t was my dad's fault. He should have known. You can never keep family secrets secret from a curious and nosy daughter like me

This is how it all began..

My father told me his mother was French. He told me his mother's parents were from France. He did mention his grandmother might have been from Belgium. .  He shared that my Grandmother, Mathilda Nicolle, had a smattering of brothers scattered here and there,  and one horrible sister she was close to.

End of Story..

That was all of the story and details, I could harvest from him

Thus starts the 25 plus years of research into what I eventually found to be sad and tragic stories of my grandmother, Mathilda née Nicolle Hootman, and the equally sad and tragic stories of her parents and direct siblings.

And surprise! We found out she had half siblings

Today, the male lines of Jules Nicolle & Leopold Morenier have died out. None of the sons from both sides of two families ever married. Only the female line exists

So here I am, with my trusty computers, notepad and pen in front of me, I've managed to tracked down both sides of my ancestral line to the early 1600s, a few from the late 1500s. Of course I couldn't have accomplished so much without the considerable help from volunteer French & Belgian genealogists!!

Bones of my bones...

his story is about my paternal grandmother Matilda Audrienne Nicolle, but it begins with my father John Jules Hootman.

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