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Handwritten page of the 1712 burial register of Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée, Valenciennes, with the name Leborne written in the margin — Register of the dead, Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée, Valenciennes, 1712. Archives départementales du Nord, 5 Mi 055 R 001, image 1005.

Close-up of the entry naming Michel Leborne — Register of the dead, Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée, Valenciennes, 1712. Archives départementales du Nord, 5 Mi 055 R 001, image 1005.

Case file: a tavern keeper who left no trail

Michel Le Borne kept the White Glove tavern in Valenciennes and died in 1712. His son Jacques Antoine sailed to Louisiana in 1718 and founded a family on the German Coast. The Valenciennes trail went cold, because the parish books from before 1694 are lost. So we followed his eldest son to Cambrai, found where the family began, and are now working back from there.

The link

Every generation is tied to the next by a record you can read

A name in a tree is a claim. The link is the proof: the baptism or birth record that names the child and the parents together. We show it for every generation, with the words that matter highlighted, and we tell you plainly when a link is probable rather than proven.

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The link[?] Probable

Jacques Antoine Le Borne, born 1697, Valenciennes is the child of Michel Le Borne × Marie Jeanne Manart

Baptism, Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée, Valenciennes, 15 May 1697

Handwritten French baptism entry of Jacques Anthoine, son of Michel Leborne and Marie Jeanne Manart

TranscriptionLe quinze may 1697 fut baptisé Jacques Anthoine fils legitime de Michel Leborne et de Marie Jeanne Manart, fut parain Jacques Baillez [?], maraine Marie Françoise D[e]haut [?]

TranslationOn 15 May 1697 was baptized Jacques Antoine, lawful son of Michel Leborne and Marie Jeanne Manart; godfather Jacques Baillez [?], godmother Marie Françoise Dehaut [?].

AD Nord, Valenciennes Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée, 5 Mi 055 R 001, image 58 · Original register, primary information

Is the Louisiana settler the Valenciennes child?

Passenger roll of La Marie, La Rochelle to Louisiana, 23 May 1718

Handwritten passenger roll line reading antoine Borne de valencienne

TranscriptionClaude Bouchereau de paris / antoine Borne de valencienne / Robert jacob de prenay

Translation“Antoine Borne, of Valenciennes”, one of the people of the Delaire concession sailing on La Marie for Louisiana.

Roll of concessionaires and passengers of La Marie (Capt. Jappy), La Rochelle, 23 May 1718; ANOM, COL F5 B 57, view 16 · Original roll, primary information for the embarkation; his origin as the clerk wrote it

Why it’s probableThe baptism proves Michel and Marie Jeanne Manart were the parents of a Jacques Antoine born in 1697, still in Valenciennes in 1709 as godfather to his half-brother. The 1718 roll adds the bridge: an Antoine Borne “of Valenciennes”, who would have been 21, sailing for the colony where Jacques Antoine Le Borne settles. Name and town agree.

What would settle itRule out a second Antoine Borne born in Valenciennes about 1690–1700 in the city’s baptism indexes. If there is none, this link is proven.

before 1694
Parish registers lost
Found Sep 2026
The Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée registers before 1694 don’t survive, so Michel’s marriage and his eldest son’s baptism had to be found somewhere else.
1687
Marriage of Michel Le Borgne and Joanna Manart, Cambrai
Found 1 Oct 2026
matrimonio juncti sunt Michael Le borgne et Joanna Manart parochiae hujus
Married at St-Martin, Cambrai, on 4 February 1687, “of this parish”. The Valenciennes clerks never recorded it because the family hadn’t moved there yet.
AD Nord 5 Mi 012 R 021, folio 65
1687
Baptism of their son Jean Claude, Cambrai
Found 1 Oct 2026
Joannes Claudius filius legitimus Michaelis Leborne et Mariae Joannae Manar
Baptized at St-Nicolas, Cambrai, on 30 October 1687. This settles a puzzle: Jean Claude was Marie Jeanne Manart’s son, so there was no “unknown first wife”.
AD Nord 5 Mi 012 R 025, folio 663
1712
Burial of Michel
Found Sep 2026
No age, no parents named. Eleven months later his widow still occupies the house “bearing the sign of the Gant Blanc” in the rue des Goblets.
AD Nord 5 Mi 055 R 001, image 1005; Fonds Caffiaux, cote 3822
1718
Jacques Antoine sails for Louisiana: “antoine Borne de valencienne”
Found 1 Oct 2026
antoine Borne de valencienne
The passenger roll of La Marie, La Rochelle, 23 May 1718, lists him by name and town. This is the record that ties the Louisiana family to Valenciennes.
ANOM, COL F5 B 57, view 16
1747
Jean Claude, master brewer of Cambrai, buried “aged 60”
Found Sep 2026
Died December 1747 at sixty: an exact match with the 1687 baptism, tying the Cambrai brewer to Michel’s eldest son.
Cambrai burials 1747, p. 230 (St-Fiacre)
Now
Searching: Michel’s own baptism and parents in the Cambrai registers
Research ongoing…
Reading the Cambrai parish books page by page for the 1650s and 1660s, and following the godmother Maria Le Borgne.

Read the full case

Research log · Michel Le BorneResearch ongoing

Last updated 1 Oct 2026 · 1,046 register images read · 45 searches logged

Research questionWhere was Michel Le Borne born, and who were his parents? He married at Cambrai in 1687, so probably born about 1655–1667.

NowRegisterCambrai La Madeleine baptisms, 1630–1650Reading page by page for Michel’s own baptism and his parents.In progress
1 Oct 2026RegisterPassenger roll of La Marie, La Rochelle, 1718“antoine Borne de valencienne” sailing for Louisiana, 23 May 1718: ties the Louisiana family to Valenciennes.ANOM, COL F5 B 57, view 16Found
1 Oct 2026RegisterCambrai La Madeleine baptisms, 1659–1679Marie Jenne Manart, baptized 30 Aug 1665, daughter of Hierosme Manart and Barbe Douchet: probably Michel’s wife. Not yet proven.AD Nord, Cambrai La Madeleine, ark 6h5nkmx34zfd, img 801[?] Lead
1 Oct 2026RegisterCambrai La Madeleine baptisms, 1659–1679Read page by page: no baptism of a Michel Le Borgne or Le Borne. A few faint pages can’t be fully excluded.AD Nord, ark 6h5nkmx34zfd, imgs 776–849Not found
1 Oct 2026RegisterCambrai La Madeleine baptisms, 1646–1659Read page by page: no baptism of a Michel Le Borgne or Le Borne.AD Nord, ark 6h5nkmx34zfd, imgs 700–775Not found
1 Oct 2026RegisterCambrai La Madeleine baptism table, Michel entriesBoth indexed Michel baptisms dated: 1641 and 1679. Neither is ours; they belong to the other Cambrai Michel’s family.AD Nord, ark 6h5nkmx34zfd, imgs 219 and 576Not found
1 Oct 2026RegisterCambrai La Madeleine baptisms, 1641Household of Michel Leborne × Jeanne Fi[?]lle (1640s) could include a younger son Michel. Best lead for his parents.AD Nord, ark 6h5nkmx34zfd, img 219[?] Lead
1 Oct 2026RegisterCambrai La Madeleine burials, 1689–1727Michel × Anne Le Clerc was buried at Cambrai in 1720 aged 80. Ours died in 1712, so they are two different men.Not found

Every empty search is logged, so nobody pays to repeat it. This is the format every client receives.View full log (46 entries)

Handwritten marriage entry from January 1697 in the Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée register

What the work looks like

“Le seize janvier 1697 furent fiancés Robert François Alardin de la paroisse de St Géry et Marie Claire Marlier de cette paroisse…”

Most answers sit in pages like this one: no index, period spelling, a clerk’s hurried hand. We read them line by line, in the original language, until the answer turns up or the record runs out.

Marriages, Notre-Dame-de-la-Chaussée, January 1697. AD Nord, 5 Mi 055 R 001, image 163.

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Hanging tavern sign reading Au Gant Blanc, Rue des Goblets, Valenciennes, with a white glove

About us

Why we’re called White Glove

In the early 1700s, a tavern keeper named Michel Le Borne ran a cabaret in Valenciennes, in northern France, under the sign of the White Glove: au Gant Blanc, rue des Goblets.

We found him the way we find everyone: one handwritten line at a time. The parish clerk who buried his wife in 1707 wrote “au blan gand rue des gobletz.” When Michel was buried in January 1712, the clerk wrote “Blan Gand” again. His son Jacques Antoine had already grown up in that tavern. In 1718 he sailed from La Rochelle to Louisiana and started a family that is still there three hundred years later.

Our founder descends from that family. Tracing Michel back through French and Belgian archives, register by register, is the work that started this company, and it’s still going: in 2026 the trail led from Valenciennes to Cambrai, where Michel married and his first children were baptized. We named the company after his tavern because that sign is where our own story begins, and because “white glove” already means what we promise: careful, patient handling of something irreplaceable.

Why we do this

Every family has someone who disappears from the record: an immigrant who never said where he came from, a grandmother whose maiden name nobody wrote down, a line that stops cold in 1850. Those gaps don’t mean the answer is gone. Usually it’s sitting in a register nobody has read yet, in a language the family no longer speaks.

We love the moment a name turns up in the margin of a three-hundred-year-old page. We love it just as much when we can show a family exactly where the records end and why. Either way, you get the truth about your people, with the evidence to back it up.

A note for the archivists: we don’t actually wear white gloves to handle old paper. Clean, dry hands are better for it. The gloves are about how we treat your family’s story.

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How much does genealogy research cost?

Independent genealogists usually charge by the hour, and established firms sell packages starting around $3,200. White Glove Genealogy charges by surname line: $600 for up to 200 years, $1,500 for a full line as far back as the records go, and $2,000 for a full line with three years of quarterly checks. Family ($4,000) and White Glove (from $10,000, priced after an evaluation) cover many lines at once.

How long does it take?

First findings within days. Most lines complete in 2–6 weeks. Lines that run through unindexed registers in several archives take longer, and you can follow every search in your account as it happens.

What is a surname line?

One family name, followed back in time from father to father, starting at the earliest ancestor you already know with that name. Spelling changes are followed too: Le Borne, Leborne and Le Borgne are one line. Each wife’s and mother’s own surname is a separate line.

How far back can you go?

It depends on where your family lived. English parish registers start in 1538 and many French, Italian and Spanish records in the late 1500s or 1600s. Irish Catholic registers often begin only around 1800–1830, and Eastern European records are patchier. Most lines reach somewhere between 1550 and 1700.

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You get the full search log, an explanation of what the records show and don’t show, and a plan for what remains. A $600 line costs nothing more. On a $1,500 full line, we refund $900 if the line ends within the first 200 years.

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Yes. Our research engine reads and transcribes handwritten records, compares candidates and writes up its conclusions following the Genealogical Proof Standard. Every transcription is shown next to an image of the original page, readings we’re unsure of are marked [?], and every conclusion cites the record behind it, so you, or any genealogist, can check our work line by line.

Which countries do you cover?

Most of Europe, the Americas and the British Isles, wherever surviving records can be reached online. Each line shows what to expect before you order.