French Ancestors

[vik3000]

Good evening everyone.

I've reached a rather tough stage in my research and was wondering if anyone has any goods tips on researching French records?  I am guessing that this is now a different ball game from researching UK records so its back to being a novice!!

Also does anyone know how I would go about finding a professional researcher in France?

Thanks
Vicky

[jorose]

What time scale and where?   I can tell you that unless you know exactly where they came from in France it's nearly impossible.  There's not the widespread indexing of records that you have with English records although there are some things about and even online - see

If they were Huguenots there are particular avenues to take for that, otherwise it's back to the mainstays: church records and civil records.  If you have access to an LDS center you can do a lot of this without having to hire a researcher.

Church records go back generally to the early 1600s, sometimes earlier, sometimes they don't survive that long.  It depends on the area.  Civil records started in 1792 and are accompanied by ten-year indexes.  There are census records - population registers - but they're seldom used.  Most haven't been even filmed by the LDS and are only available in the departmental archives, and with very few exceptions they are unindexed.  Other records would be available in the departmental archives for that particular area, but I haven't dug into that yet (waiting till I have the chance to go there myself!).

A few things to get you started:

http://www.geneanet.com/ - you can check who else is researching your surname.  This is very good for European families, I've made connections on both the French and Belgium sides here.

http://www.geopatronyme.com/ - surname map of France, helps give you an idea how popular/widespread the name is.  If you've got 'Martin' this might not be much use, but it shows up my Vendee surnames (like Praud and Elineau) very well.

If you want to find a professional researcher, I'd suggest you try and find someone who specialises in the region - the equivalent of a family history society over there is the 'Cercle Généalogique' (sometimes Cercle de Généalogique etc).  Try googling Cercle Généalogique + name of the region to find one - some of them will do research for members and probably they will be able to suggest an appropriate researcher.

Archives won't generally do research for you themselves but they might be able to suggest a researcher also.  The main source is the departmental archives for each region of France; if you're looking for other records like army records you might have to deal with more centralised archives but I've not tried digging in that direction yet.

[vik3000]

Thank you jorose.

Your reply is very informative and appreciated.  I knew I'd get a really helpful (and prompt!) reply here.

My biggest problem was that I'm really only a novice on searching on the UK side of things let alone in France - scared the heck out of me

My timescale is c1871 and the ancestors came to the channel islands sometime between 1891 and 1900, they first appear on the 1901 census. 
Luckily I have the region they came from - Paimpol Brittany (and the youngest son was born Pointreaux).  I also have their middle names and the wifes maiden name.  How is that for a bit of luck!!!!lol (much needed though).

I'll give those links a try and will let y'all know if I get anywhere

Thanks again

Vicky

surname interests:  Herpe / Bourgain / de ste Croix/ Le Guen
Lihou/ Bullock/ Robilliard

[jorose]

You can get the civil registration records on film from the LDS:

Paimpol

ETA: I should note that 'Côtes-du-Nord' is the old name for what is now the department of Côtes-d'Armor (changed in 1990), a département in the north of the Brittany region.

[Gwenn02]

You might be lucky because your french ancestors come from Paimpol in Britanny.

Côtes d'Armor (22) departemantal archives have indexed they archives on-line and it's free access.
I'm French and most of my french family comes from cote d'armor.

The link is  http://archives.cg22.fr/asp/
and you need to clic on
"archives en ligne" and "genearmor"

Another thing for France : vital record are free !!! Your need to send stamps for the answer only when writting to the 'Mairie' for recent records.

I might be able to help you if you have trouble with the french.. as I'm native speaker. Give me the surname you are searching 

[Robbster]

Hi, Vicky
I see your interested surnames include de Ste Croix, Lihou and Bullock.  My ancestors also include these names, and my grandmother told me decades ago that her great grandparents came from France to Jersey and helped to build St Catherine's pier/harbour wall.  My grandmother's mum was Dora Alice Lihou, born in Guernsey and married James de Ste Croix, a Jersey man.  Dora's dad was James Henry Lihou and her dad was Margaret Jemima Bullock.  Are we researching the same family?

Carol

[garstonite]

James Henry Lihou b 1854
parents James Henri Lihou b 1831 and Martha M Herivel
here is a familytree - of course we don't know if it is correct ??

https://gw.geneanet.org/bcdgl78?n=lihou&oc=&p=james+henry

[joger]

Hello,
there is also another site that gives access to the registers , see here :
http://www.genealogie22.com/salvindex.pl#PP, then click on the town etc...

There is no Pointreaux , it should be Pontrieux. I see Yves Marie Bougain born 28 March 1878.

Geneanet gives :https://gw.geneanet.org/bcdgl78?n=lihou&oc=&p=james+henri
https://gw.geneanet.org/bcdgl78?n=lihou&oc=&p=james+henri
https://gw.geneanet.org/bcdgl78?lang=fr&m=D&p=james+henry&n=lihou&siblings=on&notes=on&t=T&v=6&image=on&marriage=on&full=on

and more if you click on the names in the tree (Bullock...)

[davidqueneherve]

Yves Marie Guillaume BOUGAIN was born out of wedlock to Marie Perrine BOUGAIN, 27 years old, a streamstress

http://sallevirtuelle.cotesdarmor.fr/EC/ecx/consult.aspx?image=090025551295696

In the 1896 census, she is listed with Yves Marie BOUGAIN and Guillaume BOUGAIN