French birth records circa 1730

[e_m]

Where would I find birth records (Catholic) for Paris, near the Louvre, for 1730-1732?

[jayaygee]

Unfortunately, virtually all Paris parish records were destroyed by fire in 1871.  Some attempts have been made to piece some of them together again using other sources.  If you can find the name of the person you want here

http://archives.paris.fr/s/5/etat-civil-reconstitue/?

there may be some hope, but this is just a sort of list, more or less the equivalent of the "tables décennales" and the details are only available in the Paris record office reading room. 

There are a few parish registers that escaped the flames and some copies that were made before the fire, but you would need to know the parish, I think, though I don't have any personal experience of searching in the Paris area.  As far as I can see they are held in a variety of repositories.

I know some family history societies are working on legal documents in the National Archives to extract genealogical information but I don't know what years are covered.  You could look here as I think at least some of the results have been put on this site:

http://www.geneabank.org/englind.html

You won't be able to see any details, as you need points to do this, but I could look for you if you find anything of interest.  And of course, there is always Généanet which has been suggested to you before, I think.

If no one else has more information and/or more helpful suggestions to make, I could make some enquiries at a big family history fair in Paris on 10th and 11th March if you don't mind giving me any details you have about the person you are looking for.

[e_m]

Thanks for your reply. I used the link you provided and while I found many hits for the surnames I was looking for, none were as old as 1730.

I also have been searching the notary archives (https://www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/) and I got some very valuable information, but not enough to complete my story. Do you know if the notary archives are complete? (I am sure it says so somewhere but google-translate isn't finding it.) That is, wouldn't there be archives of wills & estates for the people I am looking for? FWIW, one of the people was a wine merchant. Wouldn't the apprenticeship records be complete also?

[jayaygee]

From what it says on the National Archives page you give the link to, it doesn't look as if everything is online as yet but it should be in the course of 2017. What is not clear to me is if all the Paris notary archives have been deposited or not, and I imagine that some will have been lost over the centuries.

I don't know if apprenticeship records would be complete, I'm afraid.

Hopefully someone else will be able to answer your questions better than I can. As I said before, I have no personal experience of researching in the Paris area archives.

[e_m]

That's another thing I don't understand...the website is "national archives" yet doesn't it seem as though all the entries are from Paris? If you were an apprentice elsewhere in the country would those records be in Paris or elsewhere? Why were the notary records not burned in the fire?

Just thinking aloud. I have not been able to find the answers anywhere. So frustrating!

[jayaygee]

The notary records wern't burnt, furtunately, because they had not been collected in one place or were not in the same place as the civil registration and parish registers (annexe of the City Hall and Palais de Justice.  I think most were still with the notaries in 1871. The Minutier Central at the National Archives wasn't created until 1928.

Most notary records are at the Departmental Record Offices of the "département" concerned which may explain why all the entries you have seen are from Paris.  It depends what you have looked at but there are certainly very large numbers of other records from elsewhere.  Apprenticeship contracts could be drawn up by notaries and therefore are most likely to be in the relevant Archives départementales if outside Paris.

Have you looked at these sites :

- http://archives.paris.fr/  (Paris is both a city and a département these are the Departmental Archives but I don't think they have much if anything online that goes back to the 18th century)

- http://gallica.bnf.fr/ (the equivalent of the British Library online - can be very useful)

- https://fr.geneawiki.com/index.php/Accueil  (the French Wikipedia for genealogy, though I think Family Search has something similar - no English version I'm afraid)

- http://www.histoires-de-paris.fr/vendeurs-vin/  (about wine merchants in Paris - English version)

- http://equipement.paris.fr/bibliotheque-historique-de-la-ville-de-paris-bhvp-16 (nothing online and closed until October

- http://equipement.paris.fr/bibliotheque-de-l-hotel-de-ville-bhdv-17  (a long shot, but you can search by name - not much online)

[jayaygee]

Surviving parish registers for the present-day 1st district of Paris where the Louvre is located:

- St Roch  :  Baptisms, marriages et burials  1733-1745 held at the National Library (ref. Ms fr.32585)
                   Marriages 1785-1791 held at the N

[jayaygee]

To continue :

- St Roch  : Marriages 1785-1791 (National Library - ref Ms. fr. 8625)
                  Parish register 1790 (Paris Archives - ref V.6E I)

- St Eustache  :  Baptisms, marriages and burials 1529-1748 (National Library - ref  Ms. fr. 32587)

There is also a file listing the parishioners of St Eustache mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries but also some 16th century which uses the above register and other printed and manuscript sources.  The amount of information on individuals varies.  The original is held at St Eustache, but the Paris Archives have a reproduction.

I haven't checked if any of these are online or microfilmed.

[e_m]

Thank you so much. I am still working my way through all of the links you provided. You are awesome!