Record Atlas
4 eras · 900–2026 · 1 places

Gévaudan, Velay and the Brivadois — Mende, Le Puy and Brioude

Le Puy-en-Velay, Mende, Brioude, Ambert, Yssingeaux, Marvejols. 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
900–1096 Gévaudan (under the Count of Toulouse) and Velay no registers survive

Before registers. In the early 10th century Mende replaced Javols as capital of Gévaudan and Le Puy replaced Saint-Paulien as capital of Velay.
1096–1307 Bishop-counts of Mende and Le Puy; Gévaudan under the Crown of Aragon from 1166 no registers survive

In 1096 the Count of Toulouse transferred his rights over eastern Gévaudan to the Bishop of Mende, and in 1166 Alfonso II of Aragon inherited Gévaudan. Velay is first named a county in 1142 and became an independent county in 1162 with its bishop as count; it had eighteen baronies and Gévaudan eight.
1307–1790 Kingdom of France — Languedoc (Gévaudan, Velay) and Auvergne (Brivadois) Archives départementales de la Lozère · Archives départementales de la Haute-Loire · Archives municipales du Puy-en-Velay · FamilySearch

The Bishop of Mende was granted the title of count of Gévaudan in 1307. Gévaudan and Velay were nominally part of Languedoc but kept their own Estates until 1789; Brioude is listed among the territories of the diocese of Saint-Flour (created 1317), so it belongs with Auvergne, not Languedoc. The religious wars ruined the country in the 16th century.
1790–2026 France — Lozère, Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme Archives départementales de la Lozère · Archives départementales de la Haute-Loire · Archives départementales du Puy-de-Dôme · FamilySearch · Geneanet

On 4 March 1790 Gévaudan ceased to exist and the Lozère department was created; Haute-Loire was created from Velay with parts of Auvergne, Gévaudan and Vivarais, and Auvergne was divided into Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, Haute-Loire and Allier. A family moving between Mende, Le Puy and Brioude therefore crosses departmental archives. Civil registration began in 1792.

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, 900–2026, 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.

1 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.

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