Genealogy Cheat Sheet - Links to archives, civil status, registers, old postcards, books about the department, and more
©️Wikimedia - Benoît Prieur
Updated: April 2, 2024
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 - Bresse, Bugey, Valromey, and the Pays de Gex.
The Ain department is now bordered by the departments of Jura, the Haute-Savoie, the Savoie, the Isère, the Rhône and the Saône-et-Loire.
📍 Good to know: Family names in the Ain department are often characteristic of the region. For example: Bressan family names often end with "-et" or "-at", while family names from Bugey often end with "-az" or "-ex".
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
Start searching for your ancestors in the digitized records of the Departmental Archives of Ain:
The municipal archives of the city of Bourg-en-Bresse in the Ain department are digitized and available online:
The Ain department has not experienced significant waves of migration. Here, however, 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: the religious wars caused population movements, particularly to Protestant Switzerland.
- In the 18th century: the region experienced significant seasonal worker migration to Switzerland, particularly in watchmaking and lace.
- In the 19th century: a significant period of migration to the industrial cities of Lyon and Saint-Etienne, in the fields of silk and metallurgy, marked the region.
For more information:
On Gallica: the books and the manuscripts to learn everything about the Ain department
Top 10 surnames in Ain:
the other 40 most popular surnames in the department (according to the INSEE file):
Happy researching!
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