Genealogy

Outstanding French Genealogy Databases – Direct Free Access

In France you will find a lot of outstanding french Genealogy databases online – and many online archives of old magazines, etc.

It’s not always easy to find what you are looking for, especially if you don’t speak french, but many birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates are online.

Outstanding French Genealogy Databases


Bas-Rhin: http://archives.bas-rhin.fr/rechercher/ // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas-Rhin

One example: Dambach-la-Ville

Very good source for birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates, etc. from “Alsace”.


Haut-Rhin: http://www.archives.haut-rhin.fr/search/home // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haut-Rhin

A lot of information: Cadre de classement, Cartes postales, Registres matricules militaires des classes 1893 à 1921, Recensement de 1866, etc.

Haut-Rhin is a part of “Alsace”.


Archives Départementales d’Eure-et-Loire

http://www.archives28.fr/ // https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_communes_d%27Eure-et-Loir

Le département d’Eure-et-Loir a été créé le  en application de la loi du .

En 2018 à la suite de la création de 11 « communes nouvelles » depuis 2015, leur nombre est passé de 401 à 373 (voir la liste des anciennes communes d’Eure-et-Loir).


L‘Eure Normandie Archives Départementales: https://archives.eure.fr/search/homehttps://archives.eure.fr/search/home


Haute-Vienne: http://archives.haute-vienne.fr/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute-Vienne


Archives Departementales De L’Iśère

https://archives.isere.fr/page/registres-paroissiaux-et-detat-civil

Grenoble Until 1892 1893-1912
Saint-Marcellin Until 1896 1897-1913
the Tour-du-Pin Until 1892 1893-1912
Vienna Until 1894 1895-1906

The website is available in French, English, German, Italian and Spanish


Pas-de-Calais: http://archivesenligne.pasdecalais.fr/

Main page: https://archivespasdecalais.fr/

Etat Civil: https://archivesenligne.pasdecalais.fr/console/ir_seriel.php?id=56&p=formulaire_etat_civil

All cities in the Département du Pas-de-Calais (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communes_of_the_Pas-de-Calais_department)


Paris: http://archives.paris.fr/s/4/etat-civil-actes/?&action=1&todo=modif_recherche

Actes de naissance (1860-1924), mariage (1860-1944) et décès (1860-1986)


Saint-Junien (Journaux numérisés): http://archives.saint-junien.fr/index.php?&keyword=&journal=

Great source for obituaries, marriage and birth announcements

Archives municipales

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Junien


Sarthe – Departément de la Sarthe: http://archives.sarthe.fr/ http://archives.sarthe.fr/ 

And a lot more!


Archives départementales de Seine-Maritime: http://www.archivesdepartementales76.net/

Archives en ligne

Plusieurs fonds numérisés sont gratuitement accessibles en ligne. Parmis ces fonds librement consultables sur internet vous trouverez :
L’Etat Civil
Les plans du cadastre
L’Inscription Maritime
Le Journal de Rouen
Les chartes anciennes
Les sceaux
Les notaires
Les registres des séries anciennes
Les registres matricules
Les documents iconographiques


Strasbourg:  https://archives.strasbourg.eu/n/je-cherche-une-personne/n:231 // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg

Great archive with a lot of information. Also written “Straßburg”.

Many older records of Strasbourg can be found here: http://archives.bas-rhin.fr/

Registres Paroissiaux (1681-1789)(Parish Registers), Tables Décennales (Civil Status Registers), Registres D’État Civil:

http://archives.bas-rhin.fr/registres-paroissiaux-et-documents-d-etat-civil/


Vosges: https://archives.vosges.fr/recherche-en-ligne/base-de-donnees-et-images-numerisees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vosges_(department)

In this database are very old documents available!


Département LOT: https://archives.lot.fr/
Archives départementales -Baptêmes, mariages et sépultures (BMS)
Etat civil du XVIIe siècle à 1902
Recensement de population
Listes nominatives 1836-1931

FamilySearch

Finding Your Ancestors’ Town in France

  • 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.
French Genealogy
French Genealogy

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.

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.

Territories

(Outstanding French Genealogy Databases)


French register of deceased persons after 1970

https://arbre.app/en/insee/

Search through 25 million records! You will find the date of birth and death.


Converter for French Revolution Républicain Calendar Dates to the regular Gregorian calendar:

http://www.archinoe.fr/commun/visualiseur/outils/calendrier/calendrier_rev_greg.php

The French Republican calendar (French: calendrier républicain français), also commonly called the French Revolutionary calendar (calendrier révolutionnaire français), was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution (May 5, 1789 – Nov 9, 1799), and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805.

https://www.britannica.com/list/the-12-months-of-the-french-republican-calendar


Some people might find out that they have Jewish Ashkenazy DNA in their DNA test from MyHeritage or Ancestry but nobody ever told them. Often families didn’t mention it ever after the Second World War. What they had to endure made them understandably very suspicious about everything and everyone.

If you would like to do research about what happened to your Jewish ancestors, there is a very good French website with names and places.

http://www.ajpn.org/

Anonymes, Justes et persécutés durant la période nazie dans les communes de France


Many French people also emigrated to the USA. One very good source for finding French immigrants is the Ellis Island Passenger Search database!

Home to 65 million records of passengers arriving to the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957.


TIP: How to find birth certificates of relatives in France?!

  1. Find out the Département where your ancestors likely have lived.
  2. Try to find the exact town or village and when they have lived there.
    1. Look up the name of the Département of that town.
  3. Search for „Archives en ligne Departement de XXX“  (replace XXX with the name of the Département).
  4. Then look into the “REGISTRES PAROISSIAUX ET D’ÉTAT CIVIL” on that website.
Most of the time this will help you finding French ancestors.

If you need help to find your ancestors in France you can just use this (very cheap, but good) service:

Fiverr: I will find your french ancestors!

(Genealogy in France)


Recently researched names: Zaepfel, Martin, Geiger, Bloch, Fehner, Faller, Adam, Gäbler, Depret (also Deprez, Depretz, Depreth), Haas (also Haaß), Abisch, Touzard, Soret, Wassmer, Maurer, Held, Schaedelin, Fuchs, Sutter, Sittler, Engasser, Gringer, Diss, Hugot, Hinaut, Gaspard, Poullard, Mandel, Jos, Meyer, Schmid, Specht, Rohmer, Laffont, Mertian, Geismar, Convers, Delanoe, Delanoë, Toussaint.

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