Sir I saw your post and was wondering if you knew of some resources to research French ancestors in the LA, AR, MO areas? Ft Smith in particular where he had a son born about 1868 who was orphaned by the 1870 census. whether the father was of an age to fight in the civil war I have no idea as we have no info on him and only various possible spellings of the last name. Picking a census record, he was born in variously France, Louisiana, and Canada. I guess orphaned by two his son wouldn't really know (don't know if his older sister would).