Researching Your Ancestors Online
at the 95
Departmental Archives in France
In this class you will learn how to research your ancestors using the 95 free online departmental Archives.
First we will locate the Commune or town where they lived.
Then we will learn how to search for baptisms, marriages and burials in either the Catholic churches or the Huguenot Temples.
We will do some basic translation of the French to English.
Since we typically
are researching the people that populated New France or Quebec we will focus on
the period before the 1796 French Revolution changes to record keeping in
France.
Note: Use CTRL
+ several times to size the document
The research process of French Canadian and Acadian ancestors in France by North American family lineage researchers often results in failures because of the following reasons:
>> Family name - Wrong spelling - As a point in case the Gagné ancestors, Pierre and Louis Gagné who settled in Château-Richer, a few miles east of Quebec City in 1648 and 1654 were not Gagné in France but Gasnier - Same pronunciation, different spelling. But online family searches in France are conducted under the name Gasnier, not Gagné
>> Family lineages in New France - Wrong family lineages with wrong results as to who was in fact one's true ancestor - Too many North American family lineage researchers rely on postings online on Ancestry, RootsWeb and similar online offerings.
>> COMMUNES - (Villages, towns, townships, cities) - The villages, towns, townships, cities from which an ancestor or ancestors originated from is the ''primary key'' in order to determine precisely the true family lineage in France of ancestors of New France (Nouvelle France) and Acadia (Acadie)
Insee numbers for Dept and commune E.G. 17300 is for La Rochelle Dept=17 Commune=300
It is different from the Post
Office Number
We will address the 95
Archives Départementales de France - In 90 or 92 of
the regional archives one can research Catholic acts of baptisms from 1539 and
from 1579 in regard to acts of marriages and deaths until 1796.
The
latter date being when the Civil Registers of France were instituted at the
French Revolution.
But first in order to properly begin a successful family lineage search or searches in France, one must know precisely who was one's ancestor with the proper spelling.
Three favorite sources are:
Fichier Origine – www.fichierorigine.com
René Jetté - Dictonnaire généalogique des familles du Québec – Book
Denis Beauregard - www.francogene.com/genealogy/gfna.php
P.R.D.H. - www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/en/home
In all three of the above, the place of origin of an ancestor, is the place and date of the baptism of the pioneer being researched and online searches conducted at 92 of the 95 Archives départementales of France are carried out by the names of COMMUNES (villages, towns, townships, cities)
In regard to ancestor Pierre Gasnier (Gagné)
His place of birth being the village of Igé,
Parish of Saint-Martin), a village also referred to as Saint-Martin
d'Igé within modern day ''département'' of Orne.
A question being asked, why limit your search process to the 95 Archives départementales of France, simple; in 92 of these Archives the online research process is FREE to all researchers in family lineage searches and all commercial online search engines in France obtain most of their information from said 95 Archives départementales.
The Top 31 Départments from which French Canadians and Acadians originated from 1604 onward were in order of importance:
>> Charente-Maritime – 832 persons in Fichier Origine
>> Manche
>> Vendée
>> Vienne
>> Orne
>> Calvados
>> Côte-d'Armor
>> Charente
>> Deux-Sèvres
>> Ille-et-Villaine
>> Côtes-d'Arrmor
>> Sarthe
>> Indre-et-Loire
>> Maine-et-Loire
>> Gironde
>> Loire-Atlantique
>> Loir-et-Cher
>> Yvelines
>> Paris
>> Côte-d'Or
>> Eure
>> Somme
>> Finistère
>> Haute-Marne
>> Mayenne
>> Yonne
>> Aisne
>> Pyrénées-Atlantiques
>> Haute-Saône
>>
Rhône – 50 in Fichier
Origine
From this point-on, only 15% or about of French Canadian and Acadian ancestors originated from.
As always, any searches I conduct in France begins with Fichier Origine.
A highly reliable second source are the books by René Jetté
The third most reliable source being P.R.D.H.
Websites of Maps and department information
Map of
the Ancient Provinces of France (1610 to 1789)
Ancient Provinces of France with their modern
day Departments and capitals
Regions
and Departments of France and maps
Map of France Departments and Cities
Cassini Map of France about 1745 - Click on NAVIGATION and then RECHERCHER UN LIEU and then CARTE
Description
of data available at the 95 department archives
Most French Canadians and Acadians originated from the ancient provinces of France prior to the French Revolution.
Family lineage searches in France are no longer carried-out online or at various archives of France under ancient provinces of France but under modern-day departments.
The ancient province of Normandie produced the largest number of pioneer families among French Canadians and Acadians.
Normandie today is: Seine-Maritime, Eure, Calvados, Orne, Manche and the portion of the ancient province of Perche, region of modern-day Mortagne-au-Perche.
Once a family lineage researcher in North America accepts the fact that family lineage searches are carried out today by departements and not by ancient provinces, half of the battle is won.
The 95 Archives départementales de France with their online offerings are carried-out online by names of communes (villages, towns, townships, cities) but not by family names or names of individuals.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah from about 1952 reached agreements with about
60% to 65% of the Catholic Dioceses and Archdioceses of France and subsequently
a few years later with a similar percentage among the 95 Archives
départementales of France.
In the two agreements, the Mormon Church in
France agreed to send Mormon Missionaries to various regions of France in order
to photograph Church Registers (Parish Registers) stored at various regional
archives of France and in some rare cases within various Catholic Archdiocese
or/and Diocese Archives.
The attached is the result of over 60 years
of partnership between FamilySearch of Salt Lake City and various Dioceses and
Archdioceses of France plus about 65% of the Archives départementales of
France.
The agreement reached in 1950 or about, only
applied to parish registers to be photographed and reproduced on microfilms.
Six or seven years back, the President of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France reached a new agreement
with Catholic Dioceses, Archdioceses, Archives départementales of France in
order to digitize the large collection of microfilms stored at the Mormon
Library in Salt Lake City.
Presently millions of acts of Catholic Church
Registers of France are being digitized in order to offer said Parish Registers
of Catholic Parishes online at FamilySearch.org
Until the process of digitization is
completed one can order microfilms from their local Family History Center.
Class
Nov.11, 2017 – Researching 95 Departments Online in France
http://www.vt-fcgs.org/FREE ONLINE SEARCHES in 95
Depts in FRANCE FINAL.htm
Researching in the 95 Departments of
France
Translating French Baptismal Records
The top 10 Departments for French
Canadians
See a map of the top 10 Departments
Examples of Baptisms to Locate
Click Here to Research Departmental
Archives Online
Always select État
civil or Civil Status for Parish or Temple records
|
Department |
Person |
Search Date |
Commune |
Church/Temple |
Insee number |
Found on Page |
Misc |
|
Charente-Maritime |
Poissant, Jacques |
Bap 4 Aug 1661 |
Marennes |
temple |
17219 |
533 of 632 |
|
|
Seine-Maritime |
Dastout, Pierre |
Bap 4 Feb 1701 |
Assigny |
St Medard |
76027 |
#7 |
1700-1709 |
|
Manche |
|
|
|
|
50___ |
|
|
|
Vendee |
Tessier/Texier, Pierre |
Bap 10 Apr 1695 |
L’ile d-Yeu |
St Saveur |
85113 |
12 of 84 |
|
|
Vienne |
Bernard, Jean |
19 Feb 1705 |
Jazeneuil |
St Jean Bte |
86116 |
3 of 105 |
|
|
Orne |
Hocquart, Gilles |
28 Jul 1695 |
Mortagne-au-Perche |
Ste Croix |
61293 |
40 of 99 |
|
|
Calvados |
Gouget, Jacques |
12 May 1726 |
Boulon |
St Pierre |
14090 |
62 clicks of 163 |
1/163/58 |
|
Cote-d’Armor |
Grignon, Julien |
21 May 1722 |
Plenee-Jugon |
St Pierre |
22185 |
106 of 417 |
|
|
Charente |
|
|
|
|
16___ |
|
|
|
Deux-Sevres |
Bernier, Andre |
24 Jul 1663 |
Niort |
St Andre |
79191 |
31 of 147 |
Scroll & scroll |
