Record Atlas
9 eras · 1237–2026 · 57 places

French Flanders, Artois and Hainaut — Lille, Arras, Dunkirk

Lille, Dunkirk, Arras, Calais, Douai, Valenciennes, Cambrai. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1659–1678 — The cession came town by town: Artois in 1659, Dunkirk bought from England on 17 October 1662 (England held it from 1658), Lille and Douai in 1668 at Aix-la-Chapelle, and Valenciennes, Maubeuge, Cambrai and Saint-Omer in 1678 at Nijmegen. A family on one side of a 1668 or 1678 line was under Spain until then.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1237–1384 County of Flanders, County of Artois, County of Hainaut no registers survive

Before registers. Artois became a separate county again in 1237; Lille was under French rule from 1304 to 1369 after the Franco-Flemish war.
1384–1477 Burgundian State — Flanders, Artois no registers survive

Artois passed to the dukes of Burgundy by inheritance in 1384, and Flanders with Lille came to the Burgundian State through the 1369 marriage of Margaret III and Philip the Bold.
1477–1659 Habsburg Netherlands, from 1555 the Spanish Netherlands no registers survive

Mary of Burgundy's marriage to Maximilian of Austria in 1477 brought Flanders to the Habsburgs; Lille passed to Charles V in 1519 and to Philip II of Spain in 1555. France conquered Artois in 1635-1659, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 confirmed it.
1659–1678 France takes the ground in stages Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais

THE TRAP. The cession came town by town: Artois in 1659, Dunkirk bought from England on 17 October 1662 (England held it from 1658), Lille and Douai in 1668 at Aix-la-Chapelle, and Valenciennes, Maubeuge, Cambrai and Saint-Omer in 1678 at Nijmegen. A family on one side of a 1668 or 1678 line was under Spain until then.
1678–1790 Kingdom of France — provinces of Flanders, Artois and Hainaut Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais

Parish registers were required in France by the ordinance of 1539. Lille was held by the Grand Alliance in 1708 and occupied by Dutch forces until 1713.
1790–1815 Départements of Nord and Pas-de-Calais — Republic, Consulate and Empire Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais

Nord was created on 4 March 1790 from the western halves of historic Flanders and Hainaut and the Bishopric of Cambrai; Artois lies in Pas-de-Calais. Civil registration became fully secular in 1792.
1815–1940 France — Nord and Pas-de-Calais Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais

Lille was occupied by Germany from 13 October 1914 until 17 October 1918.
1940–1944 German occupation — Nord and Pas-de-Calais attached to the Brussels command no registers survive

Nord and Pas-de-Calais were attached to the German military command in Brussels. The region was liberated between 1 and 5 September 1944, and the Dunkirk garrison surrendered on 9 May 1945.
1944–2026 France — Nord and Pas-de-Calais Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais

Civil registers from 1792 are held by the departmental archives.

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, 1237–2026, 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.

57 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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