Senegal Military Records

Africa Senegal

Military Records
Research use: Useful for linking families, since the village head was required to furnish lists of all able bodied men together with their families.

Record type: Lists of colonial native troops who served the French armies in Africa or in Europe.

Time period: 1779 to 1945.

Contents: Age, village, family names, date of enlistment for officers and enlisted men; village locations, village headmen; marital status, names of wives and children.

Location: Registry offices in Dakar, St. Louis, Goree and other towns for Senegal. A number have been kept in the Archives Nationales in the Archives des Colonies, section D, Paris. Military records in the Gambia are located in the National Archive in Banjul.

Population coverage: Believed to be 70% of Senegalese and Gambians who served in the military; approximately 25% of the total population.

Reliability: A good source; the French kept detailed records of colonial military personnel.