We received the following from Monsieur G. I have a few small questions... 1) Have you done any articles on the recording of French region names?  Are there any guides that discuss the recording of place names in French genealogy? 2) I notice that many genealogy programs include region names when mapping database entries. This can be confusing, since there have been massive changes to most across the years. Many of the actual historical records only give (at most) the commune, canton, arrondissement and department. Actually; with the exception of census records, they seem most often ..read more

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 France. The current departments are always listed alphabetically and always referred to with their number, e.g. Seine-Maritime (76) or Dordogne (24). When they were created, in 1790, the new system was supposed to be more rational and we are sure that, in terms of government, it was. This numbering is used in many aspects of administration. I ..read more

We are happy to be able to tell you, Dear Readers, that we shall be speaking at the AGRA Conference next month, at Downing College in Cambridge, on the topic of "Researching the British Prisoners of Napoleon in French Archives". Do come along ..read more

We were contacted by a Loyal Reader and Supporter of this blog, Monsieur M., with the following about his ancestress:  Have you ever heard of an "Acte de rectification"? I have an 2x Great Aunt who's birth name was entered incorrectly in the village register. Salome Fix, born in Climbach, Bas-Rhin, in 1835. Her surname was entered incorrectly into the town register as Fuchs. When she was 21, she sought to have a correction made, to her actual name. The actual name of FIX, and the error of FUCHS. One would think this would be a simple matter, right? Correct a mistake? This happens all the ..read more

  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 your own, do read that post and also have a look at our glossary. If, however, you find that your document was not written by someone made to practice (as above), that it is worse than murky and is utterly illegible to you, we would like to introduce the excellent transcriber, Madame Sandrine Anton-Fayard, the owner of Ancêtres et Familles. She has been of great help to us of lat ..read more

We recently attended a most interesting talk, hosted by one of those highly recommended local history associations. The presenters were François and Catherine Schunck, who spoke about the internal refugees who fled Alsace at the beginning of World War Two.  There were two separate waves of Alsatian refugees, the Evacuees of 1939 and 1940 and the Expelled of 1940. The Evacuation of 1939 - At least two years prior to the evacuation, a plan had been devised to evacuate people of the region in the event of an invasion by Germany. The plan concentrated on evacuating the people living in the n ..read more

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 under ..read more

We have touted, in the past, the very fine blog Généalogie Alsace, sharing their posts and encouraging any of you who have ancestors from Alsace to read that blog regularly. Once again, the writers are attempting something very interesting. They have put out a call to all those around the world to share their stories of their Alsatian ancestors. You can read some of the stories here. The blog authors are preparing a series of posts on emigration from Alsace, which they plan to publish in November as their contribution to the big French genealogy bloggers event, "Challenge AZ". That requires o ..read more

It is late May, the time when, traditionally, many French couples were looking forward to Summer or Autumn weddings. The dress, the flowers, the long trestle tables in the garden, the organization of cooking for three days of feasting, the sleeping arrangements for the visiting relatives, all this occupied minds as the weather grew hotter and people grew more anticipatory. The Summer of 1914 was different, of course. War was declared in August and the men in the reserves were called to serve. In the panic, thousands of couples rushed to the City Halls and Town Halls and married. Snooty French ..read more

Dear Readers, You may have noticed that you do not receive anymore our new posts in your e-mail. It was once possible to subscribe to the French Genealogy Blog via a service that no longer exists. We have tried alternative services without success. Additionally, we have cancelled our accounts with facebook and Twitter, so no notices of posts have been going out that way. We have decided that we will send links to you via Patreon each time that we put up a new post. This means that only Patreon supporters will receive news of a post. In essence, the blog remains free but a subscription will c ..read more