Hi everyone here is some links to places that might be a good start to looking for french people.
I am researching here and have found many good sites for help.
I have found that although in french - if you are searching parish records look for the SURNAME in the records and go from there. If I can help anyone try to decipher I will if they need it - I am not French nor do I speak it very well - I am self taught to look at the records.
In researching my french family, I found these records on line and from Huguenot society and from others whom have Cd's I don't... I have also shared and had much help from lots of different people - Now - Ancestry.co.UK has these records coming on-line and it is making it easier, although you do have to subscribe - I subscribe when I need to research more through them, other wise I am researching outside of it.
I have found that once you have a baptism record, for example 9/10 they will give the fathers place of origin - mine for example gave me 'mouvaux proche de l'isle' In the old days the PLACE 'Lille' was spelt 'L'isle' - all this I have found out whilst researching - You will also find that the earlier you get in your research the harder it gets - as in Europe as many know France was at war - in the beginning 'LILLE' was in the Netherlands- it became Spanish and then french.. it is in the place called Pas De Calais. I am not going to go into the different communes of France as there are so many to look at..
My Research name is De SAINT-JEAN - I am using this as explanation - you will find in France a lone there are LOTS and LOTS of this family name - noble families, working families, and more besides, and no they are not linked. You will also find that as the French were very Catholic at the time - there are parts of France that changed to the Protestant faith - for reasons I am not going into here, to much information - You have to look EVERYWHERE - and all places to find what you are looking for - look at ALL variants of the name you are looking for - take one place at a time and work from there. It takes a long long time but it is worth it in the end.
Also remember because of the Protestant religion - these people often moved their families around - 9/10 they ended up either in Leiden - UK, jersey, Guernsey, Ireland, and sometimes further a field if they could get there. I have also been informed recently - that back in the mid C16th moving around was often done by river more than road ways.. also that the records for C1600 and before are very, very limited because of the religious wars an awful lot have been destroyed - and not many survive prior to this date. There were more or less three different lots of people moving out of France - late C1500's early C1600 mid C1600 was a huge move for a lot of people, because of the Edict of Nantes. Also - there were some of our noble families who asked some people to come to England because of the beautiful work they produced.
hope this is all useful to some people whom are looking in France...
Private message me if you have a question I may be able to help
sj
Here is a list of links:
http://www.archivesdepartementales.lenord.fr/this site is very good if you know what place you want. for EG:- I wanted 'Mouvaux' so i click the
accept conditions first 'j'ai accepte condtitions' - then on entry you want
ARCHIVES EN LIGNE found top right
in the box that opens on the LEFT hand side in the orange click
ETAT CIVILthen click in the middle section
Actes d'état civil this gives records from around C1600 onwards
in the
COMMUNE box choose your place..
It can be very disorientating at first - but once done a few times it will become 2nd nature.
http://www.archivespasdecalais.fr/http://www.lillechatellenie.fr/porte/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/ family Bodine
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/Vismes.htm#French_family de visme family
http://www.lillechatellenie.fr/cms/index.html (contracts of marriage if you know the name from LILLE)
http://notairesdartois.voila.net/ these charge
http://www.archive.org/stream/ourparishbooksw00cowpgoog#page/n148/mode/2up overseers book Holy Cross West gate Canterbury
reading of historical things:-
http://www.pipeline.com/~cwa/Wittstock_Phase.htmhttp://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communes_du_Pas-de-Calais communes pas de calais
https://archive.org/stream/historyoffrenchw00burn#page/4/mode/2up History of french and walloons in England
http://www.brh.org.uk/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/THE-SPITALFIELDS-SILK-WEAVERS.pdf