What was your ancestors' military past?

Finding information about your ancestors' military past can be full of discoveries!

1798 - the establishment of conscription, mandatory military service

Researching military history is useful for all family history researchers.

Indeed, from 1798 with the establishment of the conscription, military service becomes mandatory for men aged 20.

Between 1800 and 1805, a conscript (a person called to serve in the army due to a legal obligation of military service) could pay a substitute to do their military service. The lottery draft could also allow some men not to go. These two measures were abolished in 1872 and 1905 respectively - the year of the establishment of the mandatory two-year military service for all men.

Find your ancestors' military career in the archives

The military registration records are prime archives for genealogists researching an ancestor’s military career.

They are easy to find online from 1867. They are also kept in departmental archives in the 1R sub-series. The cantonal census tables, the list of drafts by canton, the list of conscripts, the list of the contingent, and the cantonal census registers are also available in the R series.

Individual military registration cards are of great importance for genealogists as they consist of a complete civil status part (date and place of birth, parents' names...) as well as information about the level of education, physical description, profession, and various places of residence of the conscript.

Another important part to find in these cards is that of the military career. It is in this section that the details of service and various transfers are noted (battles to their credit, assignments, injuries, medals and decorations...).

📋 Consult the National Archives of Overseas to find the registers and alphabetic tables up to the class of 1921 for French West Africa, Algeria, the French Coast of the Somalis, the Comoros, French Guiana, India and Indochina, Madagascar, New Caledonia, Polynesia, Réunion, and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

Online military archives

There are several specialized sites for military archives:

• Memory of Men : an essential site for your genealogical research. It has a nominative search tool to find an ancestor among many databases (died for France in World War I, World War II, Resistance, and many others).

• Grand Memorial : this genealogical database from the Ministry of Culture focuses on the military careers of the Poilus.

• Historical Service of the Defense : this is one of the major players in military history in France, and you can consult its collections.

• MemorialGenWeb : the useful wiki to find ancestors in databases (memorials, civilian victims, killed or missing soldiers, deported...).

• Léonore Database : to find the nominative files of people named or promoted in the Legion of Honor since 1802 and decorated before 1977.

• Medals of Saint Helena : this database lists the 405,000 soldiers still alive in 1857 who fought alongside Napoleon I during the wars of 1792-1815.

• Chtimiste : this site is packed with useful information about the careers of regiments in World War I (including thousands of soldier photos!).

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