Genealogy in Seine-Maritime: Guide and Genealogical Resources

Genealogy Cheat Sheet - Trace your ancestors in Seine-Maritime with our many online genealogical resources

©️Fracademic

Updated: May 30, 2024

The Seine-Maritime department, located in the Normandy region, in the northwest of France, is a department rich in history and cultural heritage. 

Bordered by the English Channel to the north and the Seine estuary to the west, the department is bordered by the Somme, the Oise, the Calvados and the Eure.

The Seine-Maritime department was created in 1790, during the French Revolution. Until 1955, it was known as Seine-Inférieure. 

The main cities in the department are Rouen (prefecture), Le Havre, and Dieppe. Other notable cities include Fécamp, Le Petit-Quevilly, Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Elbeuf, and Montivilliers, all steeped in history.

As true lands of convergence between Norman, English, and French influences, Seine-Maritime has been the stage for many significant events.

📜 Archives in Seine-Maritime

Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime

Visiting the Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime:

📍 42 rue Henri II Plantagenêt, 76100 Rouen

Contacting the Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime:

📞 02 35 03 54 95

📧 Contact the AD

The Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime provide digitized records:

• Parish and civil records
• Population censuses
• Journal of Rouen
• Military records
• Maritime registration
• Registration records
• Mortgages
• Cadastre
• Iconography
• Prison registers
• Hospital administration
• Municipal administration
• Notaries and clerks
• Chambers of Commerce and Industry
• Grievances books
• Registers of old series
• Charters and Seals
• Great Collection 14-18

Municipal Archives of Rouen

You can browse civil registration records and decennial tables on the websites of the municipal archives of Rouen.

Municipal Archives of Le Havre

Some records have been digitized by the municipal archives of Le Havre and are available for online consultation: civil records, population censuses, electoral lists, minutes of meetings...

Municipal Archives of Dieppe

Discover many online records on the digital library of Dieppe's old and local funds: 

• Photographs
• Maps and views of Dieppe
• Images
• Manuscripts
• Cadastre
• Census records
• Municipal council minutes
• Press

Online Records

• On FranceGenWeb: “Miscellaneous records” - Marriages - Migrants' marriages - Marriages of migrants originating from Seine-Maritime - Notaries - Protestants
• Records of the Parish Church of Notre Dame d'Yerville
• Genealogy of Dron and Devendeville and World War I 1914-1918
• Notary of Cany
• Jean-Paul Devy's Website
• Genealogical research on Saint Nicolas d'Aliermont
• Genehuguenot
• Huguenots of France
• Le Havre Shipbreaking

Unusual Records

• A drowned man among many others, the legend of the Red Corset, a very moving abandonment and many others on the J. Marchal's website.
• Unusual testimonies in Seine-Maritime archives

🗺 Migrations in Seine-Maritime

• Gallo-Roman period and great invasions (1st-5th centuries): the region is populated by the Gallic tribes of the Calètes and Véliocasses. From the 3rd century, the region experiences invasions by Germanic peoples (Franks, Saxons) and Scandinavian Vikings. 

• Middle Ages (6th-15th centuries): Scandinavian Vikings from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark settle permanently in the 9th century, originating the Duchy of Normandy. 
  After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, English and Flemish people arrive in the region.
  Finally, due to wars against England, Normandy experiences an influx of populations from northern France, Flanders, and the Anglo-Norman isles.

• Renaissance and Modern Times (16th-18th centuries): at this time, European Protestants (Netherlands, Switzerland, England) fleeing religious persecutions settle in Dieppe and Le Havre. At the same time, Flemish, Picardy, and Artois populations arrive in the region to work.
  Starting in the 17th century, many Normans leave for New France (Canada). 

• Contemporary period (19th-20th centuries): the department experiences an influx of workers from French regions (Brittany, Sarthe, Orne...) attracted by textile and metallurgical industrialization. Other workers,  Belgians, Poles, Italians, and Portuguese, arrive to work in factories, mines, and shipyards. 
  

For more information: 

• Migrants in a port city: Le Havre (16th – 21st centuries) 
• Rouen at the time of migrations of the King's Daughters, Splendor and Misery of a provincial capital
• Immigrants and emigrants, 19th and 20th centuries
• Workers' immigrations in Lower Seine under the First Empire
• Supplementary note on workers' immigrations in Lower Seine
• Italian presence in Upper Normandy: naturalizations between 1820 and 1940
• An original presence in Upper Normandy: the case of Italian immigrants
• Foreigners in Lower Seine until the mid-19th century
• Immigration in Seine-Maritime in the 20th century

🌞 Seine-Maritime in pictures

Videos

• The ruins speak - 1945
• Reconstructing: port of Le Havre, Kembs dam, bridges - 1945
• The port of Le Havre rises from its ruins – 1946
• Gonneville-la-Mallet: 700 inhabitants, 90 children - 1947
• Canadian pilgrimage to the graves of Canadian soldiers who died during the 1942 landing - 1949
• The symphony of the sea - 1950
• Construction of a new building in Rouen - 1958
• The last departure of the “Ile de France” - 1959
• Presentation of the Tancarville Bridge - 1959
• The Vikings in Rouen – 1961
• Strike at the shipyards of Traits – 1968
• 2nd excerpt: strikes in Rouen – 1968
• Strike in the region: Rouen and another city – 1968
• Rescue of art objects – 1969
• Weekend in Normandy - 1969
• A beautiful wedding - 1970
• Vacations and leisure: Mont Saint Aignan – 1970
• Polluted mussels – 1973
• The Vernier marsh – 1980
• The Tancarville Bridge is 30 years old - 1989
• Yesterday and today landscapes, Seine-Maritime before and after

Old images and postcards

• On Gallica: the Seine-Maritime in pictures
• On Clochers de France: the belfries of Seine-Maritime in pictures
• On Cpa-Bastille91: Old postcards of the Seine-Maritime
• On Cparama: Postcards of the Seine-Maritime
• On Pierre Blandel's website: Postcards of Le Havre and Sainte Adresse
• On Actuacity: Old postcards of Veules-les-Roses
• On communes.com: Postcards of Argueil
  

Old maps of the department

• On Old Maps Online: the old maps of the department
• On Gallica: the old maps of the Seine-Maritime

📄 History of Seine-Maritime

• Statistical Directory of the Department of Seine-Inférieure - 1823
• Chamber of Commerce of Rouen. Diking of the Seine Maritime. Necessity to extend the dikes to Honfleur and Le Havre – 1849
• History of the town of Aumale - 1862
• The cotton crisis in Seine-Inférieure. Its causes and effects. – 1864
• History of Bures-en-Bray - 1872
• Seine-Inférieure, industrial and commercial – 1873
• Address of the voters of the department of Seine-Inférieure, during the session of February 8, 1791 - 1886
• Essay on birth rate in the canton ofLillebonne – 1891
• History of housing in Seine-Inférieure and Normandy since 1850 – houses and population – 1952
• History of the inhabitant in Seine-Inférieure and Normandy since 1850 – housing and families - 1953
• Balance sheet of reconstruction in Seine-Inférieure - 1954
• The elections of 1824 in Seine-Inférieure – 1955
• The daily and weekly press of Seine-Inférieure under the Third Republic (from 1871 to 1939) - 1956
• The press in Seine-Inférieure under the Third Republic – 1957
• The press and the legislative elections of 1924 in Seine-Inférieure - 1961
• The criminal court of Seine-Inférieure (1816-1818) - 1972
• Conscription in Seine-Inférieure in 1830 – 1973
• Union of parishes and communes in Seine-Inférieure (1790-1830) – 1977
• The beginnings of the departmental legion of Seine-Inférieure - 1977
• Primary education in Seine-Inférieure from 1814 to 1914 - 1980
• Resistance in Seine-Inférieure (1940-1944) – 1980
• Socialism in Seine-Inférieure at the end of the 19th century – 1982
• Child labor in the 19th century: in Seine-Inférieure - 1988
• Alcoholic consumption in Seine-Inférieure in the 19th century – 1991
• Anti-alcoholism in Seine-Inférieure before the Great War – 1992
• Creations and creators of football societies in Seine-Inférieure – 1995
• Education in Upper Normandy during the Revolution: balance (1792-1800) - 1996
• Advances in the care of drowned individuals in Seine-Inférieure in the 19th century: an unknown aspect of Dr. Félix-Archimède Pouchet's work - 2006
• Madwomen and vagrants in the asylums of Seine-Inférieure (1880-1914) – 2010
• Fighting tuberculosis in Le Havre (1879-1939) - 2010
• Napoleon's two visits to Yvetot – 2016
• Men facing animals in Rouen in the 19th century – 2016

On Gallica: the books, the press and the manuscripts to learn everything about the department of Seine-Maritime

🗺️ Genealogy Sites in Seine-Maritime

Genealogy circles and associations in Seine-Maritime and surrounding areas

• Rouen Seine-Maritime Genealogy Circle
  
• Caux Pays Genealogy Circle
• Union of Genealogical and Heraldic Circles of Normandy
• Genealogical Group of Le Havre and Seine-Maritime
• Parisian Association of Norman Genealogy

Genealogy blogs that talk about Seine-Maritime

• In the footsteps of my ancestors – Simon Levacher
• Genealogy of descendants of Jacques Seille and Prudence Grenon 

Accounts to follow on social networks

• Facebook : Genealogy in Seine-Maritime group – Genealogy in Seine Maritime, Oise, Somme, Val d'Oise... – Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime
• Twitter: @archives76

Happy researching! 

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