The dreaded French Republican Calendar

[Josephine]

Thanks to my DNA results, I now know that I have ancestors who were still living in France at the time of the French Revolution. As a result, I've just had my first encounters with parish registers kept during the time of the French Republican Calendar, and what a headache that was, LOL. I eventually found what I was looking for, no thanks to those revolutionaries and their wacky ideas.

Of course, the internet helped, as did my extremely rusty high school French but, as you all know, those old registers aren't always easy to navigate in the best of times.

Has anyone else also had the "pleasure" of having to sort out those dates and navigate your way through records from that era?

[jayaygee]

Frequently, as my husband is French!

Try one of the conversion tables such as:

https://www.genealogie23.org/Calendrier.php

or: https://www.archinoe.fr/commun/visualiseur/outils/calendrier/calendrier_rev_greg.php

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have never had dealings with registers from that period, but once, out of interest, I looked at some French records for the name Pay in the 1600s and they were wonderful. I am not sure if I was looking at originals or some sort of copy, but they were legible and included, for a marriage, name and maiden name of both parents. I thought with regret about the English registers of the time - "Joe Bloggs and Jane Doe married 6th October", just about legible.

[Josephine]

Thank you for those links, jayaygee! I've bookmarked them and I know they'll come in handy!

[Josephine]

  I have never had dealings with registers from that period, but once, out of interest, I looked at some French records for the name Pay in the 1600s and they were wonderful. I am not sure if I was looking at originals or some sort of copy, but they were legible and included, for a marriage, name and maiden name of both parents. I thought with regret about the English registers of the time - "Joe Bloggs and Jane Doe married 6th October", just about legible.

I totally agree! I'd say Scotland's records are a close second.