Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest

Courtesy of Wikipedia
Flag adopted 15 Feb 1794

This post is part of a series about genealogy in France. You can read the complete series HERE.

Following the defeat of France after the Franco-Prussian war 1870-1871, a fire broke out in two locations in Paris, that held copies of all civil records pertaining to events prior to 1861.

These locations were:

• Town Hall (Hotel de Ville)
• Law Court (Palais de justice)

Also there were other records that were destroyed such as financial and police records.

Civil records from 1860-1871 were kept at district town halls and as a result, these survive. It was possible to reconstruct records concerning families and descendants, sorted by date and surname and then subsequently digitised. These can be found at the website for the Paris Archives, and on FamilySearch under the term “Reconstitution Chronologique des Actes”

• Births 1860 – 1924
• Marriages 1860 – 1945
• Deaths 1860 – 1986

Parish is divided into 20 arrondissements and each has it’s own register. There is a database for each arrondissement for each record type and they are divided into 10 year periods – these are noted as tables decennales.

Between 1933 and 1954 only annual tables exists.

There are records for Paris on:

• Families Parisiennes which are sorted by surnames
• Geneanet
  • various index records most of which are photographed by volunteers.
  • some trees uploaded by others, which might provide clues for other researchers
• Filae access to index records 1860 – 1900 with some earlier that 1860
• City directories for 1932 – 2018 (not online) and at Paris archives.

Courtesy of Wikipedia
Flag adopted 15 Feb 1794

This post is part of a series about genealogy in France. You can read the complete series HERE.

• 1791 was the first population census, but it is rare to find a surviving document from that time.
• The majority of towns and cities have their records dating from 1826 or 1831.
• Census held every five years, except during periods of war
  • 1871 Census was held in 1872 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War.
  • 1916 Census cancelled due to the First World War
  • 1941 Census cancelled due to the Second World War
• The information contained within a Census document has evolved over time:
  • Surname and first name
    • Women might be listed under their maiden name
  • Occupation
    • Those without an occupations will either have the box empty, or will be filled with sp or sans
    • Type of employment (not all)
      • owner or employee (name of employer, if relevant)
  • Marital status
  • Relationship to the head of the household
  • Age, or year of birth
  • Address (from 1851)
  • Nationality and place of birth (not all)
• Census for Paris only exist for the following years: 1926,1931, 1936 and 1946
  • Electoral rolls exist and can be found at the Paris Archives.
• Date of each census can be found written at the bottom of the last page on the census.
• Census records can be found in the department offices for each region and these are often digitised, and go up until 1936.
  • You can do an internet search (Google is probably best)  for the name of the town + “archives departementales” 
  • Not all regions use the same terminology, and these might be found under different names:
    • recensement
    • denombrement
    • recensement de la population
• Most of the census are unindexed, which is OK for a small town or village, but really it is best for you to know where your ancestors lived, the information can be found in birth, marriage and death records.
  • Filae does have several indexed census’ – 1872, 1901-1911
• Enumerators frequently used abbreviations:
  • d for ditto, a wavy line or id (abbreviation for the Latin word of idem, meaning same)