Genealogical research under the Ancien Régime: practical guide to find your ancestors

Go back before 1792! Discover parish registers, notarial and military archives to find your ancestors under the Ancien Régime.

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Are you looking to trace your genealogy back before the French Revolution?

La genealogy under the Ancien Régime (before 1792) requires a specific approach: no modern civil records, but parish registers, notarial or military archives, and family rules different from today's.

In this article, discover the essential sources and the effective methods to find your ancestors under the Ancien Régime.

Parish registers: the key to research before 1792

Before the establishment of civil registration in 1792, it was the priests who kept the parish registers. They are the main source for your genealogical research under the Ancien Régime.

These registers, made mandatory by the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539, record:

• baptisms (often including the names of parents and godparents),

• marriages (information about spouses and their parents, witnesses...),

• burials (age at death, family ties, sometimes causes of death).

💡 Note: Quality varies from one parish to another and gaps are frequent (wars, fires, destruction). It is therefore essential to cross-check your sources to avoid errors.

Notarial archives and estates: understanding the life of your ancestors

Notarial records are full of valuable information to reconstruct the family and social life of your ancestors:

• Marriage contracts : contributions, dowries, living conditions,

  
  

• Wills: wishes of the deceased, designated heirs,

  
  

• Inventories after death : detailed description of goods, mention of heirs,

  
  

• Divisions and sales: transfer of lands and estates.

  
  

These documents help understand your ancestors' place in society, their wealth, as well as their family and economic networks.

👍 Where to find them? In the departmental archives, by consulting local notarial records. The exercise can be long since indexes are rare, but the results are often rich in details.

Military archives: finding an ancestor who was a soldier or officer

If one of your ancestors served in the royal armies, military archives are a goldmine:

• troop control registers,

• company rolls,

• individual files (rarer).

  
  

These documents allow you to follow the military career (campaigns, promotions, decorations), but also to find family clues (filiation, place of birth, sometimes father's profession).

💡 Tip: ancestors who were officers, royal guards, or members of local militias often leave more traces.

Understanding family regulations under the Ancien Régime

The family was subject to complex regulations that varied by region and social status.

Inheritance rights, for example, differed between the north (customary law) and the south of France (written law).

Marriage was a civil and religious act, often preceded by contracts detailing contributions, dowries, and terms of shared life.

Natural children, widows, and younger children were subject to specific arrangements that influenced the transmission of property and family composition.

Understanding this legal framework helps better interpret the records and understand your ancestors' place in society.

Genealogical research under the Ancien Régime requires rigor, patience, and curiosity. The sources are numerous, but their exploitation requires a good understanding of the historical, legal, and social context of the time. By cross-referencing parish registers, notarial deeds, and military archives, every genealogist can hope to reconstruct their family history and better understand society of the past.