DeBacker

The Napoleonic Code

Jean Germain Voisard was the mayor of Montecheroux, France from 1815 to 1826. He was a fifth great grandfather on my father’s side. As the “maire” of the commune he was first and foremost a bureaucrat whose main responsibility was enforcing the regulations of the “Code civil des Français” – also known as the Napoleonic Code. Msr. Voisard was born in 1754 and he was … Continue reading The Napoleonic Code

D. M. DeBacker2 Comments
DeBacker

A Well-Regulated Militia

Geneanet.org is a genealogical website headquartered in Paris, France. It differs from ancestry.com in that Geneanet is a collaborative site where the members share in the effort of building family trees and supplying transcriptions of registers, both civil and parochial. The site has been around since the mid-nineties, and I was a regular visitor twenty years ago. At Geneanet, I could connect with fellow researchers … Continue reading A Well-Regulated Militia

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Gathering More Leaves

Episode 1: Finding the Long Lost – Pt I

About a year ago, I started work on a revision of my book, Gathering Leaves. Yet, it was not until I retired in August that I started working full-time on a complete rewrite of the book. Since then, I have completed the first 14 chapters, bringing me to the eve of the American Civil War, and roughly mid-way through the book. While taking a break … Continue reading Episode 1: Finding the Long Lost – Pt I

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Spiegel

58th New York Infantry Regiment

A few days after the Battle of Antietam, on September 22, 1862, my mother’s great-grandfather, George Spiegel, a resident of New York City, enlisted as a private in Company E of the 58th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was 23 years old at the time. According to a report published by the New York Monuments Commission in 1902, the 58th New York was known … Continue reading 58th New York Infantry Regiment

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