How do I do a Work Exchange in France?

How do I trace back my family tree in France?

• Ok, so I've always had a love for the French language and French culture ever since I found out that my great-grandfather immigrated to Australia from the Grenoble region in France. The thing is I'm doing a year of student exchange in France at the moment and I'm not quite sure how to begin searching for who exactly he was. I know his first name, a chunk of his last name, the region he was from, and his year of birth and immigration. He lied on his immigration papers and said he was from Switzerland, but he always maintained that he was from France. We even have photos of him and his family having their picture taken in Grenoble, which is really mysterious because in those days it was expensive to have done, and only people looking to support their families with work immigrated to Australia... I want to find out who my great-grandfather was, why he came to Australia, and why he lied about his country of origin and last-name. but I don't know how to go about doing this in France...

• Answer:

  "He lied on his immigration papers and said he was from Switzerland, but he always maintained that he was from France."....................... and this is clearly what you have been told....which is a family story and could very well be a fairy story as 'immigration papers' are official and he may well would need to prove where he came from from official identication papers he had, so you do need to investigate this and you can do that from where you are now...... so before you go chasing rainbows, do some research from where you are.........if your grand parent is alive who was his child you need to speak to them, you certainly need to research them, and their parents, they have the same surname, so you should know the name, not a chunk of it........................ you give no dates and if you are talking about war time, he could well be French and escaped to Swizerland and was given Swiss forged identity papers........... that would be a very logical reason to lie..... it also could be a logical reason why he left........................ I suggest you add his name and someone will help, which will give you a good start should you wish to continue to search for him in first Switzerland then France.... from a DOCUMENT you have, not a bit of a name or what you think or are told.... you need the name he was known by