Record Atlas
5 eras · 1366–2026 · 3 places

Franche-Comté — Besançon, Dole, Vesoul, Montbéliard

Besançon, Dole, Vesoul, Lons-le-Saunier, Montbéliard, Pontarlier. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1493–1678 — The county went to Philip of Austria in 1493 and in 1598 Philip II of Spain ceded it to his daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia. France occupied it in 1668, gave it back by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle on 2 May 1668, and retook it in 1674.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1366–1493 Free County of Burgundy no registers survive

Before registers. The name Free County of Burgundy first appears officially in 1366.
1493–1678 Free County of Burgundy under Habsburg Spain no registers survive

THE TRAP. The county went to Philip of Austria in 1493 and in 1598 Philip II of Spain ceded it to his daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia. France occupied it in 1668, gave it back by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle on 2 May 1668, and retook it in 1674.
1678–1790 Kingdom of France — province of Franche-Comté Archives départementales de la Haute-Saône · Archives départementales du Jura

The Treaty of Nijmegen formally ceded Franche-Comté to France in 1678. The County of Montbéliard stayed outside France: it was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire from 1033 and passed to Württemberg in 1397, one of the few Protestant enclaves in France.
1790–1815 Départements of Doubs, Jura and Haute-Saône — Republic and Empire Archives départementales de la Haute-Saône · Archives départementales du Jura

The province was disestablished in 1790. Montbéliard was annexed by France in 1793, confirmed in 1796.
1815–2026 France — Franche-Comté region 1956-2015, then Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Archives départementales de la Haute-Saône · Archives départementales du Jura

Franche-Comté was an administrative region from 1956 to 2015 and merged into Bourgogne-Franche-Comté 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, 1366–2026, 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.

3 places on this ground

142 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 82 more.

All record regions · The map