How French records are organized
French genealogy rewards researchers who know two things before they start: the town (commune) where an ancestor lived and an approximate date. Almost everything is organized locally, by commune and by département, so a name alone is rarely enough.
The most important dividing line is 1792. Before that, baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded by the clergy. After it, civil officials kept the registers. The two systems are held and indexed differently, so it helps to think of French research as two eras.
Many French records are free to view online through the archives of each département. The records themselves are in French (and Latin in older church books), but the vocabulary is limited and repetitive, so a short word list goes a long way.
Before 1792: parish registers
Church registers (registres paroissiaux, often abbreviated BMS for baptêmes, mariages, sépultures) are the main source before the Revolution. A royal ordinance of 1539 (Villers-Cotterêts) is generally cited as the start of a requirement to keep baptism registers, and later rules extended and standardized the practice. In practice, survival varies widely: some parishes have registers from the 1500s, while many start in the 1600s or 1700s. See how far back genealogy records go for a wider comparison.
Things worth knowing:
- Registers often exist in two copies, and the duplicate may survive when the original does not.
- Baptisms often record the baptism date rather than the birth date, usually within a day or two.
- Protestants had a different history from Catholics. See our article on tracing Huguenot ancestry if you suspect a Protestant line.
- Women are normally recorded under their maiden names in marriage and burial entries, which makes tracing female lines easier than in some other countries.
From 1792: civil registration (état civil)
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1792. The records are typically called:
- Acte de naissance (birth)
- Acte de mariage (marriage)
- Acte de décès (death)
Each commune produced registers every year, and a copy was deposited with the court and later the département archives. An entry often names the parents, their ages and occupations, witnesses, and sometimes later marginal notes (for example a marriage written beside a birth entry), which can save you a lot of searching.
Tables décennales and annual indexes
Every ten years the commune compiled an index of the registers, the tables décennales. These are among the most useful finding aids in French research. If a town’s name index is not searchable online, browse the table for your decade, note the act number and date, and then jump to the register itself.
The Republican calendar
In the early civil registers you may see dates such as “13 Vendémiaire An X.” The French Republican calendar was used in civil records from late 1793 until the end of 1805. Free converters are easy to find online, and checking your result against the register’s order of entries is a good habit.
Other records worth searching
- Census (recensements): Population censuses were taken at roughly five-year intervals starting in the 1830s. Survival and online coverage depend on the département, and the lists tend to be most useful for finding households, ages and occupations.
- Military registers (registres matricules): Registers of men called up for service, with physical descriptions and places of residence, generally begin in the second half of the 1800s and are often online.
- Notarial records: Wills, marriage contracts, dowries and property sales are kept in notaries’ records, many of which are now in departmental archives. They can reveal relationships that registers do not show.
- Death and inheritance tables (tables de successions): These indexes can point you to the family of someone who died with property.
- Deaths since 1970: The national statistics institute INSEE publishes an index of deaths since 1970, which is useful for more recent generations.
Where to search for French records online
Departmental archives
France has an archive for each département, and most have digitized parish and civil registers for free. Websites differ considerably in layout and in how far the digitization goes, so start by searching for the name of the département plus “archives départementales.” Community-compiled directories of department links, such as the one on frenchgen.com, can help you find the right pages.
Large genealogy sites
- Geneanet is a major French genealogy site with user-contributed trees and many indexed records. Some features require a paid subscription.
- FamilySearch has indexed and browsable French records. It is free, but an account is required, and some images may have viewing restrictions.
- Filae and other commercial sites also offer indexes. Check what a subscription includes before paying.
Societies and local groups
Regional genealogical societies and volunteer projects often produce indexes for places the big sites have not covered. They are also a good source for local surname knowledge.
Records not yet online and privacy rules
Recent records are not freely open. French rules on access vary by record type, and the periods have changed over time, with birth and marriage records generally becoming open to the public only after several decades. Check the current rules with the archive or commune before assuming a record is available.
If a record is not online, you can write to the commune’s town hall (mairie) or the departmental archives. A short email in French often works well. Include the full name, date and place of the event, your relationship to the person, and the type of document you need. Fees and policies differ, so ask before sending payment.
Common problems and how to solve them
- Spelling and handwriting: Names were spelled phonetically, and handwriting varies. Search for variants and search by first name and place.
- Changed borders: Alsace and part of Lorraine were under German administration from 1871 to 1918, so some records from that time are in German and held under different arrangements.
- Lost or damaged archives: Wars and fires damaged some collections. Check whether a copy was deposited at a different office.
- Name changes and nicknames: Families sometimes used dit names (“called”), which can appear in place of or beside the surname.
French ancestry in North America
Many people with French-Canadian roots can trace lines to New France. Among them are descendants of the Filles du Roi, a group of roughly 800 women sent to the colony in the 1660s and early 1670s, according to commonly cited estimates. For French-Canadian lines, Quebec’s parish registers are extensively indexed, so you can often work back to the emigrant ancestor and then use the French records described here to look for his or her village of origin.
A simple research plan
- Gather names, dates and places from relatives and documents on your side of the Atlantic.
- Find the town of origin, using passenger lists, naturalization papers or marriage records.
- Search the departmental archive for that commune, starting with the tables décennales.
- Work back from civil records to the parish registers before 1792.
- Add notarial and military records to fill in the details.
- Record the source of every fact, including the register and image number, as described in how to organize your genealogy research.
If you have neighboring-country ancestors as well, note that Luxembourg also adopted French-style civil registration. See our guide to Luxembourg birth records for how that works.