Genealogy

The genealogy is the practice which has as an aim the research of the origin and the filiation of the people and the families. Distinguer  can;:

  • the ascending genealogy , which is interested in the ancestors of a personne  ;
  • the downward genealogy , which is interested in the descendants of a personne  ;
  • the genealogy or agnatic line , which is interested only in the male ascent of a person, that which transmits the patronyme  ;
  • the cognatic line , genealogy of a person of which ascending the or downward ones do not bear the same name, in particular relationship by the femmes  ;
  • without forgetting the successional genealogy , practiced by professionals (Généalogiste S) at the request of notaries in load of an estate without a claimant, a percentage on the succession revealed being then requested by the genealogist from the beneficiaries found following its research (until the sixth degree of collateral relationship according to the calculation of the Civil code French).

Information sources

The independent sources of information are:

  • the information collected in the family and the entourage  ;
  • to start in France, one can be pressed on the family elements, which each and everyone has:
indentity card
  • family record book
  • announcements: birth, marriage, death.
  • For the Christians: images of communion, announcements of baptism, marriage, gold and silver wedding etc
  • the hurdy-gurdies photographs if the characters there are identified and dated.
    • In France only the data of more than one hundred years, are accessible to all. For the protected period (less than one hundred years) only the descendants, or ascending direct can by justifying their identity and their degree of relationship, to obtain integral copies of the acts. The French law makes compulsory the delivery of these copies  ;
    • parochial registers and registers of civil statue (see History of the civil statue in France)   ;
    • in France, the decennial tables which, since 1793, recapitulate for one ten years period and commune all the acts of the civil statue (births, marriages and death) by classifying them alphabetically by section of 10 ans  ;
    • in France, notarial acts, generally abundant as from the 17th century (departmental records);
    • in France, lists of names of the enumeration of the population (census), regularly established since 1836 (except interruption in 1916 and 1941) (departmental records and communal)   ;
    • in France, basic acts and average jurisdiction which can locally be frequent as of the 17th century (departmental records and communal).

    The information stored at the files are generally not indexed and their reading is often difficult. Many voluntary actors - associations or individuals - completed a work of transcription and indexing which is often placed at the disposal of the genealogist:

    • genealogical associations often with departmental scale in France carried out systematic statements of the Civil statue and sometimes of other types of acts. The result is diffused on various supports: paying or consultable booklets paper in the buildings of association if one is member (traditional solution), Internet/paying minitel (most expensive) and by the system GeneaBank on Internet which makes it possible as a member of an association to consult with height of a certain number of points the statements of all associations members of the système  ;

    • the site GeneaNet reference more than 138 family tree, genealogical data million (November 2006) or index name/place deposited by private individuals,
    • the database genealogical of the INRIA counts more than 1.460.000 people (April 2006)   ;
    • the Mémoire base of the men of the Ministry for defense places at the disposal of the public 5 databases carried out starting from digitalization and of the indexing of biographical cards preserved by the ministry for defense (deaths for France of 1914-1918, Aéronautique 1914-1918, Guerre of Indo-China 1946-1954, Fusillés Mount-Valérien 1939-1945, Morts for France AFN 1952-1962)   ;
    • genealogical studies published.
    • the site Généawiki which counts and makes it possible to count, city by city, the whole of the genealogical data.

    Access rules to the files in France

    The files of the Civil statue can be consulted in the Mairie S, and with the Departmental records (according to the cases). The registers of civil statue and the notarial minutes of less than 100 years are not communicable with the public, except:

    • exemption (research in historical, statistical matter or with a successional aim),
    • death certificates, freely communicable by all whatever the date of death (only the acts of more than one hundred years are directly consultable, the others are provided in the form of integral copies).

    For the civil statue and in particular for the marriage and birth certificates, the justification of its direct relationship (noncollateral) with the person quoted in the act, or the nature of spouse, allows obtaining an integral copy of the act. Beyond 100 years, the law authorizes the direct access with the documents (or with their reproductions on microfilm or numerical support).

    The files can be available in several forms:

    • original registers on paper;
    • microfilms of these registers;
    • images digitized of the registers (still not very widespread).
    Genealogical research meets a growing success, unfortunately with the detriment of the sources. The state of the registers was degraded more during these twenty last years than during the three previous centuries. It is thus urgent to undertake a complete digitalization of the funds, the means exist (machine to digitize 2400 pages/hour). It is enough to want it.

    The photocopy of the original registers is in general prohibited, in order to avoid deteriorating them (risks of breaking of the binding on an ordinary photocopier not equipped with a “slope” for this purpose, deterioration of ink by the luminous flash of the apparatus). In the same way the stereotypes with a flash are prohibited, to which must always be preferred the natural light (with variation of the duration consequently).

    The ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts makes compulsory the behavior of register by the church in 1539, but the recording of the baptisms on registers is older, as from 1400 in some churches in France.

    As from 1737, in France, there exist two parallel series of parochial registers (until 1792) and of Civil statue (since 1793). The contents of the two series are supposed identical being. The parochial registers and of civil statue of the “communal” series are preserved in town hall or at the municipal files, or are deposited with the Departmental records. The parochial registers of the series known as “of the clerk's office” are always preserved at the Departmental records.

    The lists of names of the population (census), as for them, consultable passed only one deadline 30 years.

    In French right, all information on the access to the Civil statue is available in the following, consultable documents on www.legifrance.gouv.fr:

    • general Instruction relating to the civil statue of May 11th, 1999, NOR reference of the text: JUSX9903625J;
    • decree 62-921 of August 3rd, 1962, to see article 9.

    Microfilms reproducing the parochial registers and of civil statue in France

    The Civil statue of before and after the Revolution was generally microfilmed. These microfilms are consultable with the departmental records on readers who often allow a reproduction paper. Generally, the microfilms of a departmental file can be sent in another departmental file at the request of a user to the price of a certain time.

    In France, the microfilming was often carried out by the Mormon (for religious motivations). Also, of the copies of these microfilms can be consulted in the antennas of the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, just like the microfilms of the civil statue of the majority of the Western countries.

    Microprocessing with the service of the genealogy

    Data processing facilitated certain tasks of the genealogist. A large range of software (commercial, but also free and free) allow:

    • the management of databases important, and impression of lists of ascent, descent or selective, with the choice of the user;
    • the chart (drawing tools) of the trees of ascent and descent, even of “cousinage”;
    • these two types of functions being often coupled in the same software.

    A specification of genealogical exchanges of information between the software was essential little by little: the Standard GEDCOM, acronym of GEnealogical Dated Communication. It was initially developed by the researchers of the Genealogical Société of Utah , with from now on the active participation of originators of the whole world.

    The free software is of course present in the field of the genealogy. One will quote GeneWeb. resulting from the INRIA, which presents a database gérable and consultable by an interface Web, and @rbre, resulting from Cultural Laboratory A+H in order to propose a system of exchange par-with-par (P2P) of genealogical data represented in 3D.

    Internet with the service of the genealogy

    Internet facilitates the exchanges between genealogists, on the level of the methods and the data themselves. Moreover, a growing number, though weak still, of Departmental records allows the direct and free consultation on the Web of whole series of documents digitized (in France: Mayenne, the Vendée, Yvelines, Coast-with Armor, Tarn, Coast-with Or, the Sarthe, the Eure-et-Loir since 05.10.2006, Vienna since the 02.11.2006 and the Loire-Atlantique since the 13.11.2006). The files of Savoy and Ardèchele are also. Other French departments announce the next setting on line of their files. The Maine-et-Loire from here the end of the year. 2007 for the the Vosges and the the Eure. The site of the departmental records of the Orne announces the availability on line of their genealogical files at the end of the month of September 2007. The departmental records of the Two-Sevres prepare also a setting in line planned at the latest for the beginning of 2008.

    Moreover, certain municipalities make it possible to consult on Internet part of their files, such as for example the town of Rennes.

    The service GeneaNet gathers the databases of many Net surfers, as well as digitized acts of registry office. Several tens of thousands of trees on line are consultable thanks to the engine GeneWeb.

    Other forms are also present such as groups of genealogy on Yahoo! which gathers function of geographical criteria or sets of themes the Net surfers.

    Various systems of free mutual aid exist like FranceGenWeb, Fil of ARIANE, and LibrActes, which is intended for the mutual aid for the requests for copies of genealogical acts to the Departmental records, municipal files and any other service of files. Research is carried out by the voluntary ones exclusively.

    Attention, all that is produced on the forums and sometimes geneanet, is not inevitably highly reliable, it is always necessary to confirm by a copy of act (microfilm, or digital photograph) on the other hand the statements of great genealogical associations and geneabank is excellent sources.

    In addition, beside the genealogical sites of research a new form of publication and conservation of personal biographies appeared, where each and everyone can write its own biography or that of a close relation. The conservation of the biographies in time will be able to make it possible to the genealogists, in the future, to find the biographies of the people whom they seek as well as additional details on the family ties of this person.

    A new generation of sites, called Web 2.0 proposes “the universal tree”, that is to say a single family tree, such Wikitree and Rodovid, already proposed in many languages.

    Genealogy and genetics

    It is a new way of seeking its ancestors who makes fury in the Anglo-Saxon countries, either founded on the study of the registers of civil statue, but on the analysis of the DNA. Laboratories, in the United States and in Great Britain, propose tests making it possible to identify its remote ancestors, his area of origin or its ethnicity. For the first time, techniques which are used to track the criminals or to determine the paternity of a child are used at ends of leisures. They raise new questions about the concepts of race and identity. Our genes speak about us, but also about our parents, our ancestors and their history.

    See too

    Related articles

    • Terminologies
    • Ressources
    • genealogical Recherche
      • Recherche in France
    • Legal texts
      • general Instruction relating to the civil statue

    Works

    External bond

    • Geneawiki
      • French-speaking
    • List of the Mormon genealogical centers of France and areas
    • useful archivistic Resources digitized for the genealogy

    References

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