Protestant and Huguenot Research - The TT Series
11 September 2019
Those sly pixies at the Archives nationales have been working diligently and without fanfare. Archivists above the fray, perhaps holding the cult of celebrity in contempt and scorning the celebrity's unseemly lust for self proclamation (a sign of a flawed personality) disguised as self promotion (a sign of a brain that spent its developmental years absorbing televised used car adverts), may have taken their modesty too far. No one noticed when they quietly slipped onto the Salle des Inventaires virtuelles, the finding aids for the TT Series, accompanied by some of their wonderfully explanatory essays. Even more excitingly, some of the original archives have been digitized and can be seen online (at no charge) on the website of the Archives nationales.
We have mentioned the TT Series before, in our post on Huguenot Genealogy. How things have progressed since we penned that essay! A large number of Departmental Archives have digitized their Protestant registers and now have them available on their websites.
The TT Series is the collection of records concerning the Protestants and the property confiscated from them after the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when persecution of the Protestants, after nearly one hundred years of tolerance, began again. Specifically, the sub-series are:
- TT//1 to TT//83 - Records concerning the management of Protestant property from 1686 to 1751. Arranged alphabetically by location.
- TT//84 to TT//229, plus TT459 and TT460 - Queries, investigations and statements concerning Protestant property, much of which had been confiscated. Arranged alphabetically by the property owner.
- TT//230 to TT//276B - Archives des Consistoires. All of the records and registers confiscated from the suppressed Protestant churches, (consistoires or temples,) these are thought to be "the most important part of the series concerning the history of Protestantism, both before and after the Edict of Nantes". They are fully explained in the section entitled "Description" here. There is also a complete index here. Joy of joys, some of these may be seen online. The diligent and expert people at Geneawiki have created the easiest pages of links:
- Selected folders from TT//264 through TT//275A linking to the Archives nationales films of the documents. Keep checking the main page of Consistoires listings for new films as they are added.
- Selected folders from TT//230 through TT//276, linking to digital photos on Geneanet taken by volunteers. Unfortunately, many are very blurred and almost impossible to read.
- TT//277 to TT//429, plus TT//461 and TT//462 - Records concerning the management of Protestant property from 1686 to 1789. Arranged by subject, this section is a bit less clearly structured. An extremely detailed listing of TT//376 to TT//429 can be read here.
- TT//430 to TT//464 - Miscellaneous - A few of these may also be seen as digital photos on Geneanet taken by volunteers here.
The complete and detailed listing of the above can be seen here.
The availability of these archives on the Internet will enhance Protestant and Huguenot research significantly. Really quite exciting.
©2019 Anne Morddel
French Genealogy