Genealogy in Loiret (45): Your Ancestors in the Archives
Genealogy Cheat Sheet - Find your ancestors in Loiret with our useful resources: archives, maps, History, all in one place!
©️Wikimedia - CPA Senlis
Updated: February 20, 2026
The Loiret department gets its name from the eponymous river, a resurgence of the Loire. Created during the French Revolution in 1790, it is mainly derived from the former province of Orléanais. Its prefecture, Orléans, is inseparable from the figure of Joan of Arc, who liberated the city in 1429.
Loiret is bordered by seven departments: the Essonne, the Seine-et-Marne, the Yonne, the Nièvre, the Cher, the Loir-et-Cher and the Eure-et-Loir.
Historically, the department is divided into several natural regions with strong identities: the Beauce (the granary), the Gâtinais (around Montargis), the Sologne (hunting and mystery lands) and the Loire Valley, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. For genealogists, understanding this geography is essential because the professions (Loire rivermen, winemakers, Beauce plowmen) and population movements depend directly on it.
📜 The Archives of Loiret
The Departmental Archives of Loiret
Visit the Departmental Archives in Loiret:
📍 29 Boulevard Marie Stuart, 45000 Orléans
Contact the Departmental Archives in Loiret :
📞 02 36 99 25 00
📧 dad@loiret.fr
Browse the digitized archives to search for your ancestors:
- Civil status
- Napoleonic and updated cadastre
- Military conscription records
- Inheritance tables
- Iconography
- World War I
- Population census
- Municipal deliberations
- Collaborative annotation
Online Records
- On FranceGenWeb : “ Miscellaneous records ” - Marriages - Marriages of migrants - Marriages of migrants from Loiret - Notaries - Protestants
- Registres 45
- Records of Beaulieu and Bonny-sur-Loire between 1745 and 1850
- Records in Marigny-les-Usages and Olivet
- Records in Ouzouer-sur-Trezée, Escrignelles and Briare
- Sigloy and Genealogy
Unusual Records
- Prohibition of charivaris, wolves come out of the forest day and night and kill others on the J. Marchal's website.
- Unusual testimony in the archives of Loiret
🌎 Migrations in Loiret
Loiret has always been a transit and melting pot area, located on the strategic axis between the Paris Basin and southern France.
- 17th - 18th centuries: during the Ancien Régime, Loiret was a commercial crossroads. The Loire was the "nation of rivers," and many families of river workers traveled between Orléans and Nantes.
Like other provinces, Orléans contributed to the settlement of Canada. It is estimated that several dozen colonists left this region to settle in Quebec.
- 19th century: with the industrial revolution and the arrival of the railway (Paris-Orléans line in 1843), movements accelerated.
Loiret experienced a strong exodus to Paris. Young rural residents from Beauce and Gâtinais left farms to become domestic workers or factory workers in the capital.
Conversely, Beauce attracted seasonal workers (harvesters) sometimes coming from poorer departments in central France (Creuse, Auvergne).
- 20th century: the last century saw the arrival of populations fleeing conflicts or coming to rebuild the country.
Following the Retirada, Loiret welcomed thousands of Spanish refugees. Camps were set up, notably in Saint-Cyprien and later in local structures like the camp in Cepoy. Many settled permanently in the department.
After 1945, the industrial development of Orléans and the Montargis conurbation (Hutchinson factories, pharmaceutical sector) attracted a significant foreign workforce: Portuguese, Maghrebi and Italian workers joined the ranks of construction and industry workers.
A unique fact, Orléans hosted the general headquarters of NATO forces in France. This presence generated specific marriages and population flows with the United States.
For more information:
- Doing the history of immigration in the Centre region: a start
- History and memory of immigration in the Centre region
- The two most represented communities in Orléans came from Portugal and Morocco
📷 Loiret in pictures
The videos
- Joan of Arc festival – 1941
- The floral park of Orléans the source – 1960
- School: be careful! - 1960
- Teacher shortage – 1960
- Orléans: canoe kayak – 1974
- Portrait of a federal guard – 1976
- Dampierre-en-Burly: status of the nuclear power plant construction – 1976
- Third age: leisure time – 1976
- Flowers in concrete – 1976
- CRAR – 1977
- Tigy asparagus: a taste of celebration - 1978
Old images and postcards
- On Gallica: the Loiret in pictures
- On Clochers de France: the church towers of Loiret in pictures
- On Memorial GenWeb: postcards of the war memorials
- On CPArama: collection of old postcards from Loiret
- On CPA Bastille 91: old postcards from Loiret
- Postcards from Ingrannes
- Postcards from Pithiviers
Old maps of the department
- From Cassini villages to today's communes: the department of the Loiret
- On Old Maps Online: the old maps of the department
- On Gallica: the old maps of the Loiret
📄 The history of Loiret
- History of the Loiret department
- Album of the Loiret department – 1827
- Memoir on the antiquities of the Loiret department – 1836
- Archaeology of the Loiret Department and some neighboring localities, with lithographs and plans – 1836
- Historical research on the city of Orleans: from Aurelien, year 274, to 1789, dedicated to its citizens – 1838
- The illustrious men of the Orleanais – 1852
- The political press of Loiret on the eve of the Revolution of 1848 – 1904
- The Trees of Liberty in Loiret in 1848 – 1905
- The elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1848 in Loiret – 1906
- Excavations of several funeral wells, in Gien-le-Vieux (Loiret), in 1864 and 1865 – 1908
- An act of vandalism in the Loiret department in the year II. Orleans, 1918 – 1918
- A patriotic banquet in Loiret in 1849 – 1925
- Anticlericalism in the Orleanais during the first half of the 19th century – 1958
- The characteristics of the social and political crisis of 1846 to 1852 in the Loiret department – 1959
- The formation of the population of Fleury-les-Aubrais in the 19th and 20th centuries – 1990
- The anti-fascist reflex. The committees to fight fascism and war in Loiret (1934-1936) – 1998
- The men of power in Orleans and the service of the State (late 14th - early 15th century) – 1998
- Loiret. Orleans, study of urban housing: the example of the house at 4, rue des Trois Maillets, around 1500 – 2004
On Gallica: the books, the press and the manuscripts to learn everything about the Loiret department
🗺️ Genealogy Sites in Loiret
Genealogy Circles and Associations in Loiret
Genealogy Blogs in Loiret
Useful Social Networks
- Facebook : Departmental Archives of Loiret – Group Loiret Genealogy
Happy researching!
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