Record Atlas
8 eras · 1200–2026 · 10 places

Champagne and the Ardennes — Reims, Troyes, Sedan

Reims, Troyes, Châlons-en-Champagne, Épernay, Charleville-Mézières, Sedan. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1200–1314 County of Champagne no registers survive

Before registers. The county was known for the Champagne fairs.
1314–1790 Kingdom of France — province of Champagne Archives départementales de la Marne · Archives départementales de l'Aube · Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne

The comital title merged with the French crown in 1314, when Louis, count of Champagne, became King Louis X, and the province was annexed to the royal domain. The Principality of Sedan was one of the territories that make up the Ardennes department.
1790–1815 Départements of Ardennes, Marne, Aube and Haute-Marne Archives départementales de la Marne · Archives départementales de l'Aube · Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne

Ardennes was one of the original 83 departments, created on 4 March 1790; the province of Champagne was disestablished in 1790.
1815–1914 France — Champagne and Ardennes departments Archives départementales de la Marne · Archives départementales de l'Aube · Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne

Napoleon III surrendered at Sedan on 2 September 1870, and the Third Republic was proclaimed on 4 September 1870.
1914–1918 France — the Ardennes entirely occupied Archives départementales de la Marne

Ardennes was the only French department fully occupied in the war, apart from northern Lorraine and Alsace, and Charleville-Mézières was the headquarters of the German Crown Prince.
1918–1940 France — Champagne and Ardennes departments Archives départementales de la Marne · Archives départementales de l'Aube · Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne
1940–1944 German occupation — the forbidden zone no registers survive

After the 1940 armistice the Ardennes was declared a forbidden zone under German occupation.
1944–2026 France — Champagne-Ardenne, then Grand Est Archives départementales de la Marne · Archives départementales de l'Aube · Archives départementales de la Haute-Marne

The Champagne-Ardenne region (Ardennes, Aube, Haute-Marne, Marne) existed from 1956 and merged with Alsace and Lorraine into Grand Est on 1 January 2016.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1200–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

10 places on this ground

177 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 117 more.

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