In a message dated 2/21/2005 8:44:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, WFrantastic@aol.com writes: Hi there, Blanche IS the French name ...means White as does Alba ( latin) Bianca ( spanish/Italian) Fran Wilcox ============================ In my first year of ministry as a priest, I was assigned to the parish of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs, in the northern Berkshire town of Adams, Massachusetts. One day, the rectory office doorbell rang, and a woman about my present age (mid 60s) came in to ask if I could solve a problem. She had been to the Town Hall to obtain a copy of her birth certificate, so that she could file for Social Security Retirement Benefits, but the Town Clerk told her there was no one by her name, in the town records. There was a Mary Dubois, born to her parents on her birth date in her birth year, but there was no Blanche Dubois. The Town Clerk suggested that she come to the rectory to obtain her baptismal record, which was likely to include her full name, which the Clerk knew was likely to include three or four given names, first Marie, then at least two other saints' names. So I looked in the baptismal record for her birth year, and sure enough, I found a baptismal record for a girl born to her parents, on her birth date, in her birth year. I looked up at Blanche, and asked her if she knew who her godmother was. She answered, "Ma tante Rosealba". Typically, she was named for her godmother. Her name, in the baptismal register, was Mariam Rosam Albam. That is, in English, Mary Rose White. And in French, Marie Rose Blanche. On that day, I was very glad to know a bit of French, and a bit of Latin, as well as English. Otherwise, I could not have certified that the person who called herself Blanche Dubois, and who was registered at Town Hall as Mary Dubois, was the same person as the baptismal record at Notre Dame parish listed as Mariam Rosam Albam Dubois. And if the town record listed her as Mary Woods, it still would have taken knowledge of three languages to figure it all out! Fr Owen Taggart