Hello All, Ever wondered why you can't find some records of your ancestors and yet you just "know" that they had to exist? Well, here I shall mention a quaint little feudal system goings on that perhaps has escaped you memory from those heady days of high school French Revolutionary history. Burned! Up until the Revolution the "good guys" or the people of France - (see Third Estate), didn't own much land, in fact they probably didn't actually own any land at all, unless they happen to be very handy with a sword and kept the local Lord in power. So! What has this to do with all things Huguenot ? Possibly not a great deal, but if you were at an unplanned delay in your family research you may be wondering about other "documents" that could be out there ? Well if you are looking for these records of 'seignorial dues' , which would actually show just how well off or not so well off your ancestors were, if less than minor nobility, then you could be in for some luck that is not required when searching for the impossible. On a so so day in August of 1789, Mirabeau and his collegues came up with an idea. No more paying dues to the Nobility. Yeehaa, went the voices of France, and so from then until October, the kindly folks who paid there dues for hundreds of years, yes folks even in the Huguenot times, went around the contry-side breaking into chateau's seizing these records and documents and promptly burned them. Some even went as so far to burn the entire chateau to the ground. That should fix those pesky nobles as now they don't know who owes what and even if they did, we aren't going to pay. Ah! Liberty, Equality and all that good revolutionary stuff. So, what am I on about this time ? If you are at that 'pause' in your research, then perhaps you could search for any 'seignorial dues' paid either by your ancestor or indeed in some family situations, to your ancestor. You may be lucky. Well, it would be yet another document to add to your family historical collection. Kind Regards, Peter Leroy