All posts in French Regions & Emigration

Americans with French roots often assume their ancestors left in a single great wave. The truth is more interesting. French emigration was small compared with that of other European nations, it came in scattered waves driven by different causes, and each wave left different records….

Descent from the Huguenots, the French Protestants who were persecuted for their faith, is a source of pride for many families in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, South Africa, and beyond. It is also one of the most mythologized corners of genealogy. This guide…

Few parts of Europe changed hands as often as Alsace and part of Lorraine. French, then German, then French again, and briefly German once more, the region left its families with records in two languages and ancestors who may have carried two nationalities in one…

Normandy is one of the best-documented regions of France, and one of the easiest to research. Its parish and civil registers are extensive, its archives are well digitized, and its families appear in the early settlement of North America. This guide explains what to expect…

Brittany sits at the western tip of France, and it has always felt slightly apart from the rest of the country. A Celtic language, a strong Catholic tradition, a long Atlantic coastline, and a set of surnames that looks nothing like those of Paris or…