Genealogy in Seine-Maritime (76): 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 department of Seine-Maritime, located in the Normandy region, in the northwest of France, is a department rich in history and cultural heritage. 

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

The main cities of 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 the true land 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

Visit the Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime:

🏛️ 42 rue Henri II Plantagenet, 76100 Rouen

Contact the Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime:

📞  02 35 03 54 95

📧  Contact the AD

The departmental archives of Seine-Maritime provide you with digitized archive funds:

• Parish and civil registers
• Population censuses
• Journal of Rouen
• Military records
• Maritime registration
• Registration
• Mortgages
• Cadastre
• Iconography
• Prison registers
• Hospital administration
• Municipal administration
• Notaries and clerks
• Chambers of commerce and industry
• Cahiers de doléances
• Registers of old series
• Charters and Seals
• Great Collection 14-18

Municipal archives of Rouen

It is possible to browse civil registers and decennial tables on the websites of the municipal archives of Rouen.

Municipal archives of Le Havre

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

Municipal archives of Dieppe

Discover many funds online on the website of the digital library of the old and local fund of Dieppe:

• Photographs
• Maps and views of Dieppe
• Images
• Manuscripts
• Cadastre
• Census registers
• Minutes of the municipal council
• Press

Online records

• On FranceGenWeb: « Miscellaneous records » - Marriages - Marriages of immigrants - Marriages of immigrants from Seine-Maritime - Notaries - Protestants
• Records of the Parish Church of Notre Dame d'Yerville
• Genealogy Dron and Devendeville and World War I 1914-1918
• Notary of Cany
• Website of Jean-Paul Devy
• Genealogical research on Saint Nicolas d'Aliermont
• Genehuguenot
• Huguenots of France
• Désarmements Havrais

Unusual records

• A drowning 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 the archives of Seine-Maritime

🌍 Migrations in Seine-Maritime

• Gallo-Roman period and the great invasions (1st-5th centuries): the region is populated by the Gaulish tribes of the Caletes and Velocasses. 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, giving rise to the Duchy of Normandy. 
  After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, English and Flemish people arrive in the region.
  Finally, following 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 persecution settle in Dieppe and Le Havre. At the same time, Flemish, Picardy, and Artois populations arrive in the region to work.
  From 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 century) 
• Rouen at the time of the migration of the King's Daughters, Splendor and Misery of a Provincial Capital
• Immigrants and emigrants, 19th and 20th centuries
• Workers' immigration in Lower Seine under the First Empire
• Supplementary note on workers' immigration in Lower Seine
• The 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

The videos

• The ruins speak - 1945
• Rebuilding: Le Havre port, Kembs dam, bridges - 1945
• Le Havre port 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 naval shipyards of Traits – 1968
• 2nd extract: strikes in Rouen – 1968
• Strike in the region: Rouen and another city – 1968
• Rescue for art objects – 1969
• Weekend in Normandy - 1969
• A beautiful wedding - 1970
• Vacations and leisure: Mont Saint Aignan – 1970
• The polluted mussels – 1973
• Le Marais Vernier – 1980
• The Tancarville Bridge is 30 years old - 1989
• Landscapes of yesterday and today, 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: old maps of the department 
• On Gallica: old maps of the Seine-Maritime 

📄 The history of Seine-Maritime

• Statistical Yearbook 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 electors 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 inhabitants in Seine-Inférieure and Normandy since 1850 – housing and families - 1953
• Review 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 prevotal 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 legions of Seine-Inférieure - 1977
• Primary education in Seine-Inférieure from 1814 to 1914 - 1980
• The 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
• Alcohol 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
• Schooling in Haute-Normandie during the Revolution: balance (1792-1800) - 1996
• Advances in the care of drowning victims 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
• Combating tuberculosis in Le Havre (1879-1939) - 2010
• The two visits of Napoleon 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
  
• Genealogy Circle of the Pays de Caux
• Union of Genealogical and Heraldic Circles of Normandy
• Genealogy Group of Le Havre and Seine-Maritime
• Parisian Association of Norman Genealogy

Genealogy blogs that talk about Seine-Maritime

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

Accounts to follow on social media

• 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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