France Genealogy

France Wiki Topics
Beginning Research
Research Strategies Record Finder Finding Town of Origin Online Learning
Record Types
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France Background
Biography Church History Cultural Groups French Word List Gazetteers Historical Geography History Huguenots National ID Number - Insee	Languages Maps Naming Customs, French Naming Customs, Basque Social Life & Customs For Further Reading
Local Research Resources
Archives & Libraries Societies FamilySearch Centers
Moderator
The FamilySearch moderator for France is SugdenHG

Eiffel tower at sunrise from the Trocadero

Getting started with French research

Welcome to the France page! FamilySearch Wiki is a community website dedicated to helping people throughout the world learn how to find their ancestors. Through the France page you can learn how to find, use, and analyze French records of genealogical value. The content is variously targeted to beginners, intermediate, and expert researchers. Here you will find helpful research tools and research guidance. Please visit the help page to learn more about using the site. The French Page is a work in progress, your contributions and feedback are essential! For help with specific areas in France, click here for a list of locations and topics.

See the tutorials at the FamilySearch Learning Center on basic French Researchand on Reading French Handwritten Records.

History of France

See the Facebook page "Histoire de France - sites et blogs" for more information.

Jurisdictions

Prior to March 1790 France was organized into provinces.  Several administrative regions of France still carry the names of the former provinces.

Departments

Today France is divided into 96 departments plus 5 overseas departments. This number has changed over the years, in 1790 there were 83 and at the height of Napoleon's reign there were as many as 130. Records are kept on the town level, but one needs to know in which department the town is located.

01 Ain 02 Aisne 03 Allier 04 Alpes-de-Haute-Provence 05 Hautes-Alpes 06 Alpes-Maritimes 07 Ardèche 08 Ardennes 09 Ariège 10 Aube 11 Aude 12 Aveyron 13 Bouches-du-Rhône 14 Calvados 15 Cantal 16 Charente 17 Charente-Maritime 18 Cher 19 Corrèze 2A Corse-du-Sud 2B Haute-Corse 21 Côte d'Or 22 Côtes d'Armor 23 Creuse 24 Dordogne 25 Doubs 26 Drôme 27 Eure 28 Eure-et-Loir 29 Finistère 30 Gard 31 Haute-Garonne 32 Gers 33 Gironde

34 Hérault 35 Ille-et-Vilaine 36 Indre 37 Indre-et-Loire 38 Isère 39 Jura 40 Landes 41 Loir-et-Cher 42 Loire 43 Haute-Loire 44 Loire-Atlantique 45 Loiret 46 Lot 47 Lot-et-Garonne 48 Lozère 49 Maine-et-Loire 50 Manche 51 Marne 52 Haute-Marne 53 Mayenne 54 Meurthe-et-Moselle 55 Meuse 56 Morbihan 57 Moselle 58 Nièvre 59 Nord 60 Oise 61 Orne 62 Pas-de-Calais 63 Puy-de-Dôme 64 Pyrénées-Atlantiques 65 Hautes-Pyrénées 66 Pyrénées-Orientales

67 Bas-Rhin 68 Haut-Rhin 69 Rhône 70 Haute-Saône 71 Saône-et-Loire 72 Sarthe 73 Savoie 74 Haute-Savoie 75 Paris 76 Seine-Maritime 77 Seine-et-Marne 78 Yvelines 79 Deux-Sèvres 80 Somme 81 Tarn 82 Tarn-et-Garonne 83 Var 84 Vaucluse 85 Vendée 86 Vienne 87 Haute-Vienne 88 Vosges 89 Yonne 90 Territoire-de-Belfort 91 Essonne 92 Hauts-de-Seine 93 Seine-St.Denis 94 Val-de-Marne 95 Val-d’Oise 971 Guadeloupe 972 Martinique 973 Guyane 974 La Réunion 976 Mayotte

Historic Provinces (and their capitals)  

Alsace (Strasbourg)  Angoumois (Angoulême)  Anjou (Angers)  Artois (Arras)  Aunis (La Rochelle)  Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand)  Berry (Bourges)  Bourbonnais (Moulins)  Brittany (Rennes)  Burgundy (Dijon)  Béarn (Pau)  Champagne Troyes)  Comtat Venaissin (Papal Fief)  Corsica (Ajaccio)  Dauphiné (Grenoble)  Flandres and Hainaut (Lille)  Foix (Foix)  Franche-Comté (Besançon)  Guyenne and Gascony (Bordeaux)  Île-de-France (Paris)  Languedoc (Toulouse)  Limousin (Limoges)  Lorraine (Nancy)

Maine (Le Mans)  Marche (Guéret)  Montbelliard, Fief of Württemberg  Imperial Free City of Mulhouse  Nice, County of  Nivernais (Nevers)  Normandy (Rouen)  Orléanais (Orléans)  Picardy (Amiens)  Poitou (Poitiers)  Provence (Aix-en-Provence)  Rhône-Alpes (Lyon)  Roussillon (Perpignan)  Saintonge (Saintes)  Savoy, Duchy of (Chambéry then Turin)  Savoie Propre (Chambéry)  Tarentaise (Moûtiers)  Maurienne (Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne)  Genevois (Annecy)  Chablais (Thonon-les-Bains)  Faucigny (Bonneville)  Touraine (Tours)  Trois-Évêchés (Metz, Toul and Verdun)

Research Tools

• Currently online record collections for France are not available. See wiki listings* below for more information.
• Finding Records of your Ancestors in France 1792 to 1880
• France Letter Writing Guide
• France Research Outline
• French Archives Online
• French Handwriting
• French Republican Calendar
• French Wordlist
• Gallica: The French “Library of Congress”
• Research Guide for France by BYU
• France Records Websites

*Wiki article describing collections are found at:

• France Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France Deaths and Burials (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France, Coutance, Parich Church Registers (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France, Diocese of Coutances et d'Avranche, Parish Registers (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France, Coutances et d'Avranche Diocese, Inquiries of Consanguinity (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France, Protestant Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• France, Quimper et Léon - Parish Registers (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Research Strategies

• Birth records 1539-1791
• Birth records 1792-Present
• Death records 1539-1791
• Death records 1792-Present
• Marriage records 1539-1791
• Marriage records 1792-Present
  

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French citizens of Alsace-Lorraine (Haut Rhin, Bas Rhin, Moselle) often speak German. Many people from this area moved to Russia and the Ukraine and are discussed in Germans from Russia.

Did you know?

• The archives of most of the départements (states) in France and 60 French cities have digitized a wide range of historical records and made them available online. Additional French archives are coming online monthly. Records available often include birth, marriage, and death records, cadastral and other land records, military records, censuses, and more. Click here to see the latest updates.
• French national censuses are seldom used for primary research by most family historians, and many have not been microfilmed.
• Some French military records begin as early as the 1500s. Records since the 19th century may include information about an ancestor's military career, such as promotions, places served, pensions, and conduct. In addition, these records may include information about his age, birthplace, residence, occupation, physical description, and family members.

Things you can do

In order to make this wiki a better research tool, we need your help! Many tasks need to be done. You can help by:

To add your knowledge and help expand the wiki click here:

Expand an article or short page Create a new article Categorize articles

Add external links to articles Add internal links to articles Translate pages

Articles that need editing:

• French Records Online

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