When I visited the Bearn region of Aquitaine, I learned that it was home to the Mialocq family at least since 1599, when Jean de Miallocq lived in Sainte-Suzanne.  That part of the visit, the discovery of our family history, was quite successful.  Unfortunately, the second goal was to discover information about my grandmother, Catherine Bourdeu. 

I had many discussions with my dear late cousin, Aleda, just prior to her death about the mystery of our grandmother.  In fact, it was Aleda who encouraged me to travel to France and we were to travel together.  In fact, on the day I was to purchase the tickets, her sister, my beloved cousin, Alma, told me that Aleda's cancer was winning and that she would be unable to make the trip.  Aleda passed away two weeks before I left.

Grandma Katie had told Aleda that she had been born in Aucun, near Lourdes, so my cousin, Jean-Claude, and I spent a day visiting Lourdes, then journeying up the mountains into Aucun, a beautiful medieval village dating back hundreds of years.  There we visited the Mayor's office and inspected years of dust-filled volumes documenting the births of its citizens.  NOT ONE BOURDEU!

How could that be?  Where did Grandma come from and why couldn't we find her ancestry?  I thought back to different things she had told me about her past, which was really very little. She had mentioned that she was a twin and that her twin had died young.  At various times she also said that she had many brothers and sisters, and Aleda remembered her saying that she had been adopted.

My most vivid memories were Grandma's tales of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, a time when she said she was forced along with her husband, Jean, to camp out in Civic Center.  I have since learned that this was an impossibility, since she did not arrive in New York with grandpa aboard the La Provence, until July 17, 1908, ironically exactly one year to the day before the birth of my uncle, Al, in 1909.

My last strong memory of my grandma was on Christmas Day in 1977 at my parents' home in San Carlos, when we were sitting on the couch together and discussing what would have been her 100th birthday, to take place on May 24, 1978, and the party that the family would give her.  She told me that she had lived long enough, that she was tired, and that she didn't want that celebration.  She passed away on January 19, 1978 (ironically my wife Sue's birthday) at what we believed to be the age of 99.

What we knew about Grandma Katie was ALL WRONG!

The break came just two weeks ago when Alma discovered an old postcard sent to Uncle Al, from another Jean-Claude Mialocq, this one from Dourdan.  This J-C is a renowned atomic scientist who is famous throughout France and listed in the Who's Who.  She sent the postcard to me and I was able to translate it and make contact with this man.  He was kind and gracious and sent a copy of the family tree he had researched.  It was identical to mine with one exception.  He had Grandma listed as having been born in Monein, and not in 1878, as she had said but in 1888.  He also had a marriage date of June 30, 1908 in Cardesse, just 17 days prior to having arrived in New York.

I advised my cousin, Jean-Claude of Jurancon, of these facts and he immediately went to Monein and Cardesse to obtain original copies of her birth certificate and her marriage certificate.  It was the marriage certificate that provided the information to break the case: