An Excellent Map to Help You Research an Ancestor Who Lived in 1812

This is a very handy little tool, if you are researching an ancestor who lived in the French Empire in 1812. The Empire was significantly larger than is modern France, with one hundred and thirty-four departments. (We have explained France's departments and how to research in their their archives here.) If you have successfully found a marriage register entry, for example, only to be baffled by it giving the birthplace of an ancestor as in the Department of Deux-Nèthes, which you cannot find anywhere (not even in the list of departments in the column to the left,) this map will help to solve the mystery.

It is the work of the geographer and cartographer, Aurélie Boissière and may be found on and downloaded from the website of Napoleon.org in a much higher resolution than that given above.

During the Empire, civil registers (explained here) were maintained in the same way in all departments, in French. When the Empire was broken up after Napoleon's abdication in 1814, the conquered territory was no longer a part of France. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 determined to what country these departments would belong. Note well that the registers, even though they were in French, remained in the places where they were created and are to be researched in those countries or, if online, as a part of those countries. Thus, Deux-Nèthes became a part of The Netherlands and it is in Dutch archives that you would search for the register showing the ancestor born in that department.

We have heard from many of you, Dear Readers, that you like to use maps in the family histories that you write. This one will greatly help to explain the geographical changes of the France your ancestors knew.

Download it now!

©2024 Anne Morddel

French Genealogy