I had always been told that “absolutely everyone” on my mother’s side of the family is from Sézanne (Marne département (51)).  Or so I thought, until…

One morning, last April, I felt compelled to resume my research on a side of my mother’s family that I hadn’t researched for a few years. I started with Pierre Gille François Girault (1777-1861) and his wife Marie Jeanne Breton (1778-?1856). They were the grandparents of my great-great-great-grandfather, Alphonse Girault, who was born in their house, in Sézanne, in 1831. At the time, the only information I had about them was their name, listed on Alphonse’s birth record.

Using the Archives of the Marne département (census records (recensements de la population), ten-year indexes“ (tables décennales)), Geneanet searches, and Google, I ended up finding their marriage record. I was stunned… They were married on 5 Thermidor year XII (July 24, 1804) in… Vert-Saint-Denis (Seine-et-Marne (77)), the village where I grew up!! (Not to be confused with “Saint-Denis” (Seine-Saint-Denis, 93), where you can admire the magnificent Basilica of Saint-Denis, necropolis containing the tombs of the kings of France).

Note: The website of the Archives of Seine-et-Marne is one of my least favorite archives websites… The website itself is great, fast, very nice. It’s when you get to the archives section that things get really annoying. So sloooooooow…. Be patient if your ancestors lived in that department! If you get a blank page, refresh your browser. Still a blank page after a few seconds? Refresh again! You finally get a page. Hurray! If you zoom in or out: you’ll stare at the “loading” wheel…! The best is to research their archives when everyone in France is having dinner or sleeping (all those French genealogists are slowing the site down… how dare they!), so check the time difference based on where you live. 🙂 (I live in Arizona. We have 8 hours time difference with France in the winter, 9 hours in the summer. I research “Seine-et-Marne” after 11am Phoenix time).

Second annoying thing: just like the Archives of Paris, they do not offer a “permalink” option. This means that if you click on the link I included below, it will take you to the first page of the register. To go to page 54, you will need to either type the view number (54), or use the arrows to navigate to page 54 (see bottom right of my images).

Here is their marriage record: Document 5MI6634 Naissances, mariages, décès. (An XII-1813), vues 54 et 55 of 266

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Marie Jeanne’s baptism record

Their marriage record mentioned that Marie Jeanne had been born on September 30, 1778 in Vert-Saint-Denis!! Back to the Seine-et-Marne Archives!

Oh the joy of finding any old record!

Marie Jeanne Breton – Baptism – Sept. 30, 1778 – Document 5MI6632 Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures. ( 1773-An III ), vue 55 of 271, 2e acte en haut de la page de droite

The marriage record had said that Marie Jeanne was “born on September 30”. However, her baptism record clearly states that she was baptized on September 30, but “born the day before”. Here is the transcription of her baptism record (in old French):

Since then, I have discovered more ancestors who were born, got married, died, and/or are buried in Vert-Saint-Denis, Pouilly-le-Fort, Cesson, Savigny-le-Temple, Melun, all villages or cities that I know very well.  So my parents lived in Vert-Saint-Denis for almost 50 years, not knowing that 200 years before they bought our house, my mother’s ancestors had lived there. Oh the joys of discoveries thanks to genealogy!!

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Pierre Gille François and Marie Jeanne lived in these cities

• Vert-Saint-Denis: Seine-et-Marne (77) – 91 km/56.5 miles from Sézanne and Chichey.
• Sézanne: Marne (51) – Only 5 km/3.1 miles from Chichey.
• Chichey, Marne (51)
• Paris (75) – 112 km/69.5 miles from Sézanne.

Pierre Gille François Girault and Marie Jeanne Breton moved a few times during their life. They were both born in Seine-et-Marne (Pierre Gille François was born in Liverdy-en-Brie, about 5 hours by foot from Vert-Saint-Denis). So far, I have found 7 children for them, but they might have had more children. Their first child, Adèle Sophie Girault, is Alphonse’s mother (my direct ancestors). She too was born in Vert-Saint-Denis, in 1805!

They had two daughters in Vert-Saint-Denis, then, by 1809 (birth of another child), they were living in Sézanne. Next, I found them living in Chichey in 1836. They seemed to have lived in Chichey until about 1846. At that date, I found them again on the census living in Sézanne, where they lived until at least 1851.

At that point, I had lost track of them, until I found the death record of Pierre Gille François (by then, he went by “Gilles”). He died in 1861, in Paris (5th arrondissement), where he was living with his daughter Mélanie and his son-in-law. His death record indicates “widower of Marie Jeanne Breton”).

I found a Marie Jeanne Breton death record in the “reconstructed archives” of Paris (I have more information about the Destruction of the Archives of Paris here). Those records contain very limited information, but I am pretty sure she is “my” Marie Jeanne, in the same 5th arrondissement of Paris as Pierre Gille François.

My guess is that they both moved to Paris to live with their daughter and son-in-law once they reached a certain age, in any case after 1851, date of the last census in which I found them in Sézanne. Unfortunately, census records for Paris before 1926 are only available “en salle de lecture” (you have to physically go to the Archives of Paris).

On a side note: their son-in-law was renowned Antoine Oleszczyński, Polish graphic artist and copperplate engraver.

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The troubled times they lived in

Pierre Gille François and Marie Jeanne certainly lived during very troubled times when so many changes happened in France. One of them has an impact when we do our genealogic research: the French Revolution, which brought the infamous Republican calendar: a little tricky when you are researching the archives. But no worries: help is on the way! Go to my “Glossary” page and check the “Republican calendar” section for dates and months conversions.

Below is the timeline of their lives, and in italic, the major political, discoveries and epidemic events that happened during their lifetime. (On my “Timeline of Historical Events” page, each block with an arrow is expandable and provides a summary of the event).

• 1778 – Birth of Marie Jeanne (Vert-Saint-Denis)

• 1789 – Storming of the Bastille in Paris (French Revolution)

• 1792 – First French Republic

• 1793 – (Jan. 21) King Louis XVI of France is guillotined in Paris

• 1793 – (Oct. 6) Start of the Republican calendar

• 1804 – (May 17) Napoleon, Emperor of the French

• 1804 – (July 24) Their marriage (Vert-Saint-Denis)

• 1805 – Birth of their first daughter, my ancestor Adèle Sophie Girault (Vert-Saint-Denis)

• 1806 – Birth of their daughter Mélanie (Vert-Saint-Denis)

• 1809 – They live in Sézanne (birth of their son François Victor)

• 1811 – Birth of their son François Jules in Sézanne

• 1813 – (Sept. 5) Birth of their son Désiré (Sézanne)

• 1813 – (Sept. 22) Death of their son François Jules… (Sézanne)

• 1814 – Louis XVIII, King of France

• 1815 – (March 20) Napoleon, Emperor of the French

• 1815 – (April 22) Birth of their son Jules Désiré (Sézanne)

• 1815 – (July 8) Louis XVIII, King of France

• 1816 – Birth of their daughter Suzette Eliza (Sézanne)

• 1817 – Death of their son Jules Désiré… (Sézanne)

• 1824 – Charles X, King of France

• 1827 – First railway line of France and continental Europe

• 1827 – Nicéphore Niépce produces the first photography

• 1828 – First gaslights for night illumination in Paris

• 1830 – (July) Revolt of the “Three Glorious”

• 1830 – (Aug.) Louis-Philippe I, King of the French

• 1831 – Birth of my great-great-great-grandfather Alphonse Girault (born in their house, in Sézanne)

• 1836 – They live in Chichey (census)

• 1832 – (March) Cholera epidemic

• 1839 – Beginnings of photography

• 1846 to 1851 – They are back in Sézanne (census)

• 1848 – Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the 2nd Republic

• 1851 – They moved to Paris after 1851 to live with their daughter Mélanie and son-in-law Antoine Oleszczyński

• 1852 – Napoleon III, Emperor of the French

• 1856 – Death of Marie Jeanne in Paris, 5e (75)

• 1861 – Death of Pierre Gille François in Paris, 5e

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