Help in Working With the Paris Census Returns

The Paris census returns are online on the website of the Archives de Paris. They have there the census returns for the years 1926 (the earliest), 1931 and 1936. They are only partially indexed on Filae. Thus, you may have to do a long slog through many pages yourself. Since Paris has thousands of rues, boulevards, avenues, places, passages, etc., it could be a very long slog, indeed. As ever in online genealogy, you can save a lot of time if you look before you leap.

For a bit of background, we explain a fair amount about the history of Paris geography in this post. It will help you to understand some of the many changes over the years. We explain about the French census generally here. We recently looked at the 1946, post-war census here.

When you are ready to take the plunge, by all means, begin with Filae. Using the link above, narrow your search to just the censuses. Target your search by giving the spouse's first name.  Be sure to change the event being searched from Filae's default of just deaths to "All". Recall that the indexing is not complete so, if your search brings no results, that is not a definitive answer. You simply must work harder.

To search the census returns on the website of the Archives de Paris, you must know the address of the person you are seeking, for on this website the census is indexed by geography, not by names. How to find the address? Generally, people who are searching the census returns have already gathered some genealogical information, such as birth, marriage or death register entries, all of which, if French, give the addresses of the people who are the subjects of the events. If the person you are researching were a member of a professional association, its directory may be online and may have an address.

Armed with an address, go to the website of the Archives de Paris, click on "Sources généalogiques complémentaires", and then on Recensement de population. There, they explain that the 1946 census is not online yet, for reasons of privacy protection (which Europeans take much more seriously than Americans). They also explain that each of the three censuses that are online have three parts:

1. Census of people according to their usual residence (the section most familiar to genealogists) This is Part A
2. Census of people in group residences separate from normal homes, such as prisons, hospitals, monasteries, boarding schools, etc. This is Part B in 1926 and 1936, and Part C in 1931.
3. Census of people in hotels, hostels, guest houses and other places of short term residency. This is Part C in 1926 and 1936 and Part B in 1931. (This is where you will find migrant workers, newly arrived immigrants, foreign students, visiting artists and such.)

The search selections are five, all with drop-down menus:

1. Category of person, based on the three types in the Parts above
2. Year of the census
3. Arrondissement
4. Quarter
5. Whether or not you also wish the pages of statistics

Options three and four are geographical, and to make the correct selection, you need to know where your Parisian rue is. If you already have a birth, marriage or death register entry, the arrondissement will be indicated, as it will if you have the post code on a letter. The quarter, however, is not usually known. For anything about the location of the street, the Archives have a wonderful aid, the Official Nomenclature of the Streets of Paris. 

In the upper right hand search box, type in the name of a street. To the left, from the selection of centuries, in Roman numerals, select one. The search result will give all the information you need about the street, including the quarter, which will allow you to narrow your search of the Paris census returns to a manageable size. Wikipedia also has a nice list of the quarters of Paris, with maps; you also could look up the street on Wikipedia, to get the quarter and arrondissement, but the Official Nomenclature is altogether better.

We do hope this will help you to find your ancestor in Paris. If not, enjoy reading the hôtes de passage section of the Jazz Age 1926 Paris census. We found here, on page four, one Fernando "Sonny" Jones, a dancer from Chicago.

©2023 Anne Morddel

French Genealogy