Genealogy in Eure-et-Loir: archives for your research
Genealogy cheat sheet - Follow our guide and trace your ancestors: online archives, records, useful sites and other resources
©️Wikimedia - Catherine Turpin
updated: January 7, 2026
Eure-et-Loir, a department located in the Centre-Val de Loire region, was created in 1790 during the French Revolution. It gets its name from the two rivers that cross it: the Eure and the Loir. Its history goes back well before this date, with traces of human occupation dating back to prehistory and a rich Gallo-Roman period, notably in Chartres (Autricum).
The department is composed of several parts of the ancient provinces of Orléanais, Maine, and Île-de-France to the north. It is bordered by the departments of the Loir-et-Cher, the Loiret, the Essonne, the Yvelines, the Eure, the Orne and the Sarthe.
From a genealogical perspective, Eure-et-Loir has several notable specificities, such as:
- A crossroads position between Île-de-France and the western regions, favoring exchanges and population migrations.
- A strong agricultural tradition, with the Beauce being one of France's grain baskets, shaping stable rural family structures over several generations.
- The influence of Chartres, a cathedral city that has been a regional hub for pilgrims, artisans, and merchants since the Middle Ages.
- The proximity to Paris, which generated significant migratory movements from the 19th century onwards, with rural exodus to the capital.
📜 Archives of Eure-et-Loir
Departmental archives of Eure-et-Loir: resources at your fingertips
Visit the Departmental Archives of Eure-et-Loir:
📍 3 rue Philarète Chasles, 28300 Mainvilliers
Contact the Departmental Archives of Eure-et-Loir:
📞 02 37 88 82 20
📧 Send an email
Search for records of your ancestors on the website of the Departmental Archives of Eure-et-Loir:
Online records
Unusual records
🧳 Migrations in Eure-et-Loir
Migrations to and from the Eure-et-Loir department are modest but continuous: rural exodus to Paris and industrial cities deeply marks the 19th century, followed by labor immigration and residential mobility shaping the 20th and 21st centuries.
- Before 1800: before the Revolution, the area corresponding to present-day Eure-et-Loir mainly experienced local migrations: seasonal movements of agricultural workers, circulations of craftsmen and small artisans between Beauce, Perche, Île-de-France, and the Loire Valley. These mobilities remained mostly within the regional basin, with very few foreigners in the future Centre-Val de Loire region. For you genealogists, this means ancestors who changed parishes or neighboring bailiwicks rather than provinces: you should therefore expand your research to neighboring parishes and former seigneurial or ecclesiastical jurisdictions.
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19th Century: rural exodus and departures to Paris
In the 19th century, the Beauce region of Eure-et-Loir experienced a massive rural exodus of agricultural workers, whose numbers decreased by at least a third between 1851 and 1911, due to the combined effects of low wages and mechanization (threshers, harvesters). Agricultural workers, who still made up over 70% of the active agricultural population in 1852, were only 46% in 1892, with many leaving the countryside for cities, particularly Paris.
Rural communes in the department then lost a significant portion of their inhabitants, a phenomenon clearly visible in census records or local examples where villages went from nearly 1,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 19th century to a few hundred by the end of the 20th century. For your research, it is common to see young farm laborers or domestic servants born in Eure-et-Loir marrying in Paris, Chartres, or other industrial cities: consulting Parisian records and those of major regional cities becomes essential.
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1870–1945: between 1870 and 1914, the population of Eure-et-Loir decreased by about 3.7%, while France as a whole gained nearly 10% of inhabitants, a sign of a migratory deficit and a continuation of rural exodus. The population decreased slightly again between 1921 and 1936 (–0.57%) while the country progressed, showing that departures to other regions remained higher than arrivals in the department.
At the scale of the Centre-Val de Loire region, international migrations remained very modest until the interwar period, with the region counting only 6,625 foreigners in 1886, far fewer than industrial departments like the Nord or Bouches-du-Rhône. For a genealogical tree, this period is more often marked by branches leaving Eure-et-Loir for mining and industrial basins than by the massive arrival of foreigners in the Eurélien territory.
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1945–1980: after 1945, French migration policy is reorganized by the ordinance of November 2, 1945, which entrusts the state with the management of foreign labor flows through unified residence and work permits. The Centre-Val de Loire region, including Eure-et-Loir, remains a non-border and late-industrialized region, but it participates in welcoming foreign workers, particularly in industrial and service sectors, with a strong concentration of immigrants in three departments: Loiret, Eure-et-Loir, and Indre-et-Loire.
Regional history is marked by the presence of internment camps and reception centers for foreigners, political refugees, or migrant workers, directly affecting some families who passed through the region. In Eure-et-Loir, specific archives (medical and social assistance, welcome committees for migrant workers) document the support for immigrants after 1940 and allow for finding useful individual files for genealogy.
For more information:
🎞️ Eure-et-Loir in images
Videos
Old images and postcards
Old maps of the department
📆 History of Eure-et-Loir
On Gallica: the books, the press and the manuscripts to learn everything about the Eure-et-Loir department
🏆 The 50 most common surnames in Eure-et-Loir
Top 10 surnames in Eure-et-Loir:
- MARTIN
- ROUSSEAU
- GIRARD
- LEROY
- MOREAU
- LECOMTE
- DURAND
- MARCHAND
- LEGRAND
- PELLETIER
the other 40 most popular surnames in the department (according to the INSEE file):
- RENARD
- GAUTHIER
- PETIT
- VALLEE
- GUERIN
- BESNARD
- RICHARD
- HUBERT
- MORIN
- HUET
- DUBOIS
- BOUCHER
- CHAUVEAU
- DUVAL
- POIRIER
- MENAGER
- MEUNIER
- LEFEVRE
- DAVID
- BRETON
- BOULAY
- CHEVALLIER
- LEROUX
- ROGER
- GARNIER
- TESSIER
- BOURGEOIS
- BIGOT
- LUCAS
- PICHARD
- MERCIER
- ROBERT
- AUBRY
- FLEURY
- PHILIPPE
- ESNAULT
- NORMAND
- THOMAS
- GAUTIER
- FONTAINE
🗺️ Genealogy sites in Eure-et-Loir
Genealogy circles and associations in Eure-et-Loir
Genealogy blogs about Eure-et-Loir
Accounts to follow on social media
Happy researching!
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