Seeking French officer in Tonkin (Vietnam), Hongay coal mine ~1890s–1955
Hello everyone,
I am researching my great-great-grandfather, a French Army senior officer (lieutenant-colonel or colonel) who served and later retired in Tonkin, French Indochina — in the Haiphong / Hongay area (today Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam). I live in Vietnam and I am building a dossier for French nationality by descent, so any lead toward original records or living relatives would help enormously.
What the family remembers (oral history, confirmed by all elder members):
- His name was passed down phonetically in Vietnamese as "Y-lít-xăng i-vanh" — our best reconstructions are Alexandre YVAIN, Ulysse-Alexandre YVAIN, or variants EVIN / IVAIN / YVIN / SAINT-YVAN.
- Born roughly 1870–1885 in France; received his pension in gold (suggesting high rank).
- He had two Vietnamese wives (at Kiến An and Đồ Sơn, near Haiphong) and ten children, including: Y Georges, Y Jacques, Y Simone, Y Bert, Y Anna, and Y Bình (my great-grandfather, b. ~1913 – d. 1991, Roman Catholic, worked for the Société Française des Charbonnages du Tonkin — the Hongay coal company). "Y" is how the family remembers the surname.
- Several of his children moved to France
- He died after 1955 in North Vietnam and was buried on Hòn Gạc island, Ha Long Bay. Around 1991 the family found the grave gone; the French Embassy in Hanoi replied in writing that his remains had been reburied in a French cemetery — possibly via the 1986–87 Franco-Vietnamese repatriation programme (reinterments at the Fréjus memorial, 1990).
What I have already found in archives:
- The 1939 electoral roll of Quảng Yên province (Bulletin administratif du Tonkin, 1939) lists two French citizens at Hongay who may be his sons: YVAIN Robert, site foreman, b. ~1898, and EVIN Alexandre
- A 1935 newspaper (L'Avenir du Tonkin) mentions a "M. Ivain, chef d'atelier"
- I have searched the digitised ANOM civil registers (Haiphong, Kiến An, Đồ Sơn, 1908–1918) with no direct hit so far — the family's civil status was probably regularised late (1940s–1953), which was common for métis families.
My questions for the community:
- Does anyone have YVAIN / EVIN / IVAIN family trees with a branch in French Indochina / Tonkin, or descendants of French families from the Hongay–Haiphong colonial community?
- Any advice on tracing French repatriates from Indochina (1954–56) — passenger lists, repatriation files, or where their descendants tend to research today?
- Has anyone successfully queried the ONACVG / Mémorial des guerres en Indochine (Fréjus) interment registers for a named individual?
- Are there FamilySearch collections (films/images) covering French Indochina civil registration or Catholic parish registers (Diocese of Haiphong — Hongay and Kiến An parishes) that are not obvious from the catalog?
For privacy, I have not named living relatives here, but I can share the full research file (sources and references included) by private message.
Thank you very much — cảm ơn — merci beaucoup!
Answers
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Good morning @madamquinn0628
Generally, the FamilySearch Wiki is a good place to begin your search for records in a specific location/time. Unfortunately, the Wiki does not offer much on Vietnam or the Indochine.https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Vietnam_Genealogy
Querying the FS Catalog with the keyword "Indochine" is equally disappointing.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/results?count=100&q.keywords=Indochine
The only Registres de l'état civil for Vietnam are for 1861-1868.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:504920
You may wish to perform more queries on the Catalog using other terms.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog1 -
I have no knowledge of the French in Vietnam, but I have come across some of the sources of the French in India.
Some of the links I quote following are from the FIBIS Wiki, FIBIS being Families in British India Society.
The FIBIS Wiki page French https://wiki.fibis.org/w/French
The most relevant sections are probably ANOM, previously CAOM, and
Service historique de la Défense [SHD]
If you look at these two sections in detail you can hopefully work out whether your grandfather’s records are likely to be in a French archive. If not, you will need to investigate local archives.
In the military section there are also links to two online French Forums about World War 1. Your GGGF seems to have been of an age to have served during the First World War, possibly you could post a query on one, or both, (but not at the same time, and then cross reference)
You also need to try and find out the structure of the Army in Vietnam at the relevant periods. In India the Army structure included troops who were British in the British Army, and there was also a local Army, the Indian Army, where the officers were mainly British. The records for the Indian Army are mainly held in India. If there was a similar situation in Vietnam you would be looking for records in local archives.
There are two FamilySearch Centres in Vietnam, listed at https://locations.familysearch.org/en/vn
If you have not already done so, I suggest you contact one, or possibly both, and find out whether they can help you in anyway, either with general information, or specifics. Sometimes Centres may possess helpful books, or articles.
If you have not already done so, look at websites for the National Archives in Vietnam, and the National Library, and if necessary make further contact. Are there any records which would help you, or publications in their collections? Are there any equivalents to the British Army Lists, or Indian Army Lists which list details of officers, and are very helpful in giving further details about officers in the British or Indian Army.
Are there any commercial Directories for the French speaking region, similar in nature to the English language ones which broadly cover the English speaking Asian countries. These are described on the FIBIS Fibiwiki page China https://wiki.fibis.org/w/China#Directories_etc You could perhaps also try Searching in The Asia Directories database from the University of Basel, (mentioned in the link just quoted) as it is possible to Search across the whole database.
Gallica https://gallica.bnf.fr is the digital platform of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It would have digitised newspapers, which possibly may refer to Indochina, or if you are lucky, there may be some from Indochina. Perhaps there may be Directory type publications for Indochina. (I know there are some French language Directories for the Middle East).
Church records.
Historical church records may or may not have survived. If they have survived, they may be held by the local church, the originals, or copies, may have been sent to a regional, or national church location, or they may have been sent to a regional or national archive. If you are looking for church records you need to try and find out where they may be located. Perhaps you can find this out from FamilySearch Centres, or your National Archives/Library, or by contacting the current Roman Catholic Church Headquarters. Depending on the size of the church, the church in Vietnam may even have had its headquarters in France, or another country. As an example, I know that the Anglican church in Siam, was actually part of the Diocese of Singapore, see https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Thailand
Singapore newspapers sometimes provided information about surrounding countries. These are digitised and free, see https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Singapore#Newspapers
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