I received this message from a DNA cousin on 23andMe,

"Hello David, my name is Barbara. I am looking for relatives of Diane Monville, born in Hoboken, Antwerpen, Belgium, May 12, 1928. My birthname was Francine Monville. I was adopted in Vancouver B.C. 1951. Diane had three sisters and her mother and three sisters were all killed in the war and her father died in an POW camp. Her brother Jacques was in the French underground and was still alive in 1991 as a friend of mine spoke to him to ask if he knew of Diane. If you have any information about her or her family I would really appreciate it. Thank you."

I have searched a number of genealogy sites online without success.

If anyone in the Stamboom Forum can provide any information that might be helpful to Barbara, please let me know.

Hi David

a first casual scan on the name of Monville in the archive of Antwerp resulted in these two hits that might be relevant:

1. In 1925 a George Monville gets permission to build a house on the Leopoldslei, which is in the Hoboken part of Antwerp. Link

2. A Georges-L.G. Monville is buried on a cemetery in Antwerp as a civilian casualty of WWII. He died 11/11/1944 aged 44. Could this be the same George as under nr. 1 ? Link.

Given the age of this George nr.2, he could possibly be of the generation of the father of Diane Monville.

Thank you for this information. I will pass it along to Barbara M.

She has since sent additional messages to me at 23andMe. They add to the mystery, but may also point the way to new discoveries. 

“Devon T is also in my DNA pool and shows as my 1st cousin although she said it couldn't be because she is only about 30 years old. But I could be her aunt - either way she and I share 14.8 %

I believe Devon is my 1/2 niece. I have now found out my birth father's name is Ralph Henry Schoedel, now deceased. He married Josephine Clayes. She is also from Antwerp. They had a son and a daughter - my 1/2 brother and sister.  Unless my birth mom changed her name to Josephine etc... I still have no idea where she may be.”

I am going to suggest to Barbara M. that she join the Stamboom Forum.

Hi David

I tried some additional research today but was unsuccessful.

The period it concerns means that data from birth registries and population registries / census are not yet online for Antwerp & Hoboken.

The data from these registers is available from the Antwerp archives, on premis as micro-fiches but I don't live near Antwerp.

Also the Familysearch Reseach centres would have these files available, but again in (some) of their centres and not yet online.

I searched for the name of Monville in older archives (up to 1900) in Antwerp and in Hoboken, but the name doesn't appear in those. So that suggests to me this family may have arrived in Antwerp in the early 1900s, but from where is than the big question.

As said, the archives from 1925-1930, to look for the birth Diane Monville, are not available online yet and that makes it that much harder to research your question.

Thank you for all of this vital information.

I sent a message to Barbara M. describing the procedure for her to join in the discussion on Stamboom Forum.

She wrote that she would try.