More Tips on How to Begin Researching Your French Ancestors

Next is the Les Registres Paroissiaux (Parish Registers), If you are researching prior to 1792, then French Parish Registers will be a valuable resource. Until 1787 the state religion was Catholic except for the years 1592-1685 when it was the Tolerance of Protestantism. Catholic were the only ones (Registres Paroissiaux or Registres de Catholicit) recording births, marriages and deaths prior to 1792. The majority of Parish registers start in the mid 1600s but some do go back to. All of these early records were written in Latin and French, which also includes confirmations and banns.

The Archives Departementales hold the majority of these church records before 1792. Libraries in large cities, and town halls of smaller cities or towns can hold copies of registers. You might have to search for a neighboring town if the old Parish is closed, and records have been moved to other location. During different time period some Parishes were owned by different Parishes so checking the surrounding area is a good idea.

Now comes the bad part about searching for records in Parishes. Most departmental archives don't do research but they will acknowledge your request and tell you where to look. You will probably have to visit yourself or hire a professional researcher that can do the research or you. The Family History Library has much of the catholic church records on microfilm. There are even some departmental archives that have put them online.

From 1793, the parish hold there records including a copy of the Diocesan archives but these don't have as much information as the civil records; they can still be a good source of information. If you provide details of your request, names, what the event was and it's date, usually the parish priests will respond to your request also send along 50-100 francs or ($7-15) for a donation to the parish and your request will receive a better response. Most of the documents will be transcribed to same the original document.

Census Records, In 1836 France began taking census every five years; these census have the first and surnames of every member in the house including their place of birth and date, profession and nationality. There are two exceptions, 1871 was recorded in 1872 and in 1916 there was no census because of WW1. There are a few communities that have earlier census for the year 1817. Prior to 1836 the census basically only the numbers of people living in the house and go back to 1772. Frances census will work for you if your ancestor came from a small town but not for a large city. There are no indexes making this hard to locate an individual.

You can locate these census in departmental archives, a few are online and the Family History Library has some microfilmed. There is also the voting list that starts from 1848. This list can contain names, addresses, places of birth and occupation but women were not listed until 1945.

Next is the local Mairie (town hall), If the Family History Library doesn't have what you are looking for, then you will have to get copies of the civil records from the bureau de l'etat civil, local registrars' office, from the town where your ancestors were living. Located in the mairie, town hall, will mail you a copy of the certificate at no charge to you. Just like any other repository, they are busy and could take quite awhile to look up your request. Please only request two certificates at a time and include all information that you can to help them locate the record. Wait until you receive a response before you request another record. A donation is always nice!

Basically the local registrar's office is your only resource for records that are 100 years old or less. Direct descendants are the only ones that can receive these. In these cases you have to send a copy of your birth certificate and also for every generation back to the ancestor you are requesting information about. They also like to see a diagram of you family tree that shows your relationship to this individual.

If you are visiting Mairie in person, please call ahead and see if they have the information that you need. Make sure you have two forms of ID, one is your passport if you are from another country.

Military Records, If your ancestor was in the French armed services their military records could be valuable to you. The Army and Navy Historical Services in Vincennes, France has these records and go back to the 17th century. These records can include the name of wife, children, marriage date, a description of the service man, names and addresses of next of kin, plus details of his service. However, military records are rarely used because they are private for 120 years starting from the date of the services mans birth.

You have to include in your written request the name of the individual, rank, time period served, regiment or ship. Almost every man was required to register with the military. These records are located at the departmental archives but they have not been indexed.

Cemeteries, French cemeteries are very well maintained and some go back to the 1700s. France has a law that graves reused. Grave is usually leased for 100 years, then it's reuse again.

Cemetery records are usually at the town hall and can include the name, age, date of birth, the date of death and where the individual resided. There may also be some more detailed information. This is very important, it is illegal to take pictures of French tombstones. You have to have permission from the keeper of the cemetery.

Notarial Records, These records are documents that are prepared by notaries and can have records of marriage settlements, inventories of estates, wills, property transfers, guardianship agreements. Most of these records are not indexed so this can make your search very time consuming. The National Archives (Archives nationales), mairies, or Departmetnal archives hold the land and court records. These records are the oldest records in France and can date back to the 1200s. If you don't live in France you will have to hire a professional researcher unless you are planning a long visit.

Protestant, Many Protestants fled to escape religious persecution in the 16th and 17th centuries but some records can be found in local churches, Departmental Archives, town halls, or Protestant Historical Society, which is in Paris.