This is a page of resources about France. I am currently tracing a tree in southern France for my aunt, and had to learn a whole new way of doing genealogy to leave Canada. Thank goodness for a few years of French in school.
Archives of France
The national site of French archives. This site is in French.
Archives départementales, addresses et archives en ligne (Archive departments, addresses and archives on line) – Guide de généalogie
A single place to look up the on line archives of the 101 French districts, or “départements.” Not not all districts are online. This site is in French.
Archives of Tarn, France
I’m working on a family from the area of Tarn, France. Here is the link to the free online archives. This site is in French.
(Les) communes de la France
A fantastic resource for looking up the communes of France. This site is in French.
French genealogical word list – Family Search
Sometimes, even if you manage to make out the handwriting, the word you’re left with is so obscure that you’re still in the dark. Family Search to the rescue. In their usual extremely thorough way, they’ve written an expansive wiki and provided information on key genealogical words from A to Z. This site is in English.
(The) French genealogy blog – Anne Morddel
Anne is a board-certified genealogist in France who has a great English blog on French genealogy. If you’re doing a tree with French roots, I encourage you to sign up for her blog. She also explains the system of French archives (“départements”). This site is in English.
French Genealogy Tutorial – Gens Video Web Channel
Here is a short introduction to French genealogy by Pablo Briand. This video is in English.
(The) Internet Surname Database
I put this link here because the database appears to hold mostly European-origin names, particularly British.
Migranet – FranceGenWeb
This site is devoted to providing information on French emigrants. This site is in French.
Open Street Map
Want to know the exact place your ancestor lived? Try this incredible site.
Script tutorial – Brigham Young University
Sooner or later, you’ll come across the perfect storm of illegibility. Here’s some help on the study of handwriting and the deciphering of manuscripts, aka paleography.
The site offers help in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Latin. This site is in English. [EDIT: As of 3 Aug 2019, this link appears to be broken. I’m going to wait should BYU retool their site so in the interim you might try googling.]
WWII Escape and Evasion
A private site of information concerning European escape lines in WWII. Documents the various escape lines in detail; and lists the names, ranks, and outcomes (if known) of the escapers. Start here if you are researching this topic. A special thanks to Keith, who sent, unasked, records recommending an award for Andrée Virot. This site is in English.