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Research in France

From : "agnes" <aqv@free.fr>

To : CHANNEL-ISLANDS-L@rootsweb.com

Subject : Re: [CI] RENOUF + RESEARCH in France

Date : Tue, 14 May 2002 12:49:47 +0200

About the researches in Normandy, there's no centralised file of the birth, marriage and death certificates in France. In fact the right "level" for the researches in France is the "département" or the "commune" (town, village).

 Since 1793, each town hall (nearly 37,000 "mairies" today) record the NMD (naissances, mariages et décès) in double : every year, 1 register is sent to the local justice court. So, normally, there are 2 collections : the "collection de la mairie" and the "collection du greffe".

The making of "tables décennales" (alphabetic directories covering 10 years) is also compulsery. But they just precise the identity and the date of the certificate.

(The registers before 1793 were taken from the church and given to the civil authority when the "état civil" was created ; in many places, this old collection has disappeared).

 Through the 20th centuary, certain informations were added. For instance, when you read a birth certificate, you'll normally find in the margin a mention of the marriage(s) (place, date, identity of the husband), divorce(s) or separation (date of jugment, identification of the court), death (date and place), etc.

The mention of the death only appeared in 1943, I think, but the one of the marriage is older (end of the 19th centuary ?).

This system of the "mentions marginales" is quite practical, of course.  

So, there's really a "before" and an "after" the Revolution, in the scope of genealogy too, and many genealogists give up when they reach the end of the 18th century.

 Before 1793 : the "registres paroissiaux" or BMS (baptêmes, mariages et sépultures) are those of the catholic church, essentially. With the abolition of the "édit de Nantes" in 1685 by Louis XIV (religious persecutions had started again a long time before), everybody was supposed to be recorded in the registers of the catholic church.

 Since 1793, the "état civil" (NMD) and the "registres paroissiaux" co-exist.  

After 100 years, the consultation of the "état civil" archives is free.

Normally, the "état civil" registers of more than 150 years (and those kept at the justice court, after 100 years) must be sent to the "archives départementales" (AD), but towns over 2000 inhabitants can keep their own archives.

 The problem is that many villages refuse to give their archives even when they are unable to preserve them : in Normandy especially, no-one forgot that the building where the archives were concentrated was destroyed by the bombings of St Lô in 1944 (certain documents dated of the 9th centuary !).

 Fortunately, microfilming is in progress and soon, we won't have to go from a village to another to consultate (...in a "mairie" open 1 or 2 mornings a week, and less during sommer holidays !). Everything will be in the same place. More precisely, at the archives départementales in St Lô, for the département de la Manche.

 There are other sources of informations, that enable to trace several generations, even when the parish registers were destroyed.

 - In small villages where most people were all more or less cousins, the "dispenses de consanguinité" can be helpful. If 2 persons discovered before getting married they were (grand-)grand-children of siblings, they had to ask for such a dispense to the pope in Rome (!). But, by derogation, if they were "poor persons living on the labour of their arms", according to the usual expression, they could get it from the bishop. That's why you can find these dosuments at the "archives diocésaines" that depend on the bishop of the area.

 - the "archives notariales" can also be interesting for most of the economic relationships had the form of a contract signed in front of a public officer (marriage, wills, estate or cattle purchase and sale, "rentes", etc.).

For instance, if someone dies leaving minor children, the list of his possessions had to be done by a notaire (you get a precise description of his old clothes and the content of each drawer !). Over 100 years, these archives can be consultated in the archives départementales, too.

Well, I think that for you, the best thing to do, in the beginning, is probably to join an genealogical society (there's at least one in each département). I'm not certain language is the main problem, there's always a means to have your letters translated. Also, the presentation of the documents is often the same. To my opinion, decoding the original hand-written text is a different exercise...Around 1670-1690, if you don't take a paleography training program, reading becomes very difficult even if French is your mother language and if you make genealogical research for years...

That's my answer to your general query.

I can't tell you much about the RENOUF for I don't have any in my genealogy.

In know this name exists in the centre of the Cotentin peninsula.

Watching the directory of the families studied by the members of the CG-50 (cercle généalogique de la Manche), published in 98, I can quote the following informations :

 Hope you have a good map ! . Some of these places must be in the north or noth-east of the Cotentin peninsula.

 I simply notice that "Servant" is most unusual as a christian name, and I wonder if it has a link with the parish "Saint-Servan" that is now a part of the City of Saint Malo. Odd names like Marcouf or Romphaire, for instance, often reveal that the person (or his godfather...) is born in the parish dedicated to 1 of these saints.

 Maybe someone on the AFG-35 list could make a research for you. (I don't remember the address of the site Association française de genealogie but you'll certainly find it with an engine. If you subscribe (it's free), choose the region "Bretagne" and the departement "35- Ille et Vilaine".  

There are also several sites that give the location of the surnames in France for different periods of the 20 th centuary (based on the birth certificates in each departement, on a map of France). If my memory is good, one address is http://195.6.231.241/scoring/patronyme/index.asp

Agnès QUIROGA VASSELIN,

Versailles (France)

aqv@free.fr

http://monsite.ifrance.com/ascot (adresse provisoire)

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