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Colonial Records

Ottoman Empire Colonization (1516-1918)

The Ottoman sultan Salim I conquered historical Greater Syria (encompassing modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel, and parts of Jordan and Türkiye) in 1516. Throughout Ottoman rule, Greater Syria was organized and reorganized into administrative districts known as "eyalets" and their subdivisions. Ottoman control of Syria continued with various degrees of control until the empire splintered at the end of World War I, at which point administration of the region passed to the French Mandate.

Record collection	Years covered	Record type	Language	Who is in the records
Nüfus Registers	1883-1917	Census & population registers	Ottoman Turkish	These Ottoman census registers were taken in 10 districts in what is now Palestine/Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, but contain information on some individuals born in Damascus and other parts of modern Syria. For more information, see FamilySearch Catalog, Palestine Census, and Palestine, Ottoman Census and Population Registers. Names are currently searchable only in Arabic and dates are displayed using the Ottoman Rumi calendar. The Turkish website Türk Tarih Kurumu can be used to convert dates from the Rumi to the Gregorian calendar.

French Colonization (1920-1946)

In 1920, a short-lived independent Kingdom of Syria was established under Faisal I of the Hashemite family. However, his rule over Syria ended after only a few months, following the Battle of Maysalun. French troops occupied Syria later that year after the San Remo conference proposed that the League of Nations put Syria under a French mandate. Syria and France negotiated a treaty of independence in September 1936, and Hashim al-Atassi was the first president to be elected under the first incarnation of the modern republic of Syria. However, the treaty never came into force because the French Legislature refused to ratify it. With the fall of France in 1940 during World War II, Syria came under the control of Vichy France until the British and Free French occupied the country in the Syria-Lebanon campaign in July 1941. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalists and the British forced the French to evacuate their troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that had been formed during the mandate.

Record collection	Years covered	Record type	Language	Who is in the records