France

When seeking information about ancestors, a knowledge of where they lived is paramount to locating records. When researching regions before the start of civil registration this becomes even more significant as the records were generated at the local level. Knowing where the family lived will point you towards the appropriate repositories.

A surprising number of boundaries and borders have changed over the generations and the region the particular place is located in today could be entirely different. This may mean the records sought could be located in unexpected places and therefore a good understanding of borders and boundaries is important.

Apart from boundaries created by civil jurisdictions, a knowledge of the boundaries of ecclesiastical authorities is also significant. This is particularly so in the era prior to the introduction of civil registration when the Established Church maintained what we today would consider a civil function.

Départements in France were created in 1790 to replace the former monarchic regime's province known today as the Ancien Régime

Originally there were 83 départements created 4 March 1790.

The following table represents the current départements.

The original 83 départements

The original 83 départements created 4 March 1790 were:

Ain
Aisne
Allier
Ardèche
Ardennes
Ariège
Aube
Aude
Aveyron
Bas-Rhin
Basses-Pyrénées (Pyrénées-Atlantiques from 1969)
Bouches-du-Rhône (lost part to Vaucluse 1793)
Calvados
Cantal
Charente
Charente-Inférieure (gained territory from Dordogne 1794 Charente-Maritime from 1941)
Cher
Corrèze (lost territory to Dordogne 1793)
Corse (split into Golo and Liamone 1793; re-created by merging Golo and Liamone 1811)
Côte-d'Or
Côtes-du-Nord (Côtes-d'Armor from 1990)
Creuse
Deux-Sèvres (border varied 1973 - Puy-Saint-Bonnet to Maine-et-Loire)
Dordogne (In 1793 gained territory from Corrèze< 1793; lost territory to Lot-et-Garonne and Charente-Inférieure 1794; lost territory to Lot 1819)
Doubs (gained Republic of Mandeure in 1793 and permanently in 1816; gained Principality of Montbéliard 1816)
Drôme (annexed Comtat Venaissin 1792 from Papacy; lost territory to Vaucluse 1793)
Eure
Eure-et-Loir
Finistère
Gard
Gers (part lost to Tarn-et-Garonne 1808)
Gironde (Bec-d'Ambès  1793 to 1795)
Haut-Rhin
Haute-Garonne (part lost to Tarn-et-Garonne 1808)
Haute-Loire
Haute-Marne
Hautes-Alpes
Hautes-Pyrénées
Haute-Saône
Haute-Vienne
Hérault
Ille-et-Vilaine
Indre
Indre-et-Loire
Isère (lost territory to Rhône in in 1852 and 1967)
Jura
Landes
Loir-et-Cher
Loire-Inférieure (Loire-Atlantique from 1957)
Loiret
Lot (part lost to Tarn-et-Garonne 1808)
Lot-et-Garonne (gained territory from Dordogne 1794; part lost to Tarn-et-Garonne 1808)
Lozère
Manche
Marne
Mayenne
Mayenne-et-Loire (Maine-et-Loire from 1791; border varied 1973 with Puy-Saint-Bonnet from Deux-Sèvres)
Meurthe (part annexed by Germany and part to Meurthe-et-Moselle September 1871)
Meuse
Morbihan
Moselle (most annexed by Germany and part to Meurthe-et-Moselle September 1871)
Nièvre
Nord
Nord-de-Provence (renamed Haute-Provence and Basses-Alpes March 1790; lost territory to Vaucluse 1793; lost territory to Hautes-Alpes 1810; renamed Alpes-de-Haute-Provence April 1970)
Oise
Orne
Paris (renamed Seine 1795; reverted to Paris and lost bulk of territory January 1968
Pas-de-Calais
Puy-de-Dôme
Pyrénées-Orientales
Rhône-et-Loire (split into Rhône and Loire August 1793)
Saône-et-Loire
Sarthe
Seine-et-Marne
Seine et Oise (broken into Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Val-d'Oise and Yvelines in 1968)
Seine-Inférieure (Seine-Maritime from 1955)
Somme
Tarn
Var
Vendée
Vienne
Vosges
Yonne

Additional départements

1790

Basses-Alpes (created from Nord-de-Provence March 1790) 
Haute-Provence (created from Nord-de-Provence March 1790)

1793

Alpes-Maritimes (created 1793; recreated with annexing of Nice 1860; gained part Var 1860; annexed Monarco 1793; gained Italian territory 1947)
Golo – (created by splitting Corse 1793; merged with Liamone to form Corse 1811)
Liamone (created by splitting Corse 1793; merged with Golo to form Corse 1811)
Vaucluse – created from Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes August 1793

1808

Tarn-et-Garonne - created from Lot, Haute-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Gers, and Aveyron November 1808

1860

Haute-Savoie – annexed from Kingdom of Sardinia and formalized by treaty 1860
Loire – created by split of Rhône-et-Loire August 1793
Rhône – created by split of Rhône-et-Loire August 1793
Savoie – annexed from Kingdom of Sardinia and formalized by treaty 1860 

1871

Meurthe-et-Moselle (created at the end of the Franco-Prussian War from the parts of Moselle and Meurthe which remained French territory 1871)
Moselle – created from lands formerly part of Moselle and Meurthe surrendered to Germany in 1871
Territoire de Belfort – created 1871

1968

Essonne – created from Seine-et-Oise January 1968
Hauts-de-Seine - created from parts of Seine and Seine-et-Oise 1968
Seine-Saint-Denis - created from parts of Seine and Seine-et-Oise 1968
Val-de-Marne - created from Seine-et-Oise in 1968
Val-d'Oise - created from Seine-et-Oise in 1968
Yvelines – created from Seine-et-Oise January 1968 

1975

Corse-du-Sud (created 1975 by splitting Corse, territory corresponds to former département of Liamone)
Haute-Corse (created 1975 by splitting Corse, territory corresponds to former département of Golo)

Terrritory gained and lost by conquest

The additional départements gained by conquest and subsequently lost were:

Click to access information about present day locations.

Ecclesiastical authorities

Apart from boundaries created by civil jurisdictions, a knowledge of the boundaries of ecclesiastical authorities is also significant in family history. This is particularly so in the era prior to the introduction of civil registration when the Established Church maintained what we today would consider a civil function. The current Archdioceses are illustrated with the suffrgan dioceses. There are two exceptions - The Diocese of Metz and the Archdiocese of Strasbourg are subject to the Holy See and not the regional Primate. Unlike England which has a Primate for the whole country, France has a number of Primates where the term aligns more closely to ecclesiastical provinces.

Most dioceses coincide with a départementales boundary, but there are a few exceptions when some arrondissements are attached to a diocese outside the département, or form a separate diocese within the département especially in densely populated areas. In 1905 the separation of Church and State was recognised in law.

Acessing ecclesiastical records in France is not a major issue as with pre-1837 English research because the records were handed to the state! Church records become crucial for pre-1792 research since civil authorities did not begin registering vital statistics until 1792. Prior to this church records are often the only sources of family information. Church records continued to be kept after the introduction of civil registration.They areless detailed than the civil registers.

Church registers were handed over to departmental archives or town registrars. You will not find a parish register pre-dating 1792 in a church collection. The departmental archives will answer written inquiries regarding the whereabouts of the parish registers of a specific locality, but they will not search for a name in them.

The current structure as illustrated is modern, dating from 2002.

Where are the records?

The genealogical records you need to trace French ancestors are kept at the Deparemental Archives (Archives Départementales) and in local town halls where they are called Municipal Archives (Archives Municipales).

Some genealogical records have been digitised and made public online. A list of the Departmental Archives websites and what you can expect to find is maintained by Geneanet. You will find most archives have little material available to anyone but personal visitors!

Vital records
In 1539, King Francis I of France ordered the general keeping of baptismal and burial registers. The marriage registers have been introduced in 1579. In 1792, during the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly has introduced the Civil Registers for the general keeping of birth, marriage and death records.

The Civil Registers are kept at the local town halls and a copy is send to the Departmental Archives after 100 years. The Parish Registers are kept at the Departmental Archives. These are accessed via the Decennial Tables that are a ten-year alphabetical index of all births, marriages and deaths recorded in the Civil Registers. The Decennial Tables are kept at the local town halls and a copy is send to the Departmental Archives after 100 years.

Census returns
The Censuses (Recensements) were held in 1772, 1831, 1836, 1841, 1846, 1851, 1856, 1861, 1866, 1872, 1876, 1881, 1886, 1891, 1896, 1901, 1906, 1911, 1921, 1926, 1931, 1936, 1946, 1954, 1962, 1968 and 1975. The censuses that named individuals rather than just provide a count, les recensements or les dénombrements, began in 1836. Census-taking did not begin in Paris before 1926.

French censuses are seldom used for research because they have not been indexed. However, this is less of a barrier for small localities. Census records less than 100 years old are embargoed and may not be searched. You may find that pre-1887 censuses in the area of your interest have been destroyed in accordance with an 1887 decree, but this law was not applied everywhere. National censuses are usually found in the departmental archives. The early local census records, that were in reality tax records, of a few locations have been published or microfilmed. There are copies of these held by FamilySearch. They are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog in the Place Search under France, [Departément], [Town] - census.

Taxation records
The French Revolution transformed the tax system completely. In 1791 the contributions directes were established. This is a group of three types of taxes:

1. Contribution foncière - a land tax
2. Contribution mobilière - a buildings tax
3. Patente - a tax based on one's profession or business

Search strategy
To search for genealogical records, you must know in which department your ancestors lived. In the Postal Code the first two digits are representing the department in which the town is located. Many websites can help you find the Postal Code of a town. For example, go to www.codespostaux.com then enter the name of the town in the search form and click the Recherche button. It will give you the Postal Code, the name of the department and the name of the region. You can also search for the name of the town in the French Wikipedia at fr.wikipedia.org.

The 1776 baptism certificate for François Marie Jaunay held in the Chantilly Archives Municipales…