Have you ever wondered what your ancestors looked like?
It is possible to find photos or precise physical descriptions of our ancestors in archives:
• In family photos: the ultimate source to put a face to a name. But you still need to find them and have them annotated, right?
• In military conscription records: these records contain precise physical descriptions of conscripts (20-year-old men). They are interesting because almost all of our ancestors at that time went through military recruitment for their service.
• In old newspapers: if your ancestor was involved in a criminal case, was watched or sought by the police, you might find their description in old newspapers.
• In parish or civil registry records: it is possible that a more talkative priest left a physical description of one of your ancestors. That’s the magic of genealogical discoveries! In practice, such descriptions could occur during multiple births - to distinguish one child from another.
• In fairground and nomad records: from 1912 to 1969, the government issued anthropometric identity notebooks to fairground people and nomads over 13 years old to identify them and monitor their movements. These notebooks are rich in information: measurements, photographs, fingerprints… They are available, for the most part, in departmental archives, in the M series.
It’s hard to create a composite sketch of an ancestor with just physical descriptions! And if photos are the best answer, a quick overview of useful adjectives to describe our ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries could be helpful.
Physical Features - Height and Weight
Several online archive sources (books, in particular) allow us to find general information about the average heights of the French over time.
The article The Height of Parisians in 1793 (1983) by Jacques Houdaille informs us that the average height of a 25-year-old Parisian at that time was 1.675m. But he notes significant differences (in height!) between social classes. He deduces that: “Showing that in Paris, growth did not continue until 25 years old, which does not mean that it was the same for peasant populations whose diet must have been less rich in proteins and who were certainly subjected to earlier and harder physical work than Parisians.”
Indeed, diet and food shortages may have slowed the growth of our poorest ancestors. But, wars also played a role in the physical condition of our ancestors. As early as 1829, Villermé, a doctor, wrote: “The height of men increases and their growth is completed sooner, the richer the country, the greater the general ease; the better the housing, clothing, and especially food, and the less the hardships, fatigue, and deprivations experienced in childhood; in other words, the better the conditions, the smaller the size and the later the complete development of the body.”
Details
Depending on the year, you will likely find the most details about your ancestors in the military conscription records:
• hair color
• eye color and eyebrows
• type of forehead (covered, uncovered, wide, medium, vertical…)
• type of nose (medium, sharp, long, wide…)
• type of mouth (thin, medium…)
• type of chin (round, thin, narrow…)
• type of face (ordinary, wide, bony, oval, round…)
• type of complexion (pale, ordinary, dark…)
Physical particularities are also mentioned: scars, marks or tattoos, deformed ears or nose, beard.
💡 Did You Know?
We owe the first precise judicial anthropometric identification system to Alphonse Bertillon. Grandson of a demographer, brother of a statistician, and himself director of the Statistics Department of the Seine and co-founder of the School of Anthropology, Alphonse Bertillon defined 14 useful measurements to perfectly identify an individual - height, foot length, hand length, ear length, forearm, nose ridge, eye spacing…
By combining anthropometry, descriptive identification, photographic identification, and particular marks, his system allowed the identification of nearly 5000 recidivists between 1882 and 1893.
All right! If your ancestor was a wanted criminal, you will certainly have a precise enough physical description to put a face to a name.
🌳 Trace your ancestors' footsteps by signing up for free on Geneafinder