Libramont: Funeral Card Albums and Record Index Online

Busy week for new discoveries!
Here is an amazing site full of images of funeral cards for the town of Libramont in Belgium.  Libramont  is well known for its annual agricultural fair. This year it will take place July 27-30.  Follow this link to find out more on the Fair.
As interesting as the Libramont Fair may be, it is not what brings me here this morning.
A friend shared a link to a site sponsored by the Cercle Art et Histoire de Libramont-Chevigny.
It contains a series of albums of funeral cards that can be browsed through with the help of indexes.

At the top of the page, on the left you will see a + sign next to "Menu de la galerie"
It will pull down into three choices:

- Classement par Nom = Index by Surname
The pull down menu gives you an alphabetical listing

It looks like there is no other way but to open each image to see if there is one for you. Click on the image and get the full size one

 - Classement par Lieu = Index by Location (Naissance: birth and/or Deces: death)
works pretty much the same way, except you can pick between birth and death place

- Classement par  Date = Index by Date
 

Back to the Main "Home" page (Page d'Accueil)

Hover over "Généalogie" and look at the pull down menu

If you lose the link to the cards, they are found at the bottom of this menu under the bottom option
"Souvenirs mortuaires - GeneLibramont"

Notice also the other options:
1. Tables decennales de l'ardenne centrale: Libramont

 Ten-year tables are indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths spanning a decade, in this case 12 years: 1900-1912

Libramont > Naissances – 1900 1912 (births)
Libramont > Mariage – 1900 1912 (marriages)
Libramont > Décès – 1900 1912 (deaths)

Your 2nd option under the "Genealogie" heading:
2. Expo-Actes- GeneLibramont
will redirect you to an index of names that you can search in the same way that you would the Netradyle indexes but I could go no further than a listing and was redirected to GenWalBru, so something to check out further...

To become a member of the Cercle Art et Histoire de Libramont, visit this link:
http://www.cercle-art-histoire-libramont-chevigny.be/le-cercle/infos-pratiques/
You might consider simply emailing the contact person to see what procedures to follow for US citizens.  You will likely be provided a username and password necessary to access the ExpoActes search detail.

Under "L'entite", you will find a list of towns/villages that you can pick from and get a brief history on the location:

Under "Publications" you will find Books (Livres) and Revues (Newsletters)

that can be purchased

The "Bibliotheque" (Library) can only be accessed with a login.

You can become a member of a discussion group by clicking on "Forum" but you will need to send an email request to  forum@cercle-art-histoire-libramont-chevigny.be 

A good place to announce the additions made to the ExpoActes site.

In the meantime, have fun with the funeral cards and the tables at least!

Till next time!

http://thebelgianresearchers.blogspot.com/

Was one of your Belgian family members a soldier during WW1?

Then you should check this site: 

http://www.tenboome.webruimtehosting.net/guldenboek/Guldenboekprojecttotaal/goldenbook.htm

"The Golden Book of Firecard" aka “Guldenboek der Vuurkaart” in Dutch or "Livre d'Or des Cartes du Feu" in French is a compilation of cards issued to soldiers who fought during World War I published between 1933 and 1940: 8 in Dutch and 8 in French.

These books were indexed a few years ago and are now available online.
 http://tenboome.webruimtehosting.net/guldenboek/Guldenboekprojecttotaal/guldenboekonline.htm

Not every soldier who fought during WWI is listed in these books as not everyone was interested in filling out the form required to have their card published.
For that reason, if you do not find your family member listed in the index, you can have his name added and his story told by contacting Marc Verlinden

You can browse thru the books but it might be more productive to first check the index.

You can check the list (pdf format) in three ways:
Alphabetically ordered by family name
Alphabetically ordered by place of residence
Alphabetically ordered by regiment

Say you are looking for

Felicien ABSIL

You will need to look in book 33-34 p449 (image 449)

There are symbols under the pictures. A link enables you to download a 2 page-pdf file containing a legend for these and other abbreviations.

In the case of Felicien ABSIL:

he was from Namur, a soldier who received the Ordre de Leopold II medal, the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de la Victoire and the Medaille Commemorative de la Guerre 1914-1918.  Not sure I understand the other numbers and letter "7 ch. fr" or "1 ch. bl" but you can always inquire on their forum:


Regimental histories are also available if you know the regiment in which your family member served.  I have only one complaint: the content of those pages are yellow print on white background.

Using Felicien ABSIL as an example again, the index shows he served in the 1 Grenadier.
I highlighted the page to see what I was looking at and found that the 1st and 2nd Grenadier histories were grouped.  The history is in Dutch so you might want to highlight, copy and paste it into a translation software if you don't read Dutch.  It might not be perfect but will give you the gist of things.  For a better translation you might want to request someone's help on a forum.

The site is available in three languages: Dutch, English and French.

Happy Hunting!

http://thebelgianresearchers.blogspot.com/