy research ahead of me…and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it!