Hello,

 

I was given the name of your group by the Belgian Consulate in New York. My mother, Annette Ansay Burke, will turn 80 in December of 2021. She was born to a man named Albert Jean Ansay who emigrated to the United States. We believe he came from Lambermont in Belgium. We have traced him back to his arrival in New York aboard the Zeeland. From US records, we think his birth date was 13 May 1903.  For my mother’s birthday, I would like to find out more about her family in Belgium. Would you be able to help me figure out how to do this? Ideally, when we can travel again, I’d like to go to Belgium with my mother so she can see the place her father’s family came from. I’m hoping to figure out where we should go, etc., before her birthday so I thought I should get started!

 

I did look around your website. The links for civil registers and parish registers are no longer working. Also, for the emigrants ships page, I think we could add the Zeeland in 1907, arriving from Antwerp to NYC. I’m not sure how to get the complete ships records – I only have the part with my grandfather and his family that I got from ancestry.com.

 

If you could help me figure out how to do research on the Belgian side of my mother’s family I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Also, I read through the more recent posts on this forum and saw the language discussion. Just to add to it, my grandfather spoke French (and also married a French Canadian as one other poster mentioned).

 

Thank you for any help you can provide,

René Fester