Important Websites for France Genealogy There are two "must peruse" websites for initiating original research in France. There are a lot of excellent resources well documents found on both Family Search.Org and The Family History Guide.

From a single URL cited below on FamilySearch, you will find a comprehensive overview of resources for France that covers the gamut of resources and research tools that you could ever have imagined all from one extended screen display. It is a remarkable guide to French ancestry, history, and genealogy with birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, military records and much more. The URL is https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/France_Genealogy. The headings are specifically cited below along with their links that you can search quickly

France Genealogy

France Research Topics

Beginning Research

• Research Strategies • Record Finder • Finding Town of Origin Record Types

• Cemeteries • Hospital Records • Census • Military Records • Church Records • Naturalization & • Civil Registration Citizenship • Genealogy • Newspapers • Directories • Nobility • Emigration & • Notarial Records Immigration • Online Genealogy • Jewish records Records • Family Account • Periodicals Books • Probate Records • Feudal Records • Religious Records • Heraldry • School Records France Background

• Biography • National ID • Church History Number - Insee • French Word List • Languages • Gazetteers • Maps • Historical • Names, Personal Geography • Occupations • History • For Further Reading Ethnicity

• Ethnic Groups • Huguenots • Minorities Local Research Resources

• Archives & Libraries • Societies • Family History Centers Moderator

The FamilySearch moderator for France is SugdenHG

Europe France

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

Country Information[edit source]

France is a country in Western Europe bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Spain, and Andorra. The French Republic was established in 1792. The official language is French.[1]

Getting Started[edit source] Getting Started with France France Research Tools Research Links to articles and websites that assist in French research. Links to articles on getting started with • Interactive Map to Online France Archives France research. • French Genealogical Word List • France Research Guide • Latin Genealogical Word List • Reading French Handwritten Records • 1: The French Alphabet, • France Genealogy Research Using the • 2: Key Words and Phrases Wiki--Video Series - Eight 5-minute • 3: Reading French Records classes • French Records Extraction Manual, Full Manual • Classes: Beginning Research in France - • 1: OLD FRENCH RECORDS Parts 1 and 2 • 2: PARISH CHRISTENING AND CIVIL BIRTH ENTRIES • Brigham Young University Independent • 3: MARRIAGE ENTRIES Study Online Course, offers French • 4: OTHER ENTRIES Research at no cost. • 5: FRENCH HANDWRITING AND SPELLING • Classes: Finding Your French Ancestors • French Letter Writing Guide Online • French Republican Calendar • 1 FamilySearch and Ancestry • FranceGenWeb Communes Gazetteer See More Research Tools • 2 FranceGenWeb • 3 Geneanet • France Finding Town of Origin • Step-by-Step How to Use France Online Department Archives See More Research Strategies

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in France[edit source]

• Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived. • If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, France Finding Town of Origin to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

France Clickable Map[edit source]

Click on the specific department name either on the map above or the list below to access the FamilySearch wiki article for that department.

Jurisdictions[edit source] Departments[edit source]

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. Note: The numbers in parentheses following the department name correspond to the numbers on the map above. Territoire-de-Belfort does not have a number on the map; it is located immediately below Haut-Rhin (68). The (1)on the map corresponds to the Paris area shown on the left inset. The final five departments listed below are overseas not shown on map above; their FamilySearch wiki pages may be opened by clicking on the names.

• Ain (01) • Côte d'Or (21) • Loire (42) • Puy-de-Dôme (63) • Vaucluse (84) • Aisne (02) • Côtes • Haute-Loire (43) • Pyrénées- • Vendée (85) • Allier (03) d'Armor (22) • Loire- Atlantiques (64) • Vienne (86) • Alpes-de-Haute- • Creuse (23) Atlantique (44) • Hautes- • Haute-Vienne (87) Provence (04) • Dordogne (24) • Loiret (45) Pyrénées (65) • Vosges (88) • Hautes-Alpes (05) • Doubs (25) • Lot (46) • Pyrénées- • Yonne (89) • Alpes-Maritimes (06) • Drôme (26) • Lot-et- Orientales(66) • Territoire-de- • Ardèche (07) • Eure (27) Garonne (47) • Bas-Rhin (67) Belfort (90) • Ardennes (08) • Eure-et-Loir (28) • Lozère (48) • Haut-Rhin (68) • Essonne (91) • Ariège (09) • Finistère (29) • Maine-et- • Rhône (69) • Hauts-de- • Aube (10) • Gard (30) Loire (49) • Haute-Saône (70) Seine (92) • Aude (11) • Haute- • Manche (50) • Saône-et-Loire (71) • Seine- • Aveyron (12) Garonne (31) • Marne (51) • Sarthe (72) St.Denis (93) • Bouches-du- • Gers (32) • Haute-Marne (52) • Savoie (73) • Val-de-Marne (94) Rhône (13) • Gironde(33) • Mayenne (53) • Haute-Savoie (74) • Val-d’Oise (95) • Calvados (14) • Hérault (34) • Meurthe-et- • Paris (75)

• Cantal (15) • Ille-et- Moselle (54) • Seine-Maritime (76) Territories • Charente (16) Vilaine (35) • Meuse (55) • Seine-et-Marne (77)

• Charente- • Indre (36) • Morbihan (56) • Yvelines (78) Maritime (17) • Indre-et- • Moselle (57) • Deux-Sèvres (79) • Guyane • Cher (18) Loire (37) • Nièvre (58) • Somme (80) • Guadeloupe • Corrèze (19) • Isère (38) • Nord (59) • Tarn (81) • Martinique • Corse-du-Sud (2A) • Jura (39) • Oise (60) • Tarn-et- • Mayotte • Haute-Corse (2B) • Landes (40) • Orne (61) Garonne (82) • La Réunion • Loir-et-Cher (41) • Pas-de-Calais (62) • Var (83) • Saint Martin Historic Provinces and their Capitols[edit source]

• Alsace (Strasbourg) • Champagne (Troyes) • Limousin (Limoges) • Angoumois (Angoulême) • Comtat Venaissin (Papal Fief) • Lorraine (Nancy) • Poitou (Poitiers) • Genevois (Annecy) • Anjou (Angers) • Corsica (Ajaccio) • Maine (Le Mans) • Provence (Aix-en-Provence) • Chablais (Thonon-les-Bains) • Artois (Arras) • Dauphiné (Grenoble) • Marche (Guéret) • Rhône-Alpes (Lyon) • Faucigny (Bonneville) • Aunis (La Rochelle) • Flandres and Hainaut (Lille) • Montbelliard, Fief of Württemberg • Roussillon (Perpignan) • Touraine (Tours) • Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand) • Foix (Foix) • Imperial Free City of Mulhouse • Saintonge or Xaintonge (Saintes) • Trois-Évêchés (Metz, Toul and Verdun) • Berry (Bourges) • Franche-Comté (Besançon) • Nice, County of • Savoy, Duchy of (Chambéry then Turin) • Bourbonnais (Moulins) • Guyenne and Gascony (Bordeaux) • Nivernais (Nevers) • Savoie Propre (Chambéry) • Brittany (Rennes) • Île-de-France (Paris) • Normandy (Rouen) • Tarentaise (Moûtiers) • Burgundy (Dijon) • Languedoc (Toulouse) • Orléanais (Orléans) • Béarn (Pau) French Oversees Territories[edit source]

Many of the records of the French overseas territories are on-line at Les Archives nationales d’outre-mer, literally The Overseas National Archives.

More France Research Strategies[edit source]

Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy wiki articles for France.

• How to find births, marriages, deaths, 1539-1791 • How to find births, marriages, and deaths, 1792-Present • France Search Strategies for Births, Marriages and Deaths • Finding Records of your Ancestors in France 1792 to 1880 Research Tutorials[edit source] • Out of the Ashes of Paris How to find your Parisian ancestors • Guide to reading parish records of Toulouse • Comprendre L'écriture de nos Ancêtres - (Understanding the Writing of Our Ancestors) Parts 1 and 2 • Calendar Changes in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries • Key Words and Phrases in Latin Records

Online Resources[edit source]

Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in France.

• French Archives Online • Bigenet • Gallica: The French “Library of Congress” • Military records from the WWI Era 1887-1921 online • GeneaNet • GeneaWiki • France Genealogy Links • Cyndi's List: France • Genealogy and Family History in France • France, Convict Register, 1650-1867 at FamilySearch — index • More Websites

Because the Alsace-Lorraine region (Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Moselle, part of Vosges, and part of Meurthe-et-Moselle) once belonged to Germany, many records are written in German.

• German Genealogical Word List • Reading German Handwritten Records Lesson 1: Kurrent Letters • Reading German Handwritten Records Lesson 2: Making Words in Kurrent • Reading German Handwritten Records Lesson 3: Reading Kurrent Documents • Old German Script Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (German Church and Civil Records) • German Church and Civil Records • German Script Tutorial

FamilySearch Resources[edit source]

Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.

• Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research • Historical Records • Family History Center locator map

References[edit source] 1. Jump up↑ Wikipedia contributors, "France," in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France, accessed 23 March 2016.

The Family History Guide The Family History Guide, https://thefhguide.com/project-9-france.html, provides a more sequential process of learning consisting of outstanding step-by-step “how to” research tutorials for France that is organized into eleven levels offerings in a rather clear and concise format. I particularly like its infrastructure of topics for each level of tutorials.

1: Research 2: Archives and Libraries 3: Civil Registration 4: Church and Cemetery Records 5: Emigration and Immigration 6: Military Records 7: Maps and Gazetteers 8: Newspapers 9: Websites 10: Search Records 11: Get Help