The Official Website of the Surname French
Last Updated by Mara French on 4/6/08. Back to FFA Home Page.
About Us
About Us Á Mission Statement Á Staff Á Chart Compilers Á From the Editor Á FFA Library Á Reunions Á WhatÕs New
Á The French Family Association
began in 1984 and the staff produced 4 newsletters yearly. Our strategies have
changed because of the high cost of printing and postage, but most importantly,
the internet has changed the world and it seems like the best way to reach
thousands of people. This also gives us more time to do research because there
will be no accounting procedures, printing costs, address updates, collating,
mailings, or money involved.
Á The newsletter, the Frenchline,
was produced between 1984-1998, right after I published a book on my direct
French line which I had been working on for 20 years. When I was 20, I applied
for a job which required a top-secret security clearance, at which time my parents
told me about all my relatives in the East. I became very fascinated with the
idea of visiting these unknown relatives since our immediate family was the
only French family who moved out west. After donating a copy of my book to the
Albany library in New York, I received many requests for further research;
hence, the start of the newsletter. The newsletter began with 5 subscribers,
had 100 within the first 6 months, and over 1,000 by the end of its run. At
that time, I wasnÕt able to put something in the newsletter to please all the
members, and the accounting chores became horrendous. When my mother became ill
in 1998, I stopped the newsletter and stayed with her until she passed away on
Christmas Eve of 2004. Now IÕm retired, IÕve moved to a small village in the
Sierra Foothills of California, and genealogy and the French family are my
passion.
Á You may wonder how the 4 original staff
members got together in 1984. I produced the newsletter. Nancy Dodge was
one of my subscribers. She read 2 ads in separate magazines about two men
(Roland Rhoades and Art Westneat) who wanted to start a French Family
Association. Nancy put the 3 of us in contact with each another, and we began
right away. Roland found a wealth of French data stored in boxes in the
basement of the New Hampshire Historical Library in Concord. He got permission
to have this material from Harry Dana French copied, and sent it to Art, who in
turn wrote a Basic program to organize the data. That was before there were
genealogical programs. Mara handled the newsletter and Nancy answered queries.
Á Please see our Mission
Statement for our goals. Thanks go to all the contributors who have helped
put this website together and make it beneficial to the Frenches of the United
States, and probably to the world.
Regards,
Mara French