Departmental Archives: Keys to Finding Your Way Without Getting Lost

Efficiently explore departmental archives for your genealogical research: tips, vocabulary...

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For any genealogy enthusiast, a visit to the  departmental archives is essential. These institutions preserve a gold mine of information: vital records, censuses, parish registers, cadastre maps, old photos, and much more. However, when you start, it's easy to feel lost in the inventories, abbreviations, call numbers, or sometimes complex interfaces.

In this article, we give you the keys to navigate efficiently in departmental archives, whether online or on-site. With practical examples, some useful vocabulary and navigation tips, start your search for your ancestors with confidence.

📜 What are departmental archives and what can you find there?

The departmental archives are public services responsible for preserving documents produced or received by departmental administrations since the French Revolution. They also accept private documents (correspondence, journals, photographs) donated by individuals or associations.

Some concrete examples of documents useful for genealogy

• Parish registers : baptisms, marriages, burials (before 1792)

• Civil status : births, marriages, deaths (since 1792)

• Population censuses : every 5 years (useful for reconstructing households)

• Military service registers : military careers, physical descriptions, assignments

• Napoleonic cadastre : location of family properties

• Notarial archives : marriage contracts, wills, property sales

• Photos, old postcards : to immerse yourself in the life of your ancestors

  
  

  
  

💡 Good to know : Online archives allow 24/7 research. Each department has its own website, but their functionality is often similar.

🔠 Essential vocabulary to understand archives

When consulting archives, you quickly encounter administrative jargon. Here's a small indispensable lexicon:

• Classification scheme : this is the general organizational plan for archives. In departmental archives, this scheme is divided into large categories called series and subseries, according to the nature or date of the documents.

• Call number : this is the reference code of a document. Composed of letters and numbers, it allows you to find a file in the shelves or on an archive website. A bit like an "address" for each document.

• Fund : a fund gathers all documents produced or received by a person, a family, an administration or an association, as part of its activity. A fund is said to be open if it can still be enriched (e.g., an active municipality). It is closed when its production is complete (e.g., a dissolved company). Not to be confused with a collection, which gathers documents by theme but without a common origin.

• Finding aid : this is an tool that helps you find useful documents : inventory, numerical directory, database... These aids give you an overview of the content of the funds.

• Series : in a classification scheme, a series is a large category represented by a letter (A, B, C...). It can correspond to: a type of document (e.g., notarial acts), a historical period (before or after the Revolution), or a specific administrative service.

To learn more, several departmental archives websites offer their own glossary: 

- Glossary of the archives of the Jura

- Glossary of archival terms of the archives of Var

- Glossary of the archives of Seine-et-Marne

🔎 5 tips for navigating departmental archives websites

1. Start with civil records or decennial tables

Almost all sites allow searching by municipality, type of record and period. The decennial tables are a good starting point to target the right registers.

2. Use the advanced search filters

Don't settle for the simple search engine. Think about filtering by document type, call number, municipality name, or specific date to refine your results.

3. Note useful call numbers

Once a register is found, note the exact call number : it will help you for any future consultation on-site or for a request for help.

4. Consult the online help

Most sites offer research guides, video tutorials, or even practical sheets. This is the case, for example, for the Archives of the Mayenne, the Archives of the Manche, the Archives of the Pas-de-Calais, the Archives of the Hauts-de-Seine, the Archives of Touraine and the Archives of the Charente.

5. Consider offline options if needed

Not everything is digitized yet! You can contact archivists or visit in person with a specific request.

Archives, a treasure at your fingertips

Exploring departmental archives is opening the doors to family and collective heritage. By understanding their functioning and mastering the tools at your disposal, you save precious time in your genealogical research. This work may seem complex at first, but with good practices and the right reflexes, it becomes fascinating.

🔎 Would you like to go further in your genealogy?  

Geneafinder lets you easily build your family tree, add archives, photos, anecdotes, and even share your findings with family.