[Genealib] French/English speaking researchers?

[Laura Spurrier]

The man's problem may be that he's expecting marriage records in  
Washington to be as thorough as those in Quebec.  There the parish  
priests kept detailed records, much as they did in Europe, I  
believe.  I agree that you need to enlist the help of a fluent French  
speaker.  An even better choice would be to find someone in a local  
French-speaking Catholic parish, if there is one.  (I'm assuming he's  
tracing a Catholic family.)  You might also phone the diocese  
headquarters in the Tacoma area and try to find an archivist who's  
sympathetic.

My library has a 6-7 vol. set called "Catholic Church records of the  
Pacific Northwest."  I checked it but, despite the title, all the  
books are about Oregon.  Bonne chance!

	Laura Spurrier
	California Genealogical Society

On Jul 26, 2007, at 11:17 AM, Devine, Kathryn wrote:

> I’m looking for anyone who could possibly help a long-distance  
> patron of ours. There seem to be two basic problems. 1) His first  
> language is French and he lives in Quebec, 2) He doesn’t seem to be  
> an experienced genealogist.
>
>
>
> He is doing research on people who settled in the state of  
> Washington, specifically around Tacoma. He has emailed the  
> librarians here at the Washington State Library probably a dozen  
> times and the language barrier has been extreme. He has been asking  
> for resources that we do not have, or for sources that do not have  
> the information he wants. For example he seems to think a marriage  
> index will tell him where a person was born and who his parents were…
>
>
>
> Several librarians on staff here have tried to help him with his  
> questions, but most of the time we just don’t have the resources  
> (marriage records, county level records, etc—which are located in  
> the state archives).  Or he doesn’t understand the types of  
> information that our resources will give him. We have referred him  
> several times to the Archives, but something seems to get lost in  
> the translation because he keeps writing back to us.
>
>
>
> I have even tried using online translation tools—limited as those  
> are—to respond to him in both English and French. But it doesn’t  
> seem to be working all that well. I am going to suggest that he try  
> to find a volunteer or hire a professional researcher who speaks  
> both English and French who can better explain what’s available,  
> where it’s available, and what kind of information is available.
>
>
>
> Does anyone on the list know of a researcher or volunteer who is  
> fluent in both French and English, preferably with research  
> experience in the Pacific Northwest? I tried a search on APG but  
> have not had much luck.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kathryn Devine
>
> Genealogy Reference Librarian
>
> Washington State Library
>
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