Pyrénées-Orientales, France Genealogy

Guide to Pyrénées-Orientales ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers.

History
Pyrénées-Orientales is a department of southern France adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It surrounds the tiny Spanish exclave of Llívia, and is adjacent to the departments of Ariège, Andorre, and Aude.

Prior to the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, most of the present department was part of the former Principality of Catalonia. The modern department was created early during the French Revolution on 9 February 1790 under the name of Roussillon, which was also the name of the pre-Revolutionary province of Roussillon from which it was formed. Less than a month after its creation, the name was changed to Pyrénées-Orientales. Its borders nearly correspond to its parent province, but the department also includes Fenouillèdes, a small piece of territory that was formerly on the southern edge of Languedoc.

Localities

 * FranceGenWeb
 * Locom
 * Wikipedia
 * Wikipedia, former localities

Online Church Records and Civil Registration
'''The vast majority of your research will be in church records and civil registration. Fortunately, these records are available online from the archives of each department.'''

Finding Church Records and Civil Registration Online
Each Department of France has archives that provide digitized images of these records. Here is the website for the Department Archives of Pyrénées-Orientales, where you will find these records.

Department Archives of Pyrénées-Orientales


 * Registres paroissiaux (parish registers)
 * Registres d'état civil (civil registration)
 * Censuses (Recensements)

See Using France Online Department Archives for step by step instructions on finding and reading these records.

Search Strategy

 * Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
 * Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
 * You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
 * 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.

Learning to Read Enough French to Do Genealogy
It's easier than you think! You do not have to be fluent in French 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. Here are some resources for learning to read French records.
 * French Genealogical Word List
 * French Handwriting.

There is a three-lesson course in reading handwriting in old French records:
 * Reading French Handwritten Records Lesson 1: The French Alphabet,
 * Reading French Handwritten Records Lesson 2: Key Words and Phrases
 * Reading French Handwritten Records Lesson 3: Reading French Records

These lessons focus on reading church record and civil registration records: Another resource is the French Records Extraction Manual, with this linked Table of Contents. You will be able to practice on actual documents.
 * France Church Records
 * France Civil Registration- Vital Records

FRENCH RECORDS EXTRACTION MANUAL

Chapter 1: OLD FRENCH RECORDS

Chapter 2: PARISH CHRISTENING AND CIVIL BIRTH ENTRIES

Chapter 3: MARRIAGE ENTRIES

Chapter 4: OTHER ENTRIES

Chapter 5: FRENCH HANDWRITING AND SPELLING

Chapter 6: NAME IDENTIFICATION

Chapter 7: GENDER

Chapter 8: DATES

Chapter 9: PUTTING IT ALL INTO PRACTICE (Practice Activities) *Introduction to Family History Centers

Websites

 * Gazetteer for Pyrénéés-Orientales