In memory of
François Jacques

 in French Garde Républicaine uniform, ca. 1871

 
François Jacques was born with French citizenship in 1845. He chose to
leave his home in France when Lorraine became German, as the Germans
siezed the area in 1870. Shortly after he left, he engaged as a French
soldier in the "Garde Républicaine" in Versailles, near Paris. One has to
remember that mostly all the population of eastern Lorraine was still
speaking a german dialect and very few French. This was, with his
longing for his parents who did not leave their home, one of the reasons
why he left the army ca.1872 to go back to Hoste. The Germans considered
him French and obliged him to opt for the German nationality.
During all this period, the Jacques were considered as "traitors" to
the new German Vaterland. Ironically, when the First World War was lost by
the Germans in 1918, the same Jacques family had to fight with the new
French administration to obtain back its French citizenship, whereas the
people who had not left the area were automatically accepted as French.

(photo and notes courtesy of his Great Great Grandson Marcel Jacques)

Marcel Jacques
photo taken in front of church at Hoste, France December 18, 2003

Color pictures of the Garde Républicaine uniform

FRANCE GENWEB

LINK TO DETAILED GENEALOGICAL
INFORMATION ABOUT LORRAINE

ALSACIAN GENEALOGY- good links for English
speaking genealogists who want to search in France

LINK TO HOSTE, FRANCE- tourism

LINK TO HOSTE, FRANCE- history

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