This web page stems from the core `tribe` of the French Family with Doretta (Dora) and George French holding court to their eleven children born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Doretta and George...Mom and Pop...Grandma and Pop...who lived `down home, up  home, over home` in Bergenfield, New Jersey, are at the center of this site.   Their eleven children brought in the newcomers:  the girls brought the Bolands,  the Stecklines,the Dunns and the Schneiders and the boys brought in four more  families (I don`t know those surnames yet).  The eleven made eighteen and the  eighteen made 44 (at one count)...and so on.

Our French Family origins are simply German and Irish.  Doretta`s parents were  from Hesse-Darmstadt and George`s parents from Northern Ireland. What`s  wonderful is both families ended up in Manhattan a few blocks from each other  where George and Doretta both were born in January of 1876.

One family story tells that Doretta`s mother broke a Ouiji board because it  said that Doretta would marry that Irishman George French!  Another says that  someone (Bitsches/Beaches, Degenhardts or both) owned a `gin` mill on 11th  Avenue. Some of the cousins have extraordinary music abilities.  Where is  that gene coming from?  I think it`s straight out of Doretta since she made  each of her children sit down at her piano at a very young age and repeat a  tune on the keys after her.  If they passed the test, they didn`t need piano  lessons, she said.  If they flunked, and only Aunt Ginny flunked, they (she)  would get piano lessons because music was important and since Ginny didn`t have  the natural ability, she needed it taught to her!

The French cousins are Doretta`s and George`s legacy although we are no longer  just Frenches.  Instead, we have lots of other grandparents and ancestors and  facts and stories.  I`ve started by adding the Bolands and many of their  ancestors. So, if you think you are part of this greater French family, please  send me facts and stories about your mothers and fathers and their mothers and  fathers which will only expand our French Family to include more and more  nationalities, religions and races.  It`s the American way and it`s fun.

As we learn about the past and the present, we will find that apples still  don`t fall very far from the old trees.

Please contact me at dskemp1@cox.net.