Genealogy Chat

Hi,

I have a rumor that my father maybe/was living rough in Toulouse, France. This has come through a friend of the family who sited him about 8 years ago.

A long shot he's still alive, but does anyone have any advice on how I would find this out without actually going and trapsing around Toulouse and looking at every tramp I come across! Although this looks like this could be the only option.

Best Regards
Viveka

Hi, Viveka -- I was going to say: try to contact some social services agencies in Toulouse.

But while I was googling for them, one of the results was the Croix Rouge.

The Red Cross. That's one of the International Red Cross's tasks: finding missing family members.


What the Croix Rouge says about missing family searches:

http://www.croix-rouge.fr/goto/actions/recherches/index.asp

England:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=3513


Actually, it seems that tracing services focus on people missing in disasters and wars (that's how I know the service, having had refugee clients use it).

But you could probably get some advice from the local Red Cross offices.

You could also talk to consular services in the UK government, to see whether there is any assistance they can provide. Your dad probably hasn't been applying for a passport renewal, but he may have had some contact with UK govt services of some sort.


... been googling for services in Toulouse for homeless people. Homeless = sans-abri in French.

Here's something in English:

http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/gb/nos_missions/france/sdf_et_mal_loges

(It's a bad translation, but you can get the gist.)

You might try seeing whether contact through the website could put you in touch with someone local:

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Activities:

Faced with the problems of people living in the street who are too marginalised and weakened to make use of the public structures, MdM has developed mobile actions.

There are two objectives:
• to inform people of their rights to access to healthcare, and refer and accompany them to public structures;
• to see those without sickness cover in healthcare centres until they regain their rights.

Every year, MdM takes action, in winter and in summer, requesting accommodation and longterm housing. From its experience on the ground, MdM is continuing to bear witness to the harmful consequences to health of the lack of housing as well as of poor housing. The discontinuity and unsuitability of accommodation worsen the health of the neediest. Teams in France work throughout the year watching the situation in the context of patrols, medical consultations in accommodation centres and nursing beds, etc. In 2005, DGAS (the Social Work Directorate General) asked MdM to take part in a thinktank and to draw up specifications formalising “healthcare hostel beds” and this led to a circular on how these beds should operate and be funded. In December 2005, the Paris homelessness project was heavily involved in distributing “igloo” tents to the homeless and to alerting the authorities to the urgent need to overhaul their accommodation provisions.

Types of work :

> Medical and welfare consultations, patrols: Le Havre, Marseille, Metz, Nice, Paris, Strasbourg, **Toulouse**, Valenciennes. ...

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Groups do street patrols looking for homeless people in need of assistance. That might be just the place where someone might have some knowledge of your dad.


Of course, there is the possibility that he has died, and a group like that should be able to help you make inquiries in that regard, too.

HI Kathryn,

Thanks for all the info. I will definately look into what each place can offer and see what I can find out.

Thanks again for your help.

Best Wishes
Viveka

The Salvation Army are great at tracing missing people, I don't know if they are able to do it out of this country - it might be worth a try though.
Another thing you could do is put up posters with his name, and 'photo if you have one. Maybe the British Consul or a Priest would help with this if you could not go there yourself. He might see it himself, or someone might recognise him. It would be a good idea to have some sort of 'password', maybe a family event or particular joke that only he would know about. This would guard against someone claiming to be him which would cause you great upset. Sorry if this sounds a bit 007ish, but you can't be too careful.
Good luck

Very good suggestion, Eileen.

http://www.look4them.org.uk/salvation-army.html

http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/familytracing

I have major ideological problems with the Sally Ann, but one may as well use 'em for what they do.

Thanks Eileen & Kathryn for your suggestions and info.

Kind Regards
Viveka