Don, After sending my previous message I read the home page of the Departmental Archives for Indre-et-Loire. You are in luck - civil registration of births, marriages and deaths went online three weeks ago: http://archives.cg37.fr/Actualite.php?theme=2&idactualite=240. The French Genealogy Blog entry has obviously not yet been updated to reflect this. Caroline Caroline Gurney <http://www.carolinegurney.com> On 23 February 2014 17:32, Caroline Gurney <caroline.gurney@blueyonder.co.uk > wrote: The French Genealogy Blog: http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogieis my first stop for answers to questions like this. Down the left hand side of the page are links to the websites of the Departmental Archives. Wikipedia tells me that Tours is in the Department of Indre-et-Loire. The French Genealogy Blog gives a link to the Departmental Archives of Indre-et-Loire: http://archives.cg37.fr/index_archive.php and states that: "Parish registers have just gone up! Also: Ten-year indices, land records, old post cards and records of wills filed (Tables de successions - very useful, these), military conscription lists." Civil registrations are not mentioned, so it would seem those are not yet online for Indre-et-Loire, but you would need to check the Departmental Website. I have had excellent results using the online archives of Ille-et-Vilaine, to which I found a link from The French Genealogy Blog. The civil registration entry for my 2x great grandfather's death in Dinard was extremely informative, including details of his son and widow. The latter was his third wife and I would never otherwise have known that she existed. I subsequently found that she was English and that he had sneaked back to London to marry her, despite being wanted by the police. (See http://cmgurney.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/black-sheep-sunday-rev-frederick-davis.htmlfor the back story.) You will obviously need a good working knowledge of French to negotiate the website of the Departmental Archives and the records themselves. Good luck with your search! Caroline Caroline Gurney <http://www.carolinegurney.com> On 23 February 2014 16:39, Don Montague <don.montague@virgin.net> wrote: Can anyone point me in the right direction, i.e. suggest where I might start looking for the records of the death of a kinsman, said to have taken place in Tours in the 1850s? Would it be worthwhile writing to the Mairie at Tours - or are there too many clustered round that city!?

Thank you Caroline for that hint. It enabled me to find the death registration of an xgreat aunt who died in Versailles in 1865. As always one answer leads to a new question. In this case a son in law who is new to me. So did the French have censuses - and have they survived? Or are there any other ways I might discover which of her many daughters was he married to! Christopher Richards Sent from my iPad > On 23 Feb 2014, at 17:48, Caroline Gurney <caroline.gurney@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > > Don, > > After sending my previous message I read the home page of the Departmental > Archives for Indre-et-Loire. You are in luck - civil registration of > births, marriages and deaths went online three weeks ago: > http://archives.cg37.fr/Actualite.php?theme=2&idactualite=240. The French > Genealogy Blog entry has obviously not yet been updated to reflect this. > > Caroline > > Caroline Gurney <http://www.carolinegurney.com> > > > On 23 February 2014 17:32, Caroline Gurney <caroline.gurney@blueyonder.co.uk >> wrote: > > The French Genealogy Blog: > http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogieis my first stop for > answers to questions like this. Down the left hand > side of the page are links to the websites of the Departmental Archives. > Wikipedia tells me that Tours is in the Department of Indre-et-Loire. The > French Genealogy Blog gives a link to the Departmental Archives of > Indre-et-Loire: http://archives.cg37.fr/index_archive.php and states > that: "Parish > registers have just gone up! Also: Ten-year indices, land records, old post > cards and records of wills filed (Tables de successions - very useful, > these), military conscription lists." Civil registrations are not > mentioned, so it would seem those are not yet online for Indre-et-Loire, > but you would need to check the Departmental Website. > > I have had excellent results using the online archives of Ille-et-Vilaine, > to which I found a link from The French Genealogy Blog. The civil > registration entry for my 2x great grandfather's death in Dinard was > extremely informative, including details of his son and widow. The latter > was his third wife and I would never otherwise have known that she existed. > I subsequently found that she was English and that he had sneaked back to > London to marry her, despite being wanted by the police. (See > http://cmgurney.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/black-sheep-sunday-rev-frederick-davis.htmlfor > the back story.) > > You will obviously need a good working knowledge of French to negotiate the > website of the Departmental Archives and the records themselves. Good luck > with your search! > > Caroline > > Caroline Gurney <http://www.carolinegurney.com> > > > On 23 February 2014 16:39, Don Montague <don.montague@virgin.net> wrote: > > Can anyone point me in the right direction, i.e. suggest where I > might start looking for the records of the death of a kinsman, said > to have taken place in Tours in the 1850s? > Would it be worthwhile writing to the Mairie at Tours - or are there > too many clustered round that city!? > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOG-UK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message