Genealogy in Ain (01): help, resources, and useful archives

Genealogy cheat sheet - Links to archives, vital records, registers, old postcards, books about the department, and more

©️Wikimedia - Benoît Prieur

Updated: February 17, 2026

The Ain department is located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France. It was created during the French Revolution, in August 1793, from several provinces of the Ancien Régime - the Bresse, the Bugey, the Valromey, and the country of Gex.

The Ain department is now bordering the departments of the Jura, the Haute-Savoie, the Savoie, the Isère, the Rhône and the Saône-et-Loire.

🗺️ Good to know: surnames in the Ain department are often characteristic of the region. For example: Bresse surnames often end with "-et" or "-at", while Bugey surnames often end with "-az" or "-ex".

📄 The archives of Ain 

Departmental archives of Ain: searching for your ancestors

Visiting the Departmental Archives of Ain:

🏛️ 1 boulevard Paul Valéry, 01000 Bourg-en-Bresse

Contacting the Departmental Archives of Ain:

📞 04 74 32 12 80

📧 archives.departementales@ain.fr

Search for your ancestors in the digitized records of the Departmental Archives of Ain: 

• Parish and civil registers
• Cadastre archives
• Population census
• Photos, postcards and engravings
• Military census
• Notarial archives
• Electoral lists
• Inheritance records
• Newspapers
• Mortgages
• Administrative and commercial directories
• For the curious
• Municipal archives
• Bernard Fund
• Postcards
• Posters

Online municipal archives of Bourg-en-Bresse

The municipal archives of the city of Bourg-en-Bresse in the Ain department are digitized and available online: 

• Resolutions
• Resolution tables
• Municipal Council debates
• Municipal bulletin since 1966
• Decrees
• Decree tables 
• Atlases
• Alignment authorization registers
• Cartularies
• City accounts
• Revolutionary correspondence of the deputies of Bresse
• Evacuees from Belfort and refugees
• Parish registers
• Civil registers
• Decennial tables
• Population censuses
• Hôtel-Dieu - Resolution tables
• Hôtel-Dieu - Resolutions
• Hôtel-Dieu - Estates
• Charity - Will of Anne-Marie Crollet 
• Charity - Inventory of titles from 1653 to 1689
• Charity - Inventory of foundation titles
• Charity - Resolutions
• Charity - Estates
• Charity - Assisted children
• Charity - Elderly

Online records 

• On FranceGenWeb: "Miscellaneous records" - Marriages - Marriages of migrants - Marriages of migrants from Ain - Notaries - Protestants
• Online records of Ain - an Aborisgen service

Unusual records

• The Sunday of brandons as told by a country priest on From A to Z of my ancestors
• Unusual testimony in the archives of Ain

🏃 Migrations in Ain

The Ain department has not experienced impressive waves of migration. However, here is a brief overview of population movements in the department: 

• During Antiquity: at the Gallo-Roman period, the region was inhabited by the Sequani, the Aedui, and the Allobroges. The Burgundians, a Germanic people, also settled in this territory. 
• In the Middle Ages: the region experienced barbarian invasions, with the Huns, the Burgundians, and the Franks. 
• In the 16th and 17th centuries: religious wars caused population movements, particularly towards Protestant Switzerland. 
• In the 18th century: the region experienced significant seasonal worker migration to Switzerland, particularly in watchmaking and lace industries.
• In the 19th century: a significant period of migration to the industrial cities of Lyon and Saint-Étienne in the fields of silk and metallurgy marked the region. 

For more information:

• Views on migrations in the 19th and 20th centuries in Rhône-Alpes

🏞️ Ain in images

Videos

• Kayak: rowing derby on the upper Rhone – 1943
• Those of the maquis – 1944
• Génissiat: the most formidable dam in Western Europe – 1948
• Inauguration of the ornithological park of the Dombes by Pierre Anthonioz – 1970
• Foreign workers' hostels in Ain – 1973
• Bresse: the Bressan chicken with cream – 1976
• Incident at the Bugey nuclear power plant – 1979

Images and old postcards

• On Gallica: Ain in images
• On Clochers de France: the belfries of Ain in images
• On Mémorial GenWeb: postcards of war memorials
• On CPArama: collection of postcards from Ain

Old maps of the department

• From Cassini's villages to today's communes: the department of Ain
• On Old Maps Online: old maps of the department
• On Gallica: old maps of the Ain

📄 The history of Ain

• History of the Ain department
• Observations on the ponds of part of the Ain department
• Observations on some roads of the Ain department
• General statistics of France. Ain department- 1808
• Historical research on the Ain department– 1838
• Biography of famous men of the Ain department, who distinguished themselves by their sciences, their talents, their actions, their virtues, or their vices– 1840
• Historical note on the spread of vaccination in Ain (1808-1839)- 1840
• Directory of the Ain department for the year 1846
• Visit of the President of the Republic to the Ain department in 1850
• Biographical dictionary of notable figures of the Ain department– 1878
• Historical monuments of Ain- 1913

On Gallica: the books and the manuscripts to learn everything about the Ain department

💬 The 50 most common surnames in Ain

Top 10 surnames in Ain: 

• MOREL
• PERRET
• BERNARD
• BLANC
• PONCET
• PERRIN
• MARTIN
• FAVRE
• CHANEL
• JACQUET

The other 40 most popular surnames in the department (according to the INSEE file) : 

• LAURENT
• ROBIN
• MICHEL
• DURAND
• BOUVARD
• GIRARD
• DUBOIS
• GAILLARD
• JOSSERAND
• PERDRIX
• MARECHAL
• BROYER
• GUILLOT
• ROUX
• DESMARIS
• BERTHET
• MATHIEU
• CHARVET
• MILLET
• JOLY

• HUMBERT
• BRUNET
• BREVET
• BERTRAND
• MERCIER
• PROST
• FAVIER
• CLERC
• MONNET
• GUILLERMIN
• BERGER
• GAUTHIER
• PAUGET
• PERRIER
• COCHET
• BOUVIER
• TOURNIER
• CURT
• PETIT
• COLLET

🗺️ Genealogy sites in Ain

Genealogy circles and associations in Ain and surrounding areas

• Ain-Genealogy
• ArborisGen – Pays de l’Ain
• CousAin
• Patrimoine des Pays de l’Ain
• Patrimoine et histoire de Champfromier

Genealogy blogs in Ain

• Murmures d’ancêtres

Useful social networks

• Twitter: Archives départementales Ain – Ain Genealogy
• Facebook: Archives départementales de l’Ain

Happy researching!

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