Looking For Help on Contacting An Ancestor’s Descendants in France

Question

Hello! I’m looking for some help/guidance on finding descendants of my 2x great-grandfather’s stepdaughter. I know that sounds crazy, BUT I have a photo of the two of them that I would love to give to her family.

Her name was Albertine Emilie Dubois. DOB: June 26, 1906 in Union, New Jersey. Death: June 2, 2004 in Bois-d’Oingt, France. Her parents were Alexandrine Ray and Jean Dubois.

Her father died in France in 1907 and her mother died in New Jersey in 1909. My 2x great-grandfather (Joseph Michael Crosse) sent Albertine back to France after her mother’s passing, so that she could live with her mother’s family.

I’ve started building a family tree for her on ancestry and I’ve tried as many websites as possible to find more information on her, but I’ve had little luck. I’m not very familiar with France and don’t think I have access to as many French resources, because I live in the US.

Hope someone can help or point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

Finding living people is a difficult task, because information is not publicly available (with good reason). Here are a few leads.

The place where Albertine died in 2004 is probably EHPAD Jean Borel, a nursing home in Bois-d'Oingt. They may still have the contact address of relatives. Maybe they can at least pass a message.

There are two trees on Geneanet that mention her maternal grandparents, Antoine Ray and Marie Gaillot. One (ganath) has her parents' marriage (with a wrong year, it should be 18 Oct 1902) but not much more. The other (annick1949) has a first cousin of Albertine, André Lefébure 1920-1983, son of her aunt Marie-Alexandrine Ray 1899-1985. You may ask the owner of the tree (who is a distant relative of André) if she knows about his living descendants.

I also found another uncle of Albertine, Pierre Ray 1891-?, who married Jeanne-Marie Patissier in 1912. But I did not find any children.

Comments

Thank you so much for the nursing home tip!

I have reached out to both of those members on geneanet using a translator, but I haven’t heard back from either. I was able to find 5 siblings of Albertine’s mother, and Andre was the only cousin I was able to find.

Thank you so much for your help!

Answer 2

There is a findagrave ID 205413069

Alexandrine Dubois Crosse b-1887-1909

Comments

My 2x great-grandfather’s name is also on Alexandrine’s headstone. She was his first wife. I got to visit it in person over the summer. :)

Answer 3

That souns very interesting! I would love to help you. I have french family and I've been doing research on my french ancestors for a few years now. I've done a quick tree on Filae (a genealogy website which is very common in France) and I've already found some of her ancestors. Unfortunately in this case, it's much easier to find someone's ancestors than it is to find someone's descendants, but I think it's a start. 

Here's the link to the online family tree (all the resources, documents, etc, that I've found are also there). Feel free to ask anything you'd like or to modify anything! Although I'm not sure if you'd need my permit to alter any information, this is the first time I've shared a link, but if you have any doubt or any concern, don't hesitate to ask!

https://www.filae.com/a/03xs1

Comments

Hi! I’ve sent you a message on Filae. Thank you SO much!! :)

Answer 4

Hello,

I would try to contact the municipality (Mairie, 1 Avenue du 8 Mai 1945 Le Bois d'Oingt 69620 Val d'Oingt  mairie@valdoingt.org  phone +33 4 74 71 60 51). I did not find very precise information on this person on the genealogical sites I use. You may also send a mail to Richard Dubois who is living a kilometer away from Bois-d'Oingt (https://www.geneanet.org/profil/duboisr1) who may help even if there is no link with Albertine on his tree.