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How will Brexit influence migration flows between France and the UK? Historical parallels and resources on the migration of our ancestors.
©️Gallica - BnF
On January 31, 2020, after months of negotiations and three delays, the United Kingdom left the European Union following the referendum of June 23, 2016. Having joined the "Common Market" in 1973, its final departure from the EU will not be without consequences for migration flows. This was indeed one of the promises of Brexit: to review immigration policy to reduce numbers. End of free movement for Europeans, mandatory passport, customs... Control of entries into the British territory will be effective from 2021.
While in 2017 more than 6 million foreigners resided in the UK, about 10% of its population (source: Office of National Statistics) and that 900,000 British were settled in Spain, France, Ireland or Germany, immigration and expatriation are being questioned.
French immigration to the UK is a recurring phenomenon. It was during the Norman Conquest that the seeds of a first wave of immigration were sown with the arrival of French aristocrats, known as the Companions of William the Conqueror, on British soil. Kings of England from the Plantagenet dynasty would become rulers, expanding the Empire of the same name, which allowed the development of population movements between France and the UK as we know them.
During the Protestant Reformation, after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, 80,000 Huguenots joined the French Protestant community in London, Southampton, and Norwich.
A century later, Calvinist refugees and silk workers from Lyon also settled in the capital. The community in Norwich developed, the French school of charity in Westminster was founded, and there were nearly 25,000 French in London.
The French Revolution accelerated French immigration to the UK by causing the departure of over 140,000 French between 1789 and 1800.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, it was workers that we find in the UK rather than refugees. A century later, the resistance movement Free France was founded in London. Military personnel, personalities, socialists (they were nearly 50,000 in total) took refuge in the UK to lead the fight for the liberation of France.
Many British personalities have French origins, such as writer George Orwell, Winston Churchill, Boris Johnson, or even J.K. Rowling.
Each church had its own parish register until 1837. As with our departments, it is necessary to know the county where your ancestor lived. However, like our departments, counties have evolved over time. The Phillimore Index will be a great help to find baptisms, marriages, and burials by county. Links to consult some records online are available.
Use the free website FreeReg to find baptism, marriage, and burial records.
Civil registration records, also known as "certificates," are kept by each local district and managed by the General Register Office. Every quarter, an index called "quarter" is written and allows you to find the type of record, location (county, district, locality), year, volume number, and page number.
Note that the mothers of the spouses are not mentioned on marriage certificates, and the cause of death is indicated on death certificates.
Use the free website FreeBMD to find birth, marriage, and death records.
Censuses, or "Census," have been conducted every 10 years since 1831 and are kept in the national archives. You can find the same information as in French censuses (address, age, place of birth) for the whole family.
Use the free website FreeCEN to find individuals in the censuses.
It was customary for the poor, and mandatory for sailors, to write a will. An index is written every year by district. They can be consulted, after payment, on the website of the national archives.
The website GenUKI is a reference site for useful genealogical resources for your research.
Archival documents are also freely accessible on Family Search for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The national archives, Ancestry, and the reference site for research in the UK, Find My Past, allow you to find archives. Accessing images is paid.
If your research concerns another country, consult our cheat sheet to find your foreign ancestors.