Loiret, France Genealogy

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France

Loiret

Guide to Loiret ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Online Church Records and Civil Registration

The vast majority of your research will be in church records and civil registration. Fortunately, these records are available online from the archives of each department.

Finding Church Records and Civil Registration Online

Each Department of France has archives that provide digitized images of these records.
Here is the website for the Department Archives of Loiret, where you will find these records:

Department Archives of Loiret

All parish and civil records from before 1832 held by the Archives Départmentales were burned in the bombing of Orléans in 1940. The only existing copies are the ones held in the communes. The Départment is scanning them and will gradually make them available online, completing this task in 2016.

Registres paroissiaux (parish registers)
Registres d'état civil (civil registration)
Censuses (recensements)

See Using France Online Department Archives for step by step instructions on finding and reading these records.

Search Strategy

Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
You can estimate the ages of the parents and search for their birth records.
Search the death registers for all family members.
Then repeat the whole process for both the father and the mother.
If earlier generations are not in the record, search neighboring parishes.

How to Read the Records

For more instruction on using these records, see:

Learning to Read Enough French to Do Genealogy

It's easier than you think! You do not have to be fluent in French to use these records, as there is only a limited vocabulary used in them. By learning a few key phrases, you will be able to read them adequately. Here are some resources for learning to read French records.

French Genealogical Word List

French Handwriting.