Greetings All Last week my wife and I returned from a visit to France where half the vacation was spent searching for ancestors in Lorraine, specifically in the Moselle district (Dept. 57). Many Lewis County surnames kept popping up in the records as I searched for my great grandparents: Anne-Marie (Fouchs) Everard and Christopher Everard. Our first stop was at the Archives Department in the city of Metz that has old original records. It was a delight to see hard copy rather than microfilm. While I could not find the birth of my great grandfather on microfilm at our local LDS center, he showed up clearly on the same original document. Now I have the birth records for Christophe, Nicolas, and Appoline Evrard. In addition, I know who my great great paternal grandparents were. Ditto for my great grandmother. In retrospect, I might have gained more information if I had visited the mairie offices of the villages of my ancestors first. The more rewarding part of the expedition was the village visitations. With a rented Renault shift car, we drove to St. Avold (west of Metz) and stayed at a Novotel Hotel just off the A4 route that is a type of pay interstate road. From there we found the small village of Laning and the clerk found the records of my great grandmother. Right across the street was the Catholic Church where we spotted many names. Most bodies are cremated today and the gravestones beside the church were large and made of granite, with plenty of flowers. Based on this one can conclude that if you are wealthy you need not be cremated. The young helpful priest is going to obtain more information for us about the Fox, Streiff, Kirch, and other ancestral connections to my family. The village is like most other surrounding villages, including Grostenquin where the Theodore Basselin family came from. Most villages have a population of perhaps 300 to 700 and most are located within a mile of each other. Laning had nearly 600 people. You won't find a post card representing the village, and the post office is open on certain days for limited hours. This is agricultural country although many people work in St. Avold that is a small to medium sized city with plenty of bustle. The people are friendly and willing to help when you get lost! >From the St. Avold area we found Sarrebourg and headed south to the village of Nitting where my great grandfather came from. There are only about four streets with the church dominating the center of the village, which is typically the case. The mairie's office was helpful and patient as the clerk found records. The very old records, however, are in Metz! We visited the church but the priest serves more than one community and was unavailable. This cemetery also carried familiar surname. No Evrards had gravestones. Again those that existed would have been somewhat wealthy. We met one such person with whom we chatted on the street. He provided the names of the people who emigrated to America during the mid-1800s and had included my great grandparents' brothers and sister. His parents are buried in the cemetery. We now have another French friend and I know the house number of Christopher Everard and his kin. If you visit "your" village, be sure to go the surroundin! g small villages. You may well expect to find ancestors there. Near Nitting is a village named Lorquin where my great great aunt married and I believe returned there from Lewis County at some point, perhaps when her husband joined the Civil War as a soldier. I've wandered to the point of perhaps making our web master unhappy. To her I extend my apology. Ken Everard everardl@voicenet.com