Cette semaine : Nous allons en France !

Salut !

A few folks have asked lately about the basics of researching French records in France. 

I remembered that back when I was on ravelry, I'd done a post on there to help out a friend in the 'Knitting Genealogists' group (still highly recommend the group if you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't find new Ravelry too inaccessible. Unfortunately I can't use it anymore), so I've done my best to recreate it here. 

Each département (administrative area) in France has its own 'archivesenligne' (online archives) website. The rest of this section takes the Archives Moselle site as a 'for example'

There is a menu option for ‘rechercher’ - that is ‘to research’ …'chercher' is a good word to have. It means ‘to search’. Also 'trouver' is another great one - it means ‘find’.

On the Moselle first page there, the first options you have in boxes are:

Le département de la Moselle propose la consultation en ligne des archives numérisées :

REGISTRES PAROISSIAUX - Parish registers

PHOTOGRAPHIES DU DENKMALARCHIV - Photographs of Denmalarchiv who/whatever he is

TABLES DÉCENNALES DE L’ÉTAT CIVIL - Decennial tables of the Civil Service/State

CADASTRE - Cadastre survey map/chart

REGISTRES MATRICULES MILITAIRES - This ought to cover people’s military service completion

FONDS PRIVÉS - Private …funds - likely to cover ‘misc.’ Should be very interesting.

Couple tips for Parish records:

* Most of them seem to run Jan-Dec Janvier-Décembre in vital order: births, marriages, deaths, with corrections for the year after deaths. Though some are all births for the years covered with corrections at the end, then all marriages etc.

* For most places, you can pretty quickly work out roughly how many pages a year takes, which is handy as you can pretty much predict where to jump to to get in/around where you want to land.

* More recent stuff, since proper records started getting kept via the State, you should usually find entries have marginal notes on the birth registration for later vital events.

* If you can find a ‘livret de famille’ that’s an awesome resource to have, that confirms up to 3 generations
- It would be held by a relation though, and very unlikely found online. The French are very particular on what genealogy documents can/can’t be online by law. Each 'livret de famille' is given to the bride on her marriage and remains her property until her death, when it typically passes to her eldest child (or whoever else has an interest in old family documents).

* French privacy law extends 100-120 years from birth if I recall correctly.

Some handy terms:

naissance - birth
mort - death

décédé/e - is dead/has died. …deceased. Also décès - as in Acte de Décès - Death certificate

inhumé/e - buried. Alternatively enterré/e
testament - a will
livret de famille - family book - a VERY valuable book/document. Usually passes to eldest offspring after death.

vie à - lives at

de cette paroisse - of this parish
père - father
mère - mother
enfant - child. Especially in infancy.
grandpère/pépé - grandfather/grandad respectively
grandmère/mémé - grandmother/grandma respectively
arrière-grandpère/arrière-grandmère - great grandad/great grandma respectively
fils - son …fils de - son of
fille - daughter …fille de - daughter of
petit/s enfant/s - grandchild/ren
petit-fils - grandson
petite-fille - granddaughter
arrière-petits-enfants - great grandchildren
marraine - godmother
parrain - godfather
tante - aunt
oncle - uncle
époux/épouse - spouse male/female
les époux - the spouses
jeune fille - maiden / young woman/girl etc.
mariée - bride
mari - groom
la femme - the wife …sa femme - his wife
le mari - the husband …son mari - her husband
le gendre - son-in-law
la brue - daughter-in-law
ami/e - friend. Also copain/copine is a friend. A ‘compagnon’ relates to the guilds though

prêtre - priest. There is a circumflex accent on the first e typically

maire - mayor
Roi - king
Reine - queen
acte de - the act of …acte de naissance - birth registration
témoins - witnesses. Singular is témoin
signé - signed
travail - work
1er/ère - 1st

2ème 3ème - 2nd, 3rd etc
âge de - of the age of
moins - months
ans - years
jours - days
dans l'année... - in the year...

Months of the year:
Janvier
Février
Mars
Avril
Mai
Juin
Juillet

Août 

Septembre
Octobre
Novembre
Décembre

Some handy niceties:

S'il vous plaît - please

Merci - Thank you
Salut - Hi
Cher/Chère - Dear …as in for emails and letters.

est-ce que vous pouvez m’aider - could you help me.
Parlez-vous anglais - Do you speak/write/have English
Vous - you …polite form
Tu - you …friends/family that you’re close with, especially if younger.