Genealogy in Puy-de-Dôme (63): Find your ancestors

Genealogy Cheat Sheet - All the useful resources to grow your family tree and find your roots in Puy-de-Dôme

Genealogy in Puy-de-Dôme (63): Find your ancestors

©️Wikimedia - Benoît Prieur

Updated: January 7, 2026

Created on March 4, 1790, the Puy-de-Dôme department, located in the Auvergne region, includes former territories of the Duchy of Auvergne, the Viscounty of Clermont, the County of Auvergne, as well as parts of Bourbonnais, Marche, and Limousin, which explains the diversity of its former parish and judicial jurisdictions to consider in genealogy. Today, it borders the Allier, the Loire, the Haute-Loire, the Cantal, the Corrèze and the Creuse.


Its capital, Clermont-Ferrand, has long held a dominant position, being both an administrative, religious, and industrial center, particularly with the establishment of the Michelin factory, which caused its population to grow rapidly at the beginning of the 20th century.



📜 The archives of Puy-de-Dôme


The departmental archives of Puy-de-Dôme: All sources for your family history


Visit the departmental archives of Puy-de-Dôme:

📍 75 rue de Neyrat, 63100 Clermont-Ferrand


Contact the departmental archives of Puy-de-Dôme:

📞 04 73 23 45 80

📧 archives@puy-de-dome.fr



Work on your genealogy by accessing the different funds of the departmental archives of Puy-de-Dôme:



Online records



Unusual records



🧳 Migrations in Puy-de-Dôme


  • Before 1800: Before the Revolution, the area that would become Puy-de-Dôme belonged to several provinces of the Ancien Régime (Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Marche, Limousin), with mostly local mobility: seasonal movements of peasants, peddlers, craftsmen, and domestics between nearby valleys, mountains, and plains. This was more about internal circulation within the Auvergne region and neighboring provinces than long-distance migrations, with the economy largely remaining agrarian-pastoral and structured by parish and feudal networks.

    For your research, this means not limiting yourself to the birthplace: checking neighboring parishes that were part of old districts (Duke of Auvergne, Viscount of Clermont, etc.) is often essential to trace branches before 1790.


  • 19th Century: Like the rest of the Massif Central, Puy-de-Dôme was severely affected by rural exodus in the 19th century: young people left the Auvergne mountains for booming industrial centers, leading to significant demographic decline in many cantons. Between 1846 and 1911, Puy-de-Dôme lost a significant portion of its population while metropolitan France gained residents, indicating that departures to other regions outpaced arrivals.

    Meanwhile, local industry changed scale: from a dispersed rural sector, the department shifted to a more urban industry linked to mining (Saint-Éloy-les-Mines, Brassac, etc.) and especially rubber, with Michelin's workforces growing from a few dozen workers in 1890 to over 5,000 by 1914. Censuses show increasing population concentration in the Clermont-Ferrand agglomeration, while rural communes emptied, often requiring genealogists to follow ancestors from villages to cities, and sometimes to Paris or industrialized regions.


  • 1914–1945: Between 1870 and World War I, then from 1921 to 1936, Puy-de-Dôme's population decreased while France's increased, confirming a persistent migration deficit. World War I exacerbated human losses, and the interwar period remained marked by these consequences, despite early labor immigration.

    Following the war, Auvergne saw a first wave of foreign immigrants: Italians and Poles for the mining basins of Puy-de-Dôme (notably Saint-Éloy-les-Mines and Brassac-Sainte-Florine), and Spaniards recruited in the rubber industry. Between 1921 and 1926, Puy-de-Dôme gained 25,000 residents, largely due to the expansion of Michelin, and Clermont-Ferrand's population grew over 70% from 1911 to 1926 to reach 112,000. In your family trees, you'll see Italian, Polish, or Spanish surnames appear in this period in Clermont-Ferrand and mining area records and censuses.


  • 1945–1980: After 1945, Auvergne remained marked by long-term rural depopulation, even being one of the few regions (with Limousin) to lose residents between 1990 and 1999, though Puy-de-Dôme's situation was less critical than some neighboring departments. Agricultural modernization, farm consolidation, and industrial job losses not offset by the service sector caused new departures to major French metropolises, especially Paris and Lyon.

    Nevertheless, Puy-de-Dôme continued to attract workers to its urban and industrial poles, with cross-flows: rural youth leaving for the outside world and arrivals from neighboring departments or abroad to Clermont-Ferrand and its surroundings. In a family tree, this period often shows very rural birthplaces (mountain villages) for grandparents, then marriage or death records shifted to Clermont-Ferrand, other Auvergne cities, or Île-de-France for their children.



Learn more:



🏔️ Puy-de-Dôme in images


Videos


Old images and postcards


Old maps of the department



📄 The history of Puy-de-Dôme



On Gallica: the books, the press and the manuscripts to learn everything about the Puy-de-Dôme department


🗺️ Genealogy sites in Puy-de-Dôme


Genealogy circles and associations in Puy-de-Dôme or nearby


Genealogy blogs that talk about Puy-de-Dôme


Accounts to follow on social media



Happy researching! 


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