You Don't Have to Speak French to Research Your French Ancestors

There are millions of people that have French ancestors but as soon as people hear French they stop dead in their tracks. Finding their French ancestors just seems too difficult, but wait! France has great genealogical records all you have to know is how and where to find the records.

The first thing you have to know is that France has territorial administration. Before it was divided up into provinces but are now called regions. The French government in 1789, reorganized into territorial divisions and called them departments. France has 100 departments, 96 are in France and the other 4 are located overseas: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion and Guyana.

Every one of these has their own archive and is kept separate from the national government. There are also genealogical records at town halls called mairie. Big cities and towns are divided into arondissements and each with a town hall and their own archives.

If you are just starting out your French research you should start with civil registration, in French its called registres d'etat-civil; there records mainly date from 1792. The records for birth, marriage and death are kept in the registries of where they took place. birth records are called, naissances, marriage records are called, mariages, and death records are called deces. These records are held for 100 years then copies are sent to the Archives Departementales. The reason they are held for so long in one place is so that additional information can be added. A decennial tables, which is an alphabetical index in ten year increments, is at the town mairie and the archives. The tables will give you the day the event was registered but remember this might not be the date the event happened.

The most important genealogy resources that France holds is the les registres d'etatvil (civil registers). In 1792, France started registering births, marriages and deaths. These records are indexed and easily accessible. They cover all denominations and the entire population.

These records are at the individual town halls (mairie) in their registries. Each year, when the records are 100 years old, copies are sent to the local magistrate's court and kept at the archives for that town's Department. There is a privacy act that the public can view only records that are 100 years old. You can gain access to recent records as long as you provide your direct descent of the individual you want to look up, by birth certificates.

French birth, death and marriage records are in French but are typically the same as all records. This is what scares the non-French speaking people. All you have to know is a few French words and you can read much of the French register. One great thing about French registers is that on the birth records it can include in the margins, information for other documents of the individual. Starting in 1897 the margin entries often included marriages. In 1939, the divorces, legal separations starting in 1958 and deaths from 1945.

Naissances (Births), were registered by the father with in three days of the child's birth. The birth will provides name of the child, place the child was born at and time of birth, date, place, and the time the father registered, the parents' names (maiden name included) and also two witnesses including their names. The parents would be listed if the mother of the child were single. The birth register could also provide the parents ages, the father's occupation, birthplace of the mother and father and what relationship the witnesses are to the new born child.

Deces (Deaths), Deaths had to be registered within two days in the town of the deceased. Death records can be very helpful for people researching after 1792. These very well could be the only records of these individuals. Deaths that were earlier than 1792 have the name, date, and the place the death occurred. These death records can include the age, birthplace, parents' names, if the parents' are deceased, and the names of two witnesses. Searching for a woman you have to search for her maiden name along with her married name. This is one thing different than American records, France usually list women under there maiden name first.

Mariages (Marriages), couples had to be married by the civil authorities before they were allowed to have a church wedding. Usually the marriage was in the town of the bride but could have been held elsewhere like where the groom lived. The marriage registers can provide many details like the date, place where the mairie (marriage)was held, full name of bride and groom, their addresses and occupations, if they were married before plus any children, names of parents including maiden names, deceased parents names and two witnesses.

To obtain any copies of French Civil Registers You first have to have name of the individual, town and date of the event. You also have to know the Arrondissement (district). If you don't know then you have to search the ten-year indexes (decennales). These usually include birth, death and marriages for individuals listed separately by surnames. These indexes will give you names, document number, and the date the civil register documented the event.

Family History Library, the Family History Library is the best if you do not live in France. They hold civil registration records starting 1870 up to 1890. There is a 100 year privacy law so don't waist your time searching for records that are not 100 years old. They also offer the decennial indexes from about every town in France. You should search the Family History Library Catalog to see if they have the microfilm for your town/village you are looking for. If they have what you are looking for then you can borrow the microfilm as usual.

If you need help in learning how to use the Family History Centers, please visit here.

Searching on the Internet, the French archives are already and still doing, converting their records and putting them online. You will have to search each image, as there is no searchable index. Many of the digitized images do have actes d'etat civil (birth, death & marriage) online. Don't let this search scare you it's not any different than searching any other countries records. There is one thing to keep in mind you will not find records less than 100 years old.

There are several genealogical societies that have indexes already online that they got from theFrench civil registers. Genactes is a good site to check out for links. There is a subscription site that is called Geneanet.org that has pre-1903 actes d'etat civil from several organizations. This site lets you search for the surname in all departments with results that generally give you enough information for you to decide if you want to pay for the full record. Don't worry if you can read French sites. Google has a conversion tool for your use.

Please refer to Part 2 of Researching Your French Ancestors.