Moselle, France Genealogy

Guide to Moselle Department ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Lorraine and is named after the river Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine. Moselle's borders and contents have changed extensively over the years, including a period between 1871 and 1919 when the department did not exist.

Localities (Communes)

 * FranceGenWeb
 * Locom
 * Wikipedia
 * Wikipedia, former localities

Church Records and Civil Registration (Registres Paroissiaux et Etat Civil) Online
The vast majority of your research will be in church records and civil registration. For more information on these records and how to use them, read France Church Records and France Civil Registration. Fortunately, these records are available online from the archives of each department: Here is the website for the Department Archives of Moselle, where you will find these records.


 * Department Archives of Moselle

For a demonstration of navigating archives websites, watch the video, Using France Department Archives Online.

Online Census Records
Census records can support your search in civil and church records. They can help identify all family members. When families have similar names they help determine which children belong in each family. See France Census.


 * Why are there no online census lists in Moselle?

The French nominal census lists from before 1872 were not kept by the German administration; only the lists kept at the prefecture of Meurthe (Château-Salins and Sarrebourg districts, nowadays in Moselle), which are in the Departmental Archives of Meurthe-et-Moselle in Nancy because they were not of interest to the German administration, and the lists in the communal archives, which are not very complete, remain.

The lists of German censuses from 1871 to 1910 were never deposited in the archives of the German prefecture of Metz; we do not know where they are now, assuming that they were kept after their statistical exploitation.

The lists of French censuses from 1921 to 1936 were never handed over to the Moselle prefecture because the Alsace-Lorraine statistics office in Strasbourg kept them; they perished in 1940 in all likelihood.

Online Local Databases and Extracted Records
Groups devoted to genealogy have also extracted and/or indexed records for specific localities, time periods, religious groups, etc. Since church records at the departmental archives are generally not indexed, you might find an index here that will speed up your searching.


 * FamilySearch Collections:
 * 1536-1897  at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images
 * 1542-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index
 * Tout en Un (All in One) Online Databases Check for online databases and records in right column.  Check back occasionally to see if new databases have become available.
 * Filae, index & images ($).
 * Tout en Un (All in One) Local Databases Here you may find extracted/translated records, record indexes, and other helpful records such as cemetery, land, or military records.
 * Geneanet Collaborative Indexes Search by locality (parish or commune).
 * Genea-Bricolo
 * Actes en ligne 57
 * Parish registers of Hattigny
 * Website of Armand Lizeur
 * Alsaciens-Lorrains who opted for German nationality(1872-1873)
 * Tables de Mariages de la Moselle ($)

Microfilm Records of the FamilySearch Library
Many church and civil registration records have been microfilmed. To find a microfilm: Click on, find and click on "Places within France, Moselle," and choose your locality from the list.

Writing for Records
Online records tend to cover only the time before 100 years, due to privacy laws. You can write to civil registration offices and local churches who might honor requests for more recent records of close family members for the purpose of genealogy.

For a civil registration office, address your request to:

Monsieur l'officier de l'état-civil Mairie de (Town) (Postal code) (Town) France

For a parish church:

Monsieur le Curé (Church --see The Catholic Directory for church name and address) (Town) (Postal Code) France

For other addresses and for help writing your request in French, use French Letter Writing Guide.

Learning to Read Enough French, German, or Latin to Do Genealogy
It's easier than you think! You do not have to be fluent in French or German to use these records, as there is only a limited vocabulary used in them. By learning a few key phrases, you will be able to read them adequately. Because this region once belonged to Germany, many records are written in German.

German
Here are some resources for learning to read German Records:


 * German Genealogical Word List
 * German Paleography Seminar
 * Old German Script Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (German Church and Civil Records)
 * German Church and Civil Records
 * German Script Tutorial

French
Here are some resources for learning to read French records.


 * French Genealogical Word List
 * French Handwriting.
 * BYU French Script Tutorial

These lessons focus on reading church record and civil registration records:


 * France Church Records
 * France Civil Registration

Another resource is the French Records Extraction Manual. The full manual or individual lesson chapters are downloadable from this webpage. A number of helpful lessons are available here, but the first five lessons are especially useful.


 * Chapter 1: Old Records
 * Chapter 2: Christening, Marriage, and Other Entries
 * Chapter 3: Marriage
 * Chapter 4: Other Entries
 * Chapter 5: French Handwriting and Spelling

Latin
Before 1539, many church records are in Latin. In 1539 French was made the administrative language of France through the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts. As a result, there is only the occasional Latin word or phrase in church records after 1539.


 * Latin Genealogical Word List

Search Strategy

 * Begin with the death information of the focus ancestor and locate the death record.
 * Use the information on that death record to locate the ancestor's marriage record.
 * Use the information on that marriage record to locate the ancestor's birth record.
 * Once the birth record is found, search for the focus ancestor's siblings.
 * Next, search for the marriage of the focus ancestor's parents. The marriage record will have information that often helps locate the birth records of the parents.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.
 * Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes. It is possible they may have moved or boundaries changed.

Genealogical Societies and Help Groups

 * Moselle Wiki GenWeb Associations
 * Moselle Forums
 * Southern Europe Genealogy Research Community
 * Cercle Généalogique du Pays de Nied (CG571)
 * Cercle Généalogique du Pays Messin (CG574)
 * Cercle Généalogique des Pays de Sarrebourg et du Saulnois (CG575)

FamilySearch Centers

 * FamilySearch Centers
 * FamilySearch Centers (FSCs) are branches of FamilySearch and the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah (United States), located all over the world. Their goal is to provide resources to assist you in the research and study of your genealogy and family history by:
 * Giving personal one-on-one assistance to patrons
 * Providing access to genealogical records through the Internet or microfilm loan program
 * Offering free how-to classes (varies by location)
 * There is no cost to visit a FamilySearch Center or FamilySearch Library. They are open to anyone with an interest in genealogical research. They are operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
 * Partner sites such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, Findmypast.com, and many CD based collections can be searched free of charge.

Finding a FamilySearch Center

Websites

 * Tout en Un Moselle
 * GenWeb, Moselle Portal
 * Cousins 57
 * Geneanet Surname Search
 * France Geneawiki Genealogical Sources includes instructional discussions of various records available.
 * French Republican Calendar. This site will help you translate dates used by France from 24 October 1793 to 31 December 1805.
 * There are parallel articles also available on the French Language Wiki. Because they are maintained by different authors, links may be added there that do not appear here. Generally, the articles translate automatically to English when accessed.
 * History of the Jews d'Alsace et de Lorraine