In France, Names & Stories in Newspapers

Photo by Celine Ylmz on Unsplash

​MyHeritage has released a new offering called French Newspaper, People and Places which has provided an index across their newspaper offerings. Thanks to AI they were able to enhance your search capabilities. Let’s look.

​As I have probably mentioned many times, I love scrolling through old newspapers—especially those from small towns—because you never know what piece of trivia you might find out about someone. I decided to explore this new offering. I have found that early newspapers in France can include birth, marriage, and death information. I have not found any of these for my ancestors but perhaps you will have more luck. However, I did find information about collateral ancestors—especially related to miliary information.
While looking for the last name of Leisen, I came across this item: https://records.myheritagelibraryedition.com/research/record-12031-385965738/mathilde-eugenie-leysen-in-france-names-stories-in-newspapers. This is the actual item but they also include a detailed description and important facts about this item. In this case, Mathilde-Eugenie Leysen, a widow of Dubray a soldier who died of an illness in service of his country on the 16 December 1914. Mathilde-Eugenie was granted 375 francs. It is worth mentioning that her husband had died in 1914 while her pension was published in the April 1916 of a Paris newspaper. I knew the story of Mathilde-Eugenie and Armand Ferdinand Dubray because I had researched the military records. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the widow’s pension. Mathilde-Eugenie went on to marry—she and Armand had only been married for a year and a half  at the time of his death. Also note the year was 1914 so he participated in World War I.

LEYSEN (Mathilde - Eugénie), widow DUBRAY. The soldier husband, who died of illness on official duty. Enjoyment of the 375 fr. - December 16, 1914

​Another interesting item I found was a list of individuals with their occupations and place of employment.  Here is an example. I would caution that if you use the translation option from your browser, compare it with the actual article because translation tends to translate names. In the below example, the employer is Georges Mouchoux but the translation changed his name to Georges Mou-cabbage.

M. Gessome (Alexandre-Francois-Charles) upholsterer worker in the house of Georges Mouchoux of Arcueil.

If you decide to check out this new MyHeritage offering, look for this database:  In France, Names & Stories in Newspapers. You will need to have a MyHeritage membership to access this information. Happy Researching!