France Genealogy

Guide to France ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Country Information
France is a country in Western Europe bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Spain, and Andorra. The French Republic was established in 1792. The official language is French.

Getting Started


Finding Your Ancestors' Town in France

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, France Finding Town of Origin to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

France Clickable Map
Click on the specific department name either on the maps above or in the list below to access the FamilySearch wiki article for that department.

Departments
Today France is divided into 96 departments, plus 5 overseas departments. This number has changed over the years, in 1790 there were 83 and at the height of Napoleon's reign there were as many as 130. Records are kept on the town level, but one needs to know in which department the town is located.

'''Note: The numbers in parentheses following the department name correspond to the numbers on the map above. Territoire-de-Belfort does not have a number on the map; it is located immediately below Haut-Rhin (68). The (1) on the map corresponds to the Paris area shown on the left inset. The final five departments listed below are overseas not shown on map above; their FamilySearch wiki pages may be opened by clicking on the names.''' Territories Saint Martin
 * French Guiana
 * Guadeloupe
 * Martinique
 * Mayotte
 * La Réunion

French Overseas Territories
Many of the records of the French overseas territories are on-line at Les Archives nationales d’outre-mer, literally The Overseas National Archives.

More France Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy wiki articles for France.
 * How to find births, marriages, deaths, 1539-1791
 * How to find births, marriages, and deaths, 1792-Present
 * France Search Strategies for Births, Marriages and Deaths
 * [[Media:Finding_Records_of_Your_Ancestors_in_France_.pdf|Finding Records of your Ancestors in France 1792 to 1880]]

Research Tutorials

 * Out of the Ashes of Paris How to find your Parisian ancestors
 * Guide to reading parish records of Toulouse
 * Comprendre L'écriture de nos Ancêtres - (Understanding the Writing of Our Ancestors) Parts 1 and 2
 * Calendar Changes in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries
 * Key Words and Phrases in Latin Records

Online Resources
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in France.
 * French Archives Online
 * Bigenet
 * The French Genealogy Blog
 * Gallica: The French “Library of Congress”
 * Military records from the WWI Era 1887-1921 online
 * GeneaNet
 * GeneaWiki
 * France Genealogy Links
 * Cyndi's List: France
 * Genealogy and Family History in France
 * at FamilySearch — index
 * More Websites

Because the Alsace-Lorraine region (Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Moselle, part of Vosges, and part of Meurthe-et-Moselle) once belonged to Germany, many records are written in German.
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * Reading German Handwritten Records Lesson 1: Kurrent Letters
 * Reading German Handwritten Records Lesson 2: Making Words in Kurrent
 * Reading German Handwritten Records Lesson 3: Reading Kurrent Documents
 * Old German Script Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (German Church and Civil Records)
 * German Church and Civil Records
 * German Script Tutorial

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map