Dave and Patricia, please be careful with online translators. There is a confusion between: - "foret" = drill (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foret) - "forêt" = forest, woods Your man was probably the head of a brigade (territorial district) of the forest administration. Season's Greetings Etienne Le 23 déc. 08 à 01:06, Dave Francis a écrit : > Patricia, > I think Etienne Herrbach has the answer. If you plug > "brigadier des > forets into google you get Drill Sergeant. Although the text > clearly is > written "ferets" more than likely the recorder made a misspelling. > So, I > think I'm going to go with a pensioned, former drill sergeant. > Dave > patriciahans wrote: > > Happy Holidays Dave; > > Ancien Brigadier des Ferets Pensionnaire.. > > I translated the words you wrote and what it comes out to is this... > > Former Sergeant of Fertes Pensionnaire. > > Pensionnaire has three meanings... > > noun.. in hotel > masculine... inmate > femine... sch boarder > > Now maybe this person worked in the prison system, and that is > where the > Sergeant comes from. Maybe someone better knows what "Ferets" is. > But I > could not find this word when I looked it up in the translation from > French > to English. Sorry... > Hope this helps a little bit... Good luck... > > Happy Holidays, > Patricia

Happy Holidays Etienne; Thank you for including me, but it is Dave who inquired about the phrase in French. Patricia