The French Genealogy Blog

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August 2023

There are one hundred departments in France, grouped under eighteen (down from twenty-two) regions, and each has its own archives, where much genealogical research is done. Thus, knowing about the departments is a key first step for hunting ancestors in... Read more →

Posted at 13:44 in Departmental Archives, Geography | Permalink | Comments (4)

Do You Need Help Reading Your Old French Documents?

02 August 2023

More than a decade ago we wrote here about paleography. The information in that post is still relevant, though we had to purge it of the vanished links. So, if you wish to tackle a murky old French document on... Read more →

Posted at 16:29 in Methodolgy | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tags: French genealogy, paleography

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Websites of the Departmental Archives

(01) Ain
Capital: Bourg-en-Bresse. Archives Numériques Départementales de l'Ain. Online: parish registers, civil registers, censuses. Wonderfully they also have put up the Tables de Succession, (lists of those who died and whether or not they left a will) and the Matricules, (military recruitment documents) for some communes. Being added in stages are the all-important notarial document registers.
(02) Aisne
Capital: Laon. On a very nice site that works well: parish and civil registrations, land records and maps, census returns, military conscription lists, municipal deliberations, and many images of historical and genealogical value. There is a nice section on genealogy to help one get started. Additionally, it is possible via a different search page to see all documentation relating to a particular commune.
(03) Allier
Capital : Moulins The parish and civil registrations for over 300 communes are now online and free. One must click an agreement form before access is allowed. Nice site.
(04) Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Capital: Digne-les-Bains Online: parish and civil registers, annual indices, ten-year indices, censuses, land records.
(05) Hautes-Alpes
Capital: Gap. Online: parish and civil registers through 1916, marriage banns, ten-year indices. Incredibly helpful people when contacted by e-mail; they really go out of their way to help further one's research.
(06) Alpes-Maritimes
Capital: Nice. Parish and civil registrations from the 16th century to 1914. Alphabetic indices to conscription lists from 1870 to 1928. Land registry maps and records. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(07) Ardèche
Capital: Privas. Online: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, land records, Protestant registrations, military registers, and censuses from 1791 to 1911!!!
(08) Ardennes
Capital: Charleville-Mézières. Online: the ten-year indices with a list of all communes, land records, parish registers and civil registers from the 16th century to 1890. Military conscription lists from 1867 to 1921, with a new index that can be searched by the conscript's name.
(09) Ariège
Capital: Foix. Finally! Online: Parish and civil registrations from 1551 to 1892, with ten-year indices up to 1902, and military conscription lists from 1884 to 1918.
(10) Aube
Capital: Troyes. Online: ten-year indices, post cards of various towns and villages, land records, parish and civil registrations from 1552 to 1919, military enlistment records, probate indices (tables des successions), census returns from 1820 to 1931. Additionally, the Fichier Chandon has about 8000 names and biographical notes on families of the region. Works in Progress: 1) a collaborative index to the names on the census returns; 2) a surname index to the registrations -- now pushing 600,000 names. NEW: prison registers that are more than 100 years old for some towns.
(11) Aude
Capital: Carcassonne. Online: parish and civil registrations from 1547 to 1872 and some ten-year indices. Just up: military conscription lists.
(12) Aveyron
Capital: Rodez. Online: parish and civil registrations from the 16th to the end of the 19th century. There is a plan afoot to put notarial records -- not just indices -- online gratis. NEW: military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1921.
(13) Bouches-du-Rhône
Capital: Marseille. Online: parish and civil registers, land records, censuses from 1836-1931, old post cards, military recruitment registers from 1872 to 1912. Probably the worst AD website of them all.
(14) Calvados
Capital: Caen. Online: parish and civil records and the ten-year indices and annual indices, military conscription lists, census returns, naval and merchant marine conscription lists, maps, even notarial records! Also some interesting pictures of the Normandy invasion.
(15) Cantal
Capital: Aurillac. Online: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, censuses, alphabetic indices to military recruitment lists and the lists as well, photographs, and notarial records and Holocaust records that relate to Cantal. In 2010, the website won a prize for the way it is possible for users to index collaboratively the civil registrations.
(16) Charente
Capital: Angoulême. Online: census records for 1842 to 1872, land records, teachers' notebooks, church inventories, old post cards of local towns, villages and sites. Parish and civil registrations are now online. At long last, the charge has been dropped and the site is now free to use.
(17) Charente-Maritime
Capital: La Rochelle. Online: parish, Protestant and civil registers, post cards, photographs of the Second World War, notarial records and entry lists (répertoires), military recruitment lists from 1859 to 1921, admiralty records, employment contracts for those sent to America (engagés) from 1606 to 1758, and quite a lot more. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(18) Cher
Capital: Bourges. As with many, but not all, you must create an account. This will gain you access to parish and civil registrations, censuses, maps, military enlistment registers and indices to them. They have embarked on a big collaborative indexing project.
(19) Corrèze
Capital: Tulle. Online: ten-year indices from 1802 to 1902, parish and civil registrations for all communes from their beginnings to 1902, EXCEPT for Brive-la-Gaillarde (see their own website: http://archives.brive.fr), census returns from 1906 to 1936, military recruitment lists, alphabetic death and will registrations to 1940, maps.
(2A) Corse-du-Sud
Capital: Ajaccio. All new! Online: Parish and civil registrations from 1548 to 1914, probate tables, land records and census returns. Very nice.
(2B) Haute-Corse
Capital: Bastia. Online: Maps, civil registrations from 1793 to 1902.
(21) Côte-d'Or
Capital: Dijon. Online: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, censuses 1800 to 1936, indices to the military recruitment lists and the lists themselves from 1867 to 1921, court and judicial records, administrative records,maps, tables to notarial records, succession tables. NEW AND FABULOUS: scans of 170 registers of notarial records dating from 1310 to 1475!
(22) Côtes-d'Armor
Capital: Saint-Brieuc. Online: land records, parish and civil registrations, census records to 1906, will indices, post cards, posters, photograph collections, military recruitment lists from 1867 to 1909, scans of old newspapers, répertoires (chronological indices) to notarial records.
(23) Creuse
Capital: Guéret. New website! Online: Parish and civil registrations, maps, posters from the Second World War, census returns, military recruitment lists, and -- very nice -- alphabetic indices to inheritances.
(24) Dordogne
Capital: Périgueux. New website! Online: historic maps, ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations, census returns through 1896, military conscription lists from 1887 through 1921. NEW: Newspapers from the World War Two era.
(25) Doubs
Capital: Besançon. Online: Ten-year indices, civil and parish registrations, finding aids. NEW Website - much improved!
(26) Drôme
Capital: Valence. Online: parish registers, ten-year indices, civil registers up to 1852, with some up to 1916, notarial archives, land records, military recruitment lists from 1865 to 1921, census returns from 1790 to 1911; also many finding aids. NEW: Protestant registers with indices!
(27) Eure
Capital: Évreux. Online: parish and civil registers, military recruitment lists, censuses, old postcards.
(28) Eure-et-Loir
Capital: Chartres. Online: Parish and civil registers, military conscription lists, censuses, probate lists, land registry records, electoral rolls, church plans.
(29) Finistère
Capital: Quimper. Online: Maps, parish and civil registrations census returns, military recruitment lists from 1860-1913, local maps with place names in Breton.. Parish registrations from 1772 to 1909 have been indexed on FamilySearch. They are having a LOT of trouble with their new website. This AD is one of the few to do a really excellent job of uploading all of their finding aids. Bravo!
(30) Gard
Capital: Nîmes. At last! Gard has its own website, previously having relied heavily upon TéléArchives at Brozer.fr which have the municipal archives of Nîmes and a large number of archives for Gard. On Gard's own website at the moment there are only the military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1915 and now parish and civil registrations.
(31) Haute-Garonne
Capital: Toulouse. Online: Land records, parish and civil registers, military recruitment lists, marriage contracts from Toulouse from 1501 to 1739, census returns from as early as 1795 through 1936, insinuations from 1693 to 1790. The 1872 and 1886 census returns for Toulouse are being indexed by FamilySearch. Nice new website, at last!
(32) Gers
Capital: Auch. Online: Finding aids, historic maps, military conscription lists and census returns. Parish and civil registrations are not expected to be online before late 2015.
(33) Gironde
Capital: Bordeaux. Online: Transcriptions of some parish registers, parish and civil registers and ten-year indices, maps, passport applications from 1800 to 1889, military recruitment lists from 1867 to 1921, register of deeds, wills, etc., 182 registers of the Admiralty of Guyenne, crew and passenger lists of departing vessels from 1683 to 1778. Click on GAEL to search. While there are some civil registrations for Bordeaux, most are on the website of the Bordeaux municipal archives.
(34) Hérault
Capital: Montpellier. Online: Military recruitment registers, parish and civil registers, censuses, land records, notarial records, post cards, maps, municipal meeting minutes. NEW: Copies of the Land Registry records, showing transfers of ownership -- the Table des hypothèques -- are now online.
(35) Ille-et-Vilaine
Capital: Rennes. Online: Land records, parish and civil registrations for most but not quite yet all locations. For Rennes see the Archives municipales de Rennes. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(36) Indre
Capital: Châteauroux. Online: Finding aids, maps, parish and civil registrations to 1902, ten-year indices, census returns to 1901. NEW: Complete military recruitment records from 1859 to 1921.
(37) Indre-et-Loire
Capital: Tours. Online: Parish registers, ten-year indices, land records, old post cards and records of wills filed, military conscription lists. Land registers for Chinon, Loches and Tours from 1800 to 1955. NEW: registers of wartime bomb damage (inventaires des dommages de guerre).
(38) Isère
Capital: Grenoble. Much improved! Online: Ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations to 1892, census returns to 1906, military conscription lists from 1856 to 1921, scans of WWI family records, treasury records from the 13th to the 15th centuries.
(39) Jura
Capital: Lons-le-Saunier. Excellent progress! Online: maps, postcards, historic photographs, parish and civil registrations from the 16th century through 1892, ten-year indices from 1802-1932, marriage banns and dispensation requests from the 18th century, military conscription lists from 1867-1921, registers of notarial records from 1694-1791, census returns from 1800 to 1911. This has to be one of the most helpful archives in the country.
(40) Landes
Capital: Mont-de-Marsan. Lots of problems with this site, and many efforts to repair them, finally leading to a new site. Online: Parish and civil registrations, military recruitment lists, maps, town meeting minute books.
(41) Loir-et-Cher
Capital: Blois. Online: parish and civil registrations, census returns, indices to military recruitment lists, maps.
(42) Loire
Capital: Saint-Étienne. Online: Ten-year indices, parish and civil registers from 1469 to 1909, some as recent as 1965. Census returns from 1810 to 1911, maps, 1906 inventories of church properties, postcards, military recruitment lists from 1865 to 1921, newspapers from 1873.
(43) Haute-Loire
Capital: Le Puy-en-Velay. Online: parish and civil registrations, ten-year indices to same, military conscription lists, census returns through 1936, registers of notarial records. There is much, much more than can be listed, so explore this site, as it continues to add digitized archives by the hundreds. Superb website!
(44) Loire-Atlantique
Capital: Nantes. Online: Parish registers, civil registers, censuses, land records, maps, old post cards, notarial records, military enlistment registers, WITH a surname index to them! Do not waste your time contacting by post or e-mail, as they brusquely refuse to be of any help at all.
(45) Loiret
Capital: Orléans. Online: Civil registrations from 1833 to 1902 are gradually being put online. About one third of all communes have been added. However, there are some that will never be online, for they were destroyed during the Second World War. Many communes have their own websites with their parish and civil registrations found online there. Nice new website, much improved!
(46) Lot
Capital: Cahors. Online: Parish and civil registrations to 1912, including clerk's copies, census records, succession tables, military registers.
(47) Lot-et-Garonne
Capital: Agen. Much improved! Online now: civil registrations of the 19th century, census returns, many maps and land records, photographs, old post cards, unique funds of local history and customs, and the recordings of the accounts of some Spanish refugees.
(48) Lozère
Capital: Mende. An all new website! Online: the parish and civil registers from the 17th century to 1902, photographs, maps, post cards, town histories, insinuations. Unusually, the municipal archives of the capitol city are at the same site. Nice little bit of cooperation, that.
(49) Maine-et-Loire
Capital: Angers. Apparently recovered from a hacking disaster, the archives on line now include: parish and civil registers up to 1902 (nothing later is envisaged for many years to come), military conscription registers, a database of World War I soldiers, maps of the Napoleonic era, probate (succession) registers and alphabetic indices (tables) to them, post cards, architects' plans, and much, much more. Nice disaster recovery. For those attempting access from outside of France, try this link: https://recherche-archives.maine-et-loire.fr/v2/ad49/registre.html
(50) Manche
Capital: Saint-Lô. Online: Historic maps, parish and civil registrations and ten-year indices, military conscription lists. Click on moteur de recherche, then on état civil. There is a nifty little video explaining how to use the search engine. Paris registrations from 1533 to 1906 for some towns have been indexed on FamilySearch.
(51) Marne
Capital: Châlons-en-Champagne. New! Online: parish and civil registrations, maps, censuses, and land records. NEW! Military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1896.
(52) Haute-Marne
Capital: Chaumont. Online: finding aids and land records are online. Gradually being added are: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, and notarial records. Here, one can also read the interesting "Notes généalogiques du Baron de l'Horme".
(53) Mayenne
Capital: Laval. Online: parish and civil registers from the 16th century to 1882, ten-year indices, a data base created by volunteers of the details from the marriages of the 19th century, military registers, census lists from 1836 to 1906, land records, transcriptions of marginal notes from the parish registers. Mayenne is acknowledged as the gold standard of departmental archives online.
(54) Meurthe-et-Moselle
Capital: Nancy. Online: parish and civil registers up to 1882, land records, military recruitment lists from 1887-1921, census returns from 1872 to 1936, probate indices from 1849 to 1945, and letters patent from 1473-1508. As the archives are relocating, all is pretty chaotic, including the website.
(55) Meuse
Capital: Bar-le-Duc. Nice new website design! Online: Parish and civil registers, military conscription lists, census returns, land registry maps, old newspapers, illuminated manuscripts!
(56) Morbihan
Capital: Vannes. Online: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, military conscription lists from 1867 to 1921, maps, photos, 19th century local newspapers.
(57) Moselle
Capital: Metz. Redesigned site! Online: parish registrations, tables to civil registrations, photographs, maps, military recruitment lists. Work is underway to get the civil registrations online.
(58) Nièvre
Capital: Nevers. Online: finding aids, list of communes, old post cards, cahiers de doléances, pregnancy declarations, censuses, military conscription lists (recently updated to include the soldiers of WWI), parish registrations and civil registrations are completed.
(59) Nord
Capital: Lille. Online: Ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations, military recruitment lists, land records, 1906 census. If you are researching people from the capital, check the website of the Archives municipales de Lille at archives.lille.fr
(60) Oise
Capital: Beauvais. Online: old post cards, parish maps, parish and civil registers, censuses, military registers. NEW: marriage dispensations, seals, maps, hypothèque records, succession tables. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(61) Orne
Capital: Alençon. Online: parish and civil registers to 1902, ten-year indices.
(62) Pas-de-Calais
Capital: Arras. Online: Lots of advice, plus ten-year indices to parish and civil registrations up to 1912, census records from 1820 to 1886, military recruitment records through 1921, land records.
(63) Puy-de-Dôme
Capital: Clermont-Ferrand. Online: All parish and civil records, a wonderful collection of land registry files, images of clerical seals and finding aids, census returns, maps, military conscription lists from 1859 through 1921. Nice new website.
(64) Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Capital: Pau. Now online: land records, finding aids, parish and civil registrations, Jewish registers, some notarial records, military recruitment lists from 1878 to 1921.
(65) Haute-Pyrénées
Capital: Tarbes. Online: Cahiers de doléances, census returns, military recruitment lists, maps, affidavits. The city of Tarbes has put up its parish and civil registers from 1611 to 1909 on www.archives.tarbes.fr. NEW: Parish registers from 1620 to 1792. Soon to enable collaborative indexing. Civil registrations from 1792 to 1915 are expected to be online in January of 2017.
(66) Pyrénées-Orientales
Capital: Perpignan. Online : finding aids, civil registrations, military conscription lists through 1921 with alphabetic indices through 1935, census returns through 1975, hypothèque records, maps, registers of internment camps of WWII. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(67) Bas-Rhin
Capital: Strasbourg. Online: parish and civil registrations, and census records, now up to 1912. Also a very interesting discussion of an early 19th century manuscript of a history of Jewish people in Alsace, by Jacob Meyer. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(68) Haut-Rhin
Capital: Colmar. Nice new website. Online: the heraldic devices for each commune, a list of those who died in the two World Wars, a list of all of the mairies (town halls), civil registrations from 1793 to 1892, ten-year indices and lists of Jewish names, and the census of 1866, répertoires (indices) to notarial records from 1791. Unfortunately, if you find a record to request, they will not respond. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(69) Rhône
Capital: Lyon. Nicely revamped website. Online: Censuses from 1836, parish and civil registrations from 1527, military recruitment registers, maps, indices to notarial records, a very large collection on orphans, prison records, hypothèque records, business registrations. Collaborative indexing of both registrations and censuses is making this site incredibly useful. Rhône is the first department to allow the images of their ten-year indices and of their parish and civil registrations to appear on www.genealogie.com, though why you would pay there when you can get it free here is a mystery. For researching your ancestors from Lyon, see also http://www.archives-lyon.fr/archives/
(70) Haute-Saône
Capital: Vesoul. Online: Land records, census records, civil and parish registrations, conscription registers, bureaux de succession registers. Exceedingly helpful staff. Ten-year indices for many communes can be found on the website of the local genealogy group, Serv@nc'nautes : www.servancnaute.fr
(71) Saône-et-Loire
Capital: Mâcon. Online: land records, ten-year indices, parish and civil registers to 1902, censuses from 1836 to 1901, cahiers de doléances, succession tables, post cards, and a nice facility to see all that is available for each town. NEW: Indices to notarial records from 1790 to 1958.
(72) Sarthe
Capital: Le Mans. Online: land records, parish and civil records from 1515 to 1892, military conscription registers from 1878 to 1922, manuscripts from private collections, a spoken dictionary (very cool!) census records from 1906 to 1936 (earlier census returns were destroyed), property records, historic maps, and town council minute books from 1787.
(73) Savoie
Capital: Chambéry. Online : maps, some ten-year indices, census records from the 16th to 20th centuries, parish and civil registers from 1501 to 1793 and from 1815 to 1860. Also: some old newspapers, indices to maps, posters, etc.
(74) Haute-Savoie
Capital: Annecy. Online: NEW! Parish and civil registrations, censuses and military conscriptions from 1860 to 1940, and maps.
(75) Paris
Online: index cards to the surviving and reconstructed parish and civil registers to 1860 (the microfilm of these "reconstituted" parish and civil registrations prior to 1860 are on FamilySearch. Patience required.), birth registrations from 1860 to 1912, marriage registrations from 1860 to 1940, death registrations from 1860 to 1986, military recruitment registers from 1875-1909; lists of the first names of children accepted into care from 1742-1909, ten-year indices for the civil registrations from 1860 to 1984, interment lists for Paris cemeteries. Beautiful website. NEW and Fabulous! The digitized images of the reconstituted acts (currently births only) are now on this website - so much easier to use than those on FamilySearch.
(76) Seine-Maritime
Capital: Rouen. Parish and civil registrations up to 1912 and in some cases up to 1935. Promised soon are maps. Passenger lists of French ships sailing from Le Havre are now online.
(77) Seine-et-Marne
Capital: Melun. Online: Censuses, ten-year indices up to 1916, notarial records, parish and civil registrations, marriage banns, military conscription lists, World War One photographs.
(78) Yvelines and the old Seine et Oise
Capital: Versailles. Online: ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations to 1912 (to 1937 for some towns), military recruitment lists, censuses, land records, cahiers de doléances, community monographs (histories), remarkable indices to 114 towns in the arrondissement of Versailles civil registrations covering the years from 1843 to 1912 . Indices to notarial records dating from 1575 to 1899.NEW! Land ownership records -- matrices cadastrales.
(79) Deux-Sèvres
Capital: Niort. Online: parish and civil registers, land records and census records, military conscription registers. Deux-Sèvres have merged their website with that of Vienne, making for a much improved service.
(80) Somme
Capital: Amiens. Online: old post cards, seals, parish and civil registrations, censuses, historic maps, local histories, seals, photographs of WWI, and.....(drum roll) a user's guide in English. Just up: military conscription lists.
(81) Tarn
Capital: Albi. Online: some parish registers, civil registers, ten-year indices, land records. It is necessary to register to use the site. They recently had the good luck to find some notarial records at a flea-market!
(82) Tarn-et-Garonne
Capital: Montauban. Online: Ten-year indices, civil and parish registrations dating back to 1590; military recruitment lists, with alphabetic indices for some years.
(83) Var
Capital: Toulon. Online: land records, census returns, parish and civil registrations, ten-year indices, medieval notarial records, architectural records, cahiers de doléances, records about the liberation of Var during WWII, finding aids, a "genealogy database", an index to military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1921 and transcriptions of more than a million pages from the register of land sales. Constantly being updated.
(84) Vaucluse
Capital: Avignon. Revamped website. Online: parish and civil registrations, ten-year indices, finding aids, maps, census records from 1836 to 1906, military conscription registers, succession tables, hypothèque records, photographs, postcards, a nice collection of World War I records.
(85) Vendée
Capital: La-Roche-sur-Yon. Online: parish and civil registers, censuses, notarial records, land records, old post cards, faire parts, notarial minutes and délibérations municipales, the World War I soldiers from the Vendée. Sadly, these archives have suffered two floods in 2016; the website explains the consequences in great detail. NEW: a database of 13,700 names of members of religious houses from the 18th century to 1903. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(86) Vienne
Capital: Poitiers. Online: parish and civil registers (now up to 1912), land records, the military registrations from 1867-1908, census lists (collaborative indexing in progress), tables of inheritance and probate records, notarial records. Interesting: A collection of notes on cards made during the 1950s extracting further information on Protestants, abandoned children and more. NEW: Vienne has merged its website with that of Deux-Sèvres, making for a much better service.
(87) Haute-Vienne
Capital: Limoges. Online: Maps, finding aids, parish and civil registrations from 1737 to 1912, photographs, a medieval manuscript from Limoges, military recruitment lists from 1878 to 1921, inventories of parish properties from 1905; census returns from 1836; some very interesting WWII identity cards..
(88) Vosges
Capital: Épinal. Parish registers from 1526, civil registers to 1905, ten-year indices, censuses for the years from 1886 to 1906. NEW: military recruitment lists, land records from 1807 to 1913, and town histories (monographs des communes).
(89) Yonne
Capital: Auxerre. Online: parish and civil registers. Census records, military lists from 1867 through the First World War, maps and land records. NOTE: Access to digitized records is blocked if your IP address shows that you are outside of France.
(90) Territoire de Belfort
Capital: Belfort. A very nice site with plenty online: parish and civil registrations, censuses, military registrations, and historic maps. Additionally, local archivists have created an excellent site of indexed data from the parish and civil registrations. It is a bilingual site: http://lisa90.org
(91) Essonne
Capital: Évry. Online: Parish and civil registers, censuses, historic maps, and 184 village and town histories written for the 1900 Paris Expo, indices to notaires' minutes, newspapers, census returns from 1817 to 1906.
(92) Hauts-de-Seine
Capital: Nanterre. Online: maps (also for the old department of Seine from 1930 and for Seine-et-Oise from 1960); ten-year indices to the civil registrations through 1942; census records from 1891 to 1936, civil registrations for all towns from 1793 to 1918 and for some towns up to 1942; hypothèque records; tables de succession; electoral lists; school enrollment lists; cahiers de doléances; postcards; posters and public notices.
(93) Seine-Saint-Denis
Capital: Bobigny. Much improved! Online: parish and civil registrations from 1523 to 1922, census returns from 1821 to 1936, electoral lists from 1839 to 1939, lots of postcards and photos. Plus, a very intelligent addition: links to municipal archives websites and to others that will be useful.
(94) Val-de-Marne
Capital: Créteil. Online: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, historic maps, finding aids, census records from 1795 (!) to 1906. Nice, easy site to use. Wonderfully interested, knowledgeable and helpful staff.
(95) Val-d'Oise
Capital: Cergy-Pontoise. Online: Parish registrations from the 16th century to 1792, civil registrations from 1793-1900, ten-year indices, and census returns from 1817 to 1975, indices to probate records of Argenteuil from the 17th century to 1914, old newspapers.
(971) Guadeloupe
Capital: Basse-Terre. Online: Civil registrations and military conscription lists. For earlier parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer.
(972) Martinique
Capital: Fort-de-France. This is actually the website of BNPM - The Banque Numérique des Patrimoines Martiniquais. Online: the actes d'individualité of freed slaves, 1848-1851, military conscription lists from 1889 to 1921. There are many, many new registers concerning the slave populations from 1770 to 1899. For earlier parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer.
(973) Guyane
Capital: Cayenne. Online: finding aids only. For earlier parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer.
(974) La Réunion
Capital: Saint-Denis. Online: census returns from 1708 to 1779; civil registrations; land registry records from 1830 to 1955; emancipation registers; immigration records; World War one archives; military recruitment registers from 1919 to 1921; photographs. For earlier parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer.
(975) Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Capital: Saint-Pierre. Online: Census returns; passenger lists; seamen lost at sea. Click on "ARCHIVES/RECHERCHES" and select from the drop-down menu. For earlier parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer.
(976) Mayotte
Capital: Dzaoudzi and/or Mamoudzou. Nothing is online at the moment. Thus, only the parish and civil registrations on the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer, for the years 1844 to 1917, are available online.
(977) Saint-Barthélémy
Capital: Gustavia. No website yet. See the ANOM website via the link above. See also the excellent website about slavery "Mémoire St. Barth" : http://www.memoirestbarth.com/ Saint-Barthélémy was administratively united with Guadeloupe, so use Guadeloupe resources as well.
(978) Saint-Martin
Capital: Marigot As with Saint-Barthélémy, Saint-Martin was administratively united with Guadeloupe, so use Guadeloupe resources as well. The link above is to the ANOM website, with parish and civil registrations.
(986) Wallis-et-Futuna
Capital: Mata Utu. For digitized parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer (ANOM), using the link above.
(987) Polynésie française
Capital: Papeete. Online: newspapers and official publications. For digitized parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer (ANOM).
(988) Nouvelle-Calédonie
Capital: Nouméa. Nothing online. For digitized parish and civil registrations, see the website of the Archives nationales d'outre-mer (ANOM)

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Booklets on French Genealogy

Women & Children in French Genealogy
This booklet contains twelve posts from the first six years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of and issues relating to genealogical research on women and children in France.
The Genealogical Proof Standard and French Genealogy Second Edition
This booklet contains eleven posts from the first seven years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of the largely American Genealogical Proof Standard as it may be applied to the documentation found in French genealogy. These posts were written during our participation in a study group on the book by Thomas W. Jones entitled "Mastering Genealogical Proof". At the time of going to press, the sessions of that study group could still be seen on YouTube.
The FGB Tours Departmental Archives The FGB Tours Departmental Archives
This booklet contains twelve posts from the first six years of "The French Genealogy Blog" describing visits to various Departmental Archives around France.
The Months of the Republican Calendar Year With Useful Dates for the French Genealogist, Second Edition
This booklet contains thirteen posts from the first seven years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of French rural life through the seasons using the months of the Republican calendar and following Eugène LeRoy's "l'Année Rustique en Périgord".
Death and Cemeteries in France
This booklet contains sixteen posts from the first six years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of cemeteries and genealogical research into deaths in France.
Research in French Municipal Archives
This booklet contains twelve posts from the first six years of "The French Genealogy Blog" describing visits to various municipal archives around France, with discussions of some of the unique documents found there. An appendix gives an explanation of the organization of the records in France's municipal archives.
Protestant and Huguenot Research
This booklet contains twelve posts from the first six years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of genealogical research Protestants and Huguenots in France, plus five more written for this publication.
French Notaires and Notarial Records from The French Genealogy Blog
This booklet contains twenty-two posts from the first eight years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of genealogical research using French notarial records. Some new material, including a glossary of notarial terms, has been written exclusively for this booklet. It follows on our first publication "French Genealogy From Afar", which explains the basics of French genealogy and without which this booklet may seem a bit confusing.
Parisian Genealogy from the FGB
This booklet contains sixteen posts from the first six years of "The French Genealogy Blog" on the subject of genealogical research on Parisian families, plus one written specifically for this work. It is our most sincere wish that you, Dear Reader, would find it of use in your search for your Parisian ancestors.

August 2023

The Departments

21 August 2023

Do You Need Help Reading Your Old French Documents?

02 August 2023