Memoire des Hommes Military Records Introduction

Memoire des Hommes, is an archival web site of the Government Ministry of the French Armed Forces.

You will find a wealth of mostly searchable historical and digitized military files and records of “soldiers who died for France during the First and Second World Wars, individual files of Resistance fighters, enlistment records and personnel numbers” (online translation from home page). It’s also the only repository of:

Table View Format:

Tree View Format:

Both view formats have their pros and cons. So it’s really up to your preference.

All of these records is all digitized, available online and free to use for our French genealogy research. There’s even a name search option for records that have been indexed with more to be added.

Now, the bad news:

It’s an agonizing and overwhelming amount of digitized records divided into all of the different types of armies, units and regiments. Over 5,000 results full of great information, but searching through it will be very difficult and time consuming.

Before you start searching, you need to have some basic information before moving forward successfully.

Do you have any of the following?

  • the unit ? example here
  • what branch of army: Calvary? Infantry? ect
  • hussard, grenadier, cuirassiers? royal guard, ect
  • the town, province, duchy, the army is attached to? ex: Régiment de cavalerie de Bourgogne
  • *campagnie name?
  • For clarification: “In the ancien regime companies were often named by their  leader, their origin, or their purpose” He furthers explains, “This image lists the Grenadier Company, the Colonel’s Company (i.e. the one the Colonel commanded), the Lt’Cols company, and the six other companies by their Captain’s name/title.  You can even see that a second hand filled in those names afterwards.  All of the books follow the identical format, by regulation of the King.” – by JC Reardon

What you could find in the enlistments, are birth dates, enrollment date, place of birth, names of parents, rank, physical features, names of regiment, what battles they fought, and if the soldier died, was wounded or deserted.

Check the check baptism/naissance records of your ancestors. Even the male witnesses and sponsors might have military information recorded. Usually a friend or military leader would step in if family members weren’t available.

I hope this ‘springboard’ will help you start your journey..