Guide 1
How French records work
Parish registers, civil registration and where to find them.
Free guides
Practical help for tracing your French ancestors, from a genealogist who reads these records every day.
Guide 2
Reading the Republican calendar
"14 Germinal an XI": what date is that?
Guide 3
Finding your ancestor's town
The clues hidden in American and Canadian records.
How French records work
France has some of the richest genealogical records in the world, but they are organised differently from American or British ones. The golden rule: records are kept town by town. Without the town, there is no simple way to search.
Before 1792: parish registers
Before the Revolution, baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded by the Catholic parish priest. Royal ordinances made these registers compulsory step by step: baptisms from 1539, then marriages and burials from 1579, and from 1667 each parish had to keep a duplicate copy. Depending on the parish, registers survive from the 17th century, sometimes earlier. They are often written in French, sometimes in Latin, in handwriting that takes practice to read.
From 1792: civil registration
In September 1792, registration passed from the Church to the town halls: this is the état civil. Every town records births, marriages and deaths, in two copies: one stays at the town hall, the other now sits in the departmental archives. From 1793, ten-year indexes (tables décennales) list all the records of a town, decade by decade: a precious shortcut.
Where the records are today
Most registers older than 100 years are kept in the departmental archives (Archives départementales), one per department, and the majority have been digitised and put online for free. Access to recent records is restricted: birth and marriage records less than 75 years old are not freely available.
Other useful sources
- Census returns (recensements), every five years from 1836, listing each household.
- Military files (registres matricules), from the late 1860s, with a physical description and addresses.
- Maritime records (inscription maritime), for sailors and fishermen.
- Notarial records: marriage contracts, wills, sales.
Reading the French Republican calendar
If your ancestor was born, married or died in France between 1793 and 1805, the record is probably dated with the Republican calendar, created during the Revolution. Years are counted from 22 September 1792 (Year I) and written in Roman numerals: "an XI" means Year 11.
Each year has 12 months of 30 days, plus 5 or 6 extra days at the end (the jours complémentaires). The months, with their approximate equivalents:
- Vendémiaire: 22 Sept – 21 Oct
- Brumaire: 22 Oct – 20 Nov
- Frimaire: 21 Nov – 20 Dec
- Nivôse: 21 Dec – 19 Jan
- Pluviôse: 20 Jan – 18 Feb
- Ventôse: 19 Feb – 20 Mar
- Germinal: 21 Mar – 19 Apr
- Floréal: 20 Apr – 19 May
- Prairial: 20 May – 18 June
- Messidor: 19 June – 18 July
- Thermidor: 19 July – 17 Aug
- Fructidor: 18 Aug – 16 Sept
These equivalents can shift by a day depending on the year, so always check an exact conversion table before recording a date. The Gregorian calendar came back on 1 January 1806.
Example: 14 Germinal an XI falls in early April 1803 (4 April 1803).
Finding your ancestor's town of origin
Many American and Canadian records simply say "born in France". To search the French registers, you need the town. Here is where families most often find it:
- Naturalization records: later declarations of intention often give the town and date of birth.
- Passenger lists: departures from Le Havre and other ports sometimes note the place of origin.
- Church records in America: Catholic marriage records frequently name the parish of origin of an immigrant.
- Military registration cards, obituaries and gravestones.
- Family papers: letters, postcards, a family Bible, a French passport or military booklet.
Found a clue but not sure it is enough? A research plan will tell you whether a search is possible, and where to start, before you commit.