How to Research Your French & Belgian Ancesters
 
Making  French  Genealogy  Easier

Explore The Online France Department Archives

Map of France Departments

We cried “Where can we find French birth, baptism, marriage, death, military and census records?” And then it was so.


The France department archives went online and it’s free. A French Genealogy miracle for those researching their French ancestors from afar. Parish, civil, military and census records were digitized and uploaded with some of the departments still in the process of making all their documents accessible to online researchers.


This is a list of online archives of digitized records for all continental departments of France. Before the French Revolution, France existed as provinces of the ‘ancien régime’. Roman Catholic clergy recorded the baptism, marriage, and burial occurrences. In 1792, France was no longer governed by the Catholic church. The country was now governed by the new French Republic. The country was divided into “Departments” (


Each department varies on what is scanned and available for viewing. Some departments will have all types of records; parish, civil, census and military available, while others offer only one or two types of records. Here’s what you can find : Registres Paroissiaux (church records: baptemes, Mariages, Sepulture (burial)- BMS; état civil numérisés (civil vital records: naissance (birth), Mariages, décés (death) – BMD; Recensements de population (census); Registres matricules militaires (military enlistments), maps, estates, ect, browse through. Elise Noble fully explains the names of records in an easy to read format. (She has a great website filled with historical and informational content).

Have you come across department’s online records only to have those links time-out? Unfortunately, because of the serious problem of hackers coming from outside of France, some departments and no doubt more will follow, have denied access to those outside of France. Not all is lost though. If you already have a good VPN service they should provide access to the geo-restricted content. I have BitDefender Preminum VPN that provides a France IP so you can have access to those protected sites. If yours doesn’t, you can sign up for a an excellent VPN service (like Bitdefender). subscription service, There are free VPN programs available that offer Download Red Panda free VPN browser extension (Edge or Chrome) or Hotspot Shield. The free version may be all that you need. If that is not for you, Tom’s Guide can help you to decide which service is best for you.


If you need a helping hand navigating the French Archives ? Click Here

Aine (01)

(click on Archives Numérisés)

Aisne (02)

Allier (03)

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)

Haute-Alpes (05)

Alpes-Maritimes (06)

You need a France VPN to access

Ardèche (07)

Ardennes (08)

Ariège (09)

Aube (10)

Aude (11)

Aveyron (12)

Bouches-du-Rhône (13)

Calvados (14)

Cantal (15)

Charente (16)

Charente Maritime (17)


Cher (18)

Corrèze (19)

Corse (20)

  • Corse-du-Sud (2A)
  • Haute-Corse (2B)

Côte d’Or (21)

Côtes-d’Armor (22)

You need a France VPN to access

Creuse (23)

Dordonge (24)

Doubs (25)

Drôme (26)

Eure (27)

Eure-et-Loire (28)

Finistère (29)

Gard (30)

Haute-Garonne (31)

Gers (32)

You need a France VPN to access

Gironde (33)

You need a France VPN to access

Herault (34)

Ille-et-Vilaine (35)

Indre (36)

Indre-et-Loire (37)

Isère (38)

Click on “VOIR LES DOCUMENTS NUMÉRISÉS”

Jura (39)

Landes (40)

Loire-et-Cher (41)

Loire (42)

Haute-Loire (43)

Loire-Atlantique (44)

Loiret (45)

Lot (46)

Lot-et-Garonne (47)

Lozere (48)

Maine-et-Loire (49)

Manche (50)

Marne (51)

Haute-Marne (52)

Mayenne (53)

Meurthe-et-Moselle (54)

Meuse (55)

Morbihan (56)

Moselle (57)

Nièvre (58)

Nord (59)

click on consulter

Oise (60)

Orne (61)

Pas-de-Calais (62)

Puy-de-Dôme (63)

Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64)

Hautes-Pyrénées (65)

Navigating the Archives of Hautes-Pyrénées

Pyrénées-Orientales (66)

Bas-Rhin (67)

Haut-Rhin (68)

Rhône (69)

Haute-Saône (70)

Saône-et-Loire (71)

Sarthe (72)

Savoie (73)

Haute-Savoie (74)

Paris (75)

Seine-Maritime (76)

Seine-et-Marne (77)

Yvelines (78)

Deux-Sèvres (79)

Somme (80)

Tarn (81)

You need a France VPN to access

Tarn-et-Garonne (82)

Var (83)

VanCluse (84)

Vendée (85)

Vienne (86)

Haute-Vienne (87)

Vosges (88)

Yonne (89)

You need a France VPN to access

Territoire-de-Belfort (90)

Essonne (91)

Hauts-de-Seine (92)

Seine-Saint-Denis (93)

Val-de-Marne (94)

Val-d’Oise (95)

 

Tutorial 7 -Navigating the France Archives

 

 

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