Gail Baugniet, ma cousine américaine

actu.24.be

Mis a jour le 10 september 2007

(article translated from this Belgian newspaper)

Thanks to his research, Raymond Baugniet of Andenne, Belgium found his cousines americaines, who spent 8 day in Belgium tracing their ancestors. Impassioned with genealogy, Raymone and his cousin Gail met via Internet.

"I tried to reconstruct my family tree," Raymond says. "With Gail, we have a common ancestor, Antoine Baugniet, who died in 1779. Antoine had tow sons, Philippe and Jean-Antoine. While typing his name on the Internet, I found the blog from Gail. It referred to Jean-Antoine Baugniet. I immediately understood that this was the same person. I had just found members of my family on the other side of the sphere." And Gail had already envisioned a trip to Namur with her sisters, Marian and Wendy.

The family tie was confirmed Thursday afternoon when the three sisters and Raymond went to the State Archives in Namur. "With my cousins, in moments we reestablished the missing link."

"A few days ago," Raymond says, "my son Andy returned from the United States where he spent one month as an exchange student in California. When the cousins arrived at our home, they were met with the Belgian flag waving alongside the American flag. We benefited from their travel plans," Raymond and his wife, Eliane, both agree.