Introducing my family...

Please click on the thumbnails to get a full-size image.

The standing two on the left are far-relatives. I can't define what links them to me. All are members of a brass band. The photograph has been taken before First World War. None of them were remaining after. Due to the original fuzziness of the photograph, I couldn't identify their strange badge. It's not obvious ont the full size image I give you but, believe me, THEY ARE ALL HOLDING AN UNLIT CIGARETTE. I don't know an will never know why. Click >HERE< to have a max size detail.

The uncle of my maternal grandfather. He was a joiner. I've refund this photograph behind a paneling. It must have fallen behind, then been forgotten. He did make the paneling.

My maternal grandfather (left) during his national service. He was in the Army, operating a 105 mm gun. He will commit suicide in 1939, when the French Army is defeated by the Reich.

His brother, Georges (right) will die two years later, for some obscure and never explained reasons. He will be found dead, a leather lace strangling his neck. The only remaining trace I keep from him is this photograh. You can read on the back: "Georges C. deceased at the age of 21, in Villaines, Indre-et-Loire. This town of Villaines was -and is still- famous for a community of basket makers. This art had been practiced since the Middle Ages in the area, but at the beginning of the XXth century, a catholic priest did organise the basket makers into a cooperative that became famous in france. The problem has been that, traditionaly, the gipsies had been making baskets for ages in France. Rivalry ? Vengeance ? However, Uncle Georges has been killed.

My maternal grandmother. She was not married yet. She was a rather feminist woman, having worked in a gun factory all First World War long. She will keep working her life long , even with her five children. She will be married thrice, before, while, and after World War Two. First with a French, then with a danish refugee (killed by Gestapo), an finally with a French Jew. My mother married with a Spanish. That's why our family is international. More than this : it's bacome a tradition.

Me, aged two months.

Me, aged twelve months. I know : I look like a girl, but I'm a boy.

My mother with my two uncles, my two aunts, and three cousins. Respectively : Robert, Norven, Julie (my mother), Henriette, and Nahum for the adults. Romain (son of uncle Robert), Aurélia (daughter of aunt Norven), Bethsabée (daughter of Nahum) for the children.
I'm the little boy with the rocking horse. This picture was taken in 1962 in French town of Charnaille (France).

My mother Julie and me, at the restaurant. We were celebrating the bar-mitzvah of Abel, the son of Nahum.

Me on a beach in Italy.

Me and Toren (son of aunt Norven), bathing in a lake. I'm the one on the right.

Twenty years after, my cousin Aurélia, in 1980. She works now as a chemist in a pharmaceutical plant. She does not talk that much about her work, by professional secrecy. She is always tired.

Her boyfriend, works in the same plant.

Another one, Bethsabée, in 1982. She is now an history teacher in Lyon. She has become a specialist of the history of the Jewish world and its relationships with the non-Jewish Europe. She has written two books : "Jewish communities in northern Europe 1880-1914", "Protestant and Jewish communities".

Romain (son of uncle Robert) has joined a humanitarian association. During a mission in Kampuchea, he met Ling. In fact, Ling is not Kampuchean, she is Chinese, from a family of tradesmen. They are now living in Paris. This photograph has been taken for her 34th birthday. That's amazing to see how our family has changed through this union. Any of us has got cooking recipe from China, now, and the "worship of the ancestors" has become important for us. Through the memories of them more than through a cult, but they have become more present for most of us.

Well, you may have guessed that all this family history was fake. All this photographs have been found in the deserted houses of which I talk of in the "Vanishing Granny" section of this site. Except the three last. The two young women are identity photographs found by chance on the street . The last one, the Chinese woman, has been foun by a brother-in-law of mines (a real one) in paris. If you want to learn more about this woman, you can read was is written on the rear side of the photograph by clicking >here<. E-mail me if you know her or if you have any comments.

But you can also click >here<to get the true story.