Record Atlas
7 eras · 1284–2026 · 2 places

Corsica

Ajaccio, Bastia, Corte, Calvi, Bonifacio, Sartène. 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
1284–1755 Republic of Genoa (the Bank of Saint George from 1450 or 1453) Archives de Corse · Corsica Genealogie (RHFC) · FamilySearch · Geneanet

Genoa took Corsica in 1284; administration passed to the Bank of Saint George in 1450 (1453 in another account). The oldest surviving parish registers begin in 1548 and are very rare, with more from the later sixteenth century; they cover baptisms and marriages first and burials from the early seventeenth century, written in Latin or mostly Italian, never Corsican.
1755–1769 Corsican Republic under Pasquale Paoli; Genoa ceded its claim to France in 1768 Archives de Corse · Corsica Genealogie (RHFC) · FamilySearch · Geneanet

The republic was proclaimed in 1755 and lasted until the French conquest of 1769. Registers are patchy for 1730-1768, the years of the uprising against Genoa and Paoli's rule.
1769–1794 Kingdom of France, then Revolutionary Republic Archives de Corse · Corsica Genealogie (RHFC) · FamilySearch · Geneanet

The Treaty of Versailles of 1768 had ceded the island. The royal edict of July 1770 required two registers in each parish, one to the royal jurisdiction, so two copies often survive for 1770-1794. In 1793 the island was divided into Golo and Liamone (1 July or 11 August 1793 depending on the source).
1794–1796 Anglo-Corsican Kingdom Archives de Corse · Corsica Genealogie (RHFC) · FamilySearch · Geneanet

Paoli invited British forces in 1794; Britain withdrew in 1796. The decree of 20 September 1792 secularising civil registration reached Corsica but was not applied during this period, and registers are scarce.
1796–1942 France - Golo and Liamone, one department of Corsica from 1811 Archives de Corse · Corsica Genealogie (RHFC) · FamilySearch · Geneanet

Civil registration took effect more than a year after the British left in August 1796, and some communes have lay registers from the start of year VI (September 1797). The tables décennales begin only in 1803 (year XI). Registers stayed in Italian in many communes until between 1820 and 1850. Golo was abolished in 1811 (24 April by one account, 19 April by another).
1942–1943 Italian, then German, occupation Archives de Corse · FamilySearch · Geneanet

Germany arranged for Italy to occupy Corsica in November 1942; Germany formally took over on 9 September 1943, and the Germans evacuated Bastia by 4 October 1943. Most of the Bastia arrondissement's court copies of registers were destroyed in the war.
1943–2026 France - Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud since January 1976 Archives de Corse · Corsica Genealogie (RHFC) · FamilySearch · Geneanet

Since the two-department split in January 1976, the registers of the arrondissements of Bastia and Corte are at the archives of Haute-Corse and those of Ajaccio and Sartène at the archives of Corse-du-Sud. The two merged into a single territorial collectivity on 1 January 2018.

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, 1284–2026, 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.

2 places on this ground

118 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 58 more.

All record regions · The map