This is cool -- I just found a historical book about my own 17th century ancestors

That is 'tres cool'. For information on 'further backs', try the LDS church. My brother was able to find info on our ancestors all the way back to the first ones that came over from France to Quebec in 16-something. The LDS website is good ( familysearch.org ), but some info is spotty. He found lots more by going to one of the research centers. If there is an LDS Temple any where near you, they all have family research centers. You don't need to be LDS to use the services, and they have people familiar with their set-up who will help you.

MM

That's really interesting, Barb! My ancestors were French Hugenots also (and also many Lutherans & Quakers!) who lost their titles, wealth and holdings in Normandy due to persecution in the 1650's. They fled to Belgium and in 1669, took the ship "Golden Otter" to what became New York.

They also established a Hugenot settlement at New Paltz, NY, where our French line intermarried with Dutch settlers.

Did you know that the Hugenot sect came out of the French Reformed Church, which had its roots in the heretical sect called Waldensians in the 12-13th century?

I've used internet searches to go back one more generation in our French line, going back to the 1500's now. But we don't have a book written like you do, I'm a little jealous!

You might try The Hugenot Society online for more info.

Hi Barb - What's the locality for the book you're working on? I've got Lutheran "Exulanten" (exiles) from the Austrian nobility in my background and my husband has Swiss/French Hugenots in his. Time period and location are very critical in figuring out who might have been corresponding with whom.

On the genealogy - take anything from the LDS site with a grain of salt unless it is an extracted record from a church or government agency. There is a lot of mis-information on the site - added by zeolots who jumped to conclusions and/or didn't worry about 100 year gaps (seriously, in one of my lines I've found 90 year old women having children). And note, their IGI has just as many errors in it as their ancestral files. However, if the LDS has microfilmed the church records from the town your ancestors came from, you might be able to find records going on back. That's one of the big advantages of the LDS - they are still microfilming church records all over Europe. I've been able to get birth, marriage, and death records for close to two hundred years from the little town in Switzerland my husband's father's line came from (but in French, of course.)

Another good genealogy site, and one that I respect for having decent information, is the Rootsweb Worldconnect site - you can access it from the main rootsweb page (just look for worldconnect). It has all been put together by genealogy researchers, is totally searchable by name and place of birth/death and year of birth/death - plus, it shows the parents and children of many of the entries. It also has the option of exact spelling of the name or options. When I start working on a name I usually use a twenty year time period for births. But, some of the LDS mistakes have creeped into this website too - too many people accept whatever's in the LDS records as gospel. And, unfortunately, it's almost impossible to correct the LDS mistakes - I've tried, armed with family Bible records I had access to, but they wouldn't consider a fix unless I could come up with a birth certificate (in 1802).

Hope that info helps a bit. If you have any geneology questions, feel free to bounce them off me (pm) - I've done a lot of researching and might be able to help. Puma

That sounds so cool! I'd love to find such things about my ancestors, but unfortunately, they must've been an awfully boring lot as I've never heard of anything being written about us. I'd love to find out more but it seems people weren't really interested in keeping records, *sigh.* My maternal great-grandmother was French-Canadian so I can at least daydream that there might have been some voyageurs and American Indians in my past somewhere.

Your story idea sounds very intriguing. Mine too is a sort of alternate-reality/fantasy/history-type blend, though probably a lot more made up (i. e., more fantasy, less history) than yours.

I'd like to second Puma's caution about the accuracy of LDS information. I'd suggest more than a pinch of salt - more like a shovel-ful! Some of the errors I have seen have been almost breathtaking. . .

I've seen those amazing errors in my own family too, on the LDS website. I suggested it as a starting point, and mentioned that the info was spotty. But the family history centers at the LDS temples give you access to all that lovely microfilmed stuff.

MM

tethuti88 (hope I got that right) - If you're looking for ancestors, don't limit yourself to just your father's or mother's paternal name - follow all the lines as they go back and I'm sure you'll find some that just keep going (and possibly with some interest). I got all the lines for my husband's and my families back six generations before I started to run into brick walls - but, some of the other ones keep on going to the early 1500's. One of the lines in my mother's family actually ends up in the same town as Luther - about 50 years later, so I can imagine that the ancestors before that generation probably knew Luther; one of my husband's lines ends in the embroglio surrounding Henry the 4th of France and his mistresses. And then there's the "squaw Indian" who shows up in one of the lines who was probably a slave instead. It's all very fascinating - even trying to figure out why six members of one family died within a month in 1854 here in Ohio. There's a tremendous amount of genealogy information available on the web. One trick I like to use is doing a simple Google search for a name (in quotes) - I've been able to make some connections that way. Hope you give it another try. It's fun (and addictive). Puma

What a great discovery! I once had a neighbour whose job was to trace geneologies. I even thought of getting her to trace my own ancestors and write about them. Your family tree is packed with interesting characters. Good luck in your search. Hope you find some descendants living during your novel's century. What fun to write about your own family!
Linnea