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France Military Records

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By War

Thirty Years War

1618-1648: Thirty Years War. Many records destroyed in eastern France. Severe devastation in German areas.

King William's War

1689-1697: King William's War. In England, it was called the War of the Grand Alliance.

Queen Anne's War

1703-1713: Queen Anne's War. Also known as War of Spanish Succession.

King George's War

1744-1748: King George's War.

French and Indian War

1756-63: Seven Years War also known as French and Indian War. Britain consolidates colonial power at the expense of France.

American Revolution

1778-1783: French assistance in the American Revolution.

  • Bodinier, Gilbert. Dictionnaire des officiers de l'armée royale qui ont combattu aux Etats-Unis pendant la guerre d'Indépendance 1776-1783 (Officers in the Royal French Army who fought in the United States during the American War for Independence, 1776-1783). Vincennes, France: Service historique de l'armée de terre, 1983. (FS Library book 944 M2b; not on microfilm.)

National Park Service - Yorktown Battlefield

French Revolutionary Wars

1792-1800: French Revolutionary Wars. France invaded Germany and Italy.

Napoleonic Wars

1800-1815: Napoleonic Wars surge back and forth across Europe.

Crimean War

1853-1856: Crimean War. France, Britain, Türkiye fight Russia.

Franco-Prussian War

1870-1871: Franco-Prussian War. German Empire founded upon defeat of France and took Alsace and Lorraine to form Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen).

World War I

World War II

Military Records Overview

Military records are from times of war and times of peace. They identify individuals who served in the armed forces or who were eligible for service. Military records may help individuals learn more about ancestors who served their nation. These wiki pages teach terminology and describe the contents, uses, and availability of major sets of records created mostly by governmental entities. They may be used to learn about communal, departmental, and national sources. The wiki pages discuss only sources that identify personal information about individuals in the armed forces and their units. They do not discuss historical sources about military institutions weapons, battles, or tactics. The Wiki pages for the separate departments have more information about departmental military records.

It should be known that there is an effort put forth by the National Archives to digitize and make available online all Registres matricules militaires or military registration records. Currently, the goal is to do so up to 1921. However, it will be on a departmental and archival basis and will differ from one to another. The good thing is they are working on it.

Military records identify individuals who served in the military or who were eligible for service. Most young men were required to serve in or register for military service in France. Evidence that an ancestor actually served may be found in family records, civil registrations, biographies, censuses, probate records, military conscription records, and church records.

Some French military records begin as early as the 1500s but are rare. They may give 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.

The records you will find include:

  • Conscription records (in the 1800s).
  • Muster rolls.
  • Personnel files.
  • Regimental files.
  • Lists of officers
  • Pension records.
  • Correspondence.

Many of these records have been centralized at the Military Archives in Vincennes, but the conscription records are kept at the departmental archives. The FamilySearch Library has not filmed military records, except for a few conscription records in the department of Bas-Rhin from 1817 to 1856.

Confidentiality

Military records are kept confidential for more years from the soldier's birth. Other sources (such as church records and civil registration) are more easily available and contain much of the same information.

To use French military records, you will have to determine the soldier's specific regiment or ship the sailor served. If you do not know this information, it may be possible to learn which units were raised in the area where your ancestor lived. To do this, you must know at least the district [arrondissement] where the individual was living when he was of age to serve in the military.

Restriction to Research by Privacy or Confidentiality Laws by Record Types

A guideline to avoid conflict with a privacy law when searching military records is to make sure that the soldier would have been older than 150 years in the present year when researching.

Privacy restrictions:

120 years for personnel records

150 years for former combatants’ records

100 years for military justice records after the file was closed

150 years for medical records from the respective person’s date of birth.

150 years for military service records (also known as matricule registre)[1], [2], [3]

Military Records Genealogical Value

Military Records are useful for following movements of young men, disclosure of military regiment assignments, and may substitute for missing civil registers.

Content is similar to birth registers and lists only 17-21-year-old males, their parents, residence, physical descriptions, current status such as exempt, moved away, deceased, etc.[4]

Military censuses or conscription records may help determine where a person was from. Not all collections are indexed. They are compiled year by year and listed alphabetically in each locality for men who are age 19 and 20. The towns may be grouped in cantons and districts. Each department has several districts. Because of this, a search for conscription records can be time-consuming. You will need your relative's birth year and birth department before beginning research for conscription records in departmental archives.

Records of French troop assignments [contrôles de troupes] start in 1716. They are arranged by regiment name and the date each company in the regiment was raised. The list shows where the company was raised, commanders, and number of men. It cites the archive number of the company's records and the types of information in the records (such as names of parents and dates and places of birth). Troop assignments from 1716 to 1789 are listed in:

Corvisier, André. Les contrôles des troupes de l'Ancien Régime (Troop assignments of the Ancien Régime). Four Volumes. [S.n.]: Concours du C.N.R.S., 1970. (FS Library book 944 M23c; not on microfilm.) Volume 2 infantry; Volume 3 cavalry, artillery, militia, French guards, Swiss troops, disabled companies, and colonial navy; Volume 4 indexes by name of the regiment, commanders, or company.

The military archives in Vincennes have not been microfilmed. Archivists occasionally answer letters, but you must know the exact name of the person, time period, rank, and regiment or ship. Do not expect to obtain much information from before 1800.

The following information may locate French military records:

Division of Archival Records

Ancient or Modern

There are two divisions of records in France. The period before the revolution is called Series Anciennes or Ancien Regime and the after the revolution Series Modernes or Modernes. For a loose guide 1799 back for the older series and 1800 forward for the modern series. Though it may vary a little.

Series

Series are smaller divisions in the fonds or collections. Within the series there are subsets. This page will tell you where specific series generally are but there may be exceptions in the archive system. Series are letters example A or AA. Now let us discuss the general locations.


Commune Archives

The smallest jurisdictional archive hold records for the local town also known as Mairie or Commune and may require a trip to access their records. Some fonds or collections many include correspondence. There are a number of these collections in departmental archives on occasion. Which would be a strike of fortune as it may be online. This first set of military records to look for is called Registres Matricules, these records are military recruitment records. Series EE will regard military matters before 1790.

Series H will regard military matters from after the revolution about 1793.

These commune series designations are part of the national organization system of France’s archival system. It will be standard in any or all communal archives throughout France.


Department Archives

Next would be the department, which may have some of the mairie or commune records if it is one of the small towns that cannot preserve its own records. However, on the department level you may find the following records:

Series C this set will hold records that have to do with provincial administration which may have lists from drawing lots, militiamen, and militia administration registers.

Series L this set will hold records from the revolutionary period. It may have election lists for the Nationale Guard as well as lists and documents including Registres d’inscriptions des volontaires.

Series R is military records. This set is the one set that is currently being digitized throughout the French Archival system. This is the first set to search when beginning military research. This set of records may contain listes de triage au sort(which was the result of drawing lots), conscription records, matriculation rolls, or another name for military registration records for military service. Below is a little more detail about the different types.

Liste des conscrits or liste du contingent which are conscription lists.

Registres du recrutement – another name used for recruitment records.

Registers matricules- These set or records are military and are sent from SHAT to the departmental archives. This set has a privacy limitation of 150 years. These records will only list those that were called on to serve in the military.

Demandes de dispense de conscrits maries ou soutiens de famille- Requests to be removed from service because of marriage or heads of household.

Dossiers de decorations militaires- military honors

Listes de refractaires et deserteurs- List of disserters

Series U is justice militaire. This set will have arrest records by the police. It will also have pronounced judgments or jugements de Conseils do Guerre. It will also have a list of soldiers who died in the hospital or listes de militaires decedes dans les hopitaux.[5],[6], [7], [8], [9],[10]


National Archives

The National Archives holds a limited number of military records so very few collections or fonds or series have them.

Series O This is from the older regime and this Series holds elite regiments like the cavalry, musketeers, and Cent-Suisse or Swiss Guard.

Series C- Will have personnel records

Other National Archives for Research

Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre-

This archive is commonly known as SHAT. This will be for the historical army records of France.

Marine- Has branches in Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Toulon, for Archives National and Service historique de la marine.

Archive d’Outre-Mer-

This archive is mostly known as the archive that has the most records that have to do with France’s colonial empire. However, there are collections that could be of use for French military research for family history research. Some of the series are listed below. Always refer to the sub-collections.

Registres matricules militaires-

They do have an online searchable index with possible images attached at the following link.

Registres de Recrutement de L’Armee de Terre

It has recruitment records for Algeria, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Reunion, Tunisia, and Dakar from 1858. And Saigon, Oran, Constantine.

Bureau Central d’Archives Administratives Militaires is another possible place to explore for records.

Navel records- May be harder to research because they are dispersed between a number of archives. It may be in the maritime regions, the Service Historique de la Marine, the Archives Nationales, and certain archieves departementales. The meritime region is further divided between the five main historically naval ports: Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Toulon.


Additional resources

Beginner Practice Case Studies

Beginning research in French Military records the first set that has to be consulted are the registration or enlistment records. Each male resident was required to register at 20 years of age. These roles are the only record that may have an ancestor's physical description of an ancestor. To find these records it may be wise to seek the civil registration of a male ancestor first. If the birth and death were in the same locations it’s a good chance their enlistment would be in that location, likely in the modern department’s archives. To help users familiarize themselves with these records these beginning case studies have been created.

Four scenarios have been created for a desktop or laptop but with little effort may be adapted to a mobile device. The purpose of this guide is to help lead researchers through three department archival sites and series R military records available online for enlistments.

Warning, not all departments' collections are yet online for research, but an effort is being pushed to eventually have them accessible online for all of France's departments. These exercises focus on departments within the European continental boundaries. Areas that were at one point in French control but lay outside the continental boundaries will need to be researched individually. On many occasions, they could be held by other archives like the Outer Ocean or Outre-Mer Archive.

Please select one of the links below to complete one of the self-guided exercises available.

Resources

France. Archives nationales. Archives de la marine, série B service général (Navy archive index). Paris, France: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1969. (FS Library book 944 A3fn; film 962225 item 2.) An alphabetical index to places, names, subjects, and ships mentioned in subseries B 1-3.

France. Ministère de la Marine. Officiers civils, 1645-1817 (Index of civilian officers attached to the French navy). Paris, France: Chadwyck-Healey France, 1988. (FS Library fiche 6002208.)

For more historical information about the French military campaigns, use:

  • Dupuy, R. Earnest, and Trevor N. Dupuy. Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present. (Revised Edition) London, England and Sidney, Australia: Jane's Publishing, 1980. (FS Library book 355.033 D929e; not on microfilm.) Text in English.

Percentage in FamilySearch Library: 2%.[4]

Additional military histories are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under:

FRANCE - MILITARY HISTORY
FRANCE, [DEPARTMENT] - MILITARY HISTORY
FRANCE, [PROVINCE] (REGION) - MILITARY HISTORY


References

  1. ↑ Références Larousse. 1991. la généalogie : histoire et pratique. Canada : Larousse, edited by Joseph Valynseels, p. 97-116.
  2. ↑ Pontet, Patrick. 1993. Ancestral Research in France. Great Britain: Patrick Pontet, p. 99-102.
  3. ↑ Henry, Gilles. 2004. Guide De généalogie. France: Solar, p.169-174.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Family History Record Profile: France,” Word document, private files of the FamilySearch Content Strategy Team, 1984-1998.
  5. ↑ 1 2 The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Family History Record Profile: France,” Word document, private files of the FamilySearch Content Strategy Team, 1984-1998.
  6. ↑ Pontet, Patrick. 1993. Ancestral Research in France. Great Britain: Patrick Pontet, p. 119-132.
  7. ↑ Références Larousse. 1991. la généalogie : histoire et pratique. Canada : Larousse, edited by Joseph Valynseels, p.141-170.
  8. ↑ Henry, Gilles. 2004. Guide De généalogie. France: Solar, p.169-174.
  9. ↑ Mordeel, Anne, The French Genealogy Blog (https://french-genealogy.typepad.com :accessed 14 March 2023).
  10. ↑ Archives Nationales. 1978. Les Archives Nationales: Ètat Général Des Fonds. France. Vol 1 to 4.
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