Before the French Revolution, France existed as provinces, duchies, and properties, not as departments, as we know them today. We know how to search, find, and obtain (militaire matricules) French military records located in a town bureau of a department, but finding them from the ‘ancien régime’ (the old order) to the Napoleonic era of France is completely different. With that, it’s going to take research of another kind.
First of all, where are these records?
Where they are not: today’s French departments. You can only find them at the Mémoire Des Hommes1, a French government military repository. These records are being digitized and uploaded online. Thanks to all who contributed to this massive project. Community effort of volunteers have indexed and continue their labor of love of indexing those records. You really have to love indexing, and a desire and dedication to help others by making all these documents easily available. Thanks to all who have and continue to index these records. Your work is very much appreciated.
With that said, indexed enlistments are not complete. A lot of work has been done, but a lot work is before the indexers.
What you’ll find, upon landing on the repository Memoire des Hommes webpage2, is a browsable catalog of their early Collections of digitized military enlistments; the Armies; the break down of those Armies (infantry, calvarie, hussards ect) and their units. You find records of the pre-Revolution era ‘Registres matricules de l’Ancien Régime1682-1793′ ; French Revolution era enlistments (Volume 1 , Volume 23) and Napoleonic era enlistments (Volume 1, Volume 2)4
The initial information is located on a drop-down menu on the right side of the page. From there is an overwhelming lists of regiments of Infantries, cavaleries, of hussards, dragons, chaussiers, royal guards and seemingly endless host of other military groups. Use my navigational tutorials to understand and find your way through the maze.
Let me give you an example of a baptismal record that includes the necessary information to find an ancestor in the French military.
To find the military ancestor in a baptism record, proceed in this order of search:
- (In red), the name of the regiment – in this example : Regiment of the Guyenne
- (in orange) the year or group of years of enlistment – in this example – 1730
- (in purple) the name of the soldier – in this example – Michel Lefeubre
And this is what is found:
- At the top of document:
- Name of campagnie: Mereuil
- at bottom of document:
- Name of soldier: Michel Lefebvre
- Additional Information:
- place of birth, age, some physical features, date of enlistment, ‘dit’ names ect
If you need help navigating the Memoire des Hommes archives, visit my navigational tutorial here
I know this hurts, but unfortunately, if you don’t know the branch of the army, the unit with the name of the campaigne, you cannot move forward, unless you’re committed to searching through each branch and regiment. Hopefully, as the indexing project continues, more names will be added to a searchable feature. So don’t give up hope.