Record Atlas
6 eras · 933–2026 · 9 places

Lower Normandy - Cotentin, Bessin and Calvados

Cherbourg, Valognes, Coutances, Saint-Lô, Granville, Caen. 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
933–1204 Duchy of Normandy no registers survive

Before registers. Charles the Bald ceded the Cotentin to Alan the Great of Brittany in 867, and Brittany lost it to the Duchy of Normandy in 933. In 1088 Duke Robert Curthose gave the Cotentin to his brother Henry, later king of England.
1204–1419 Kingdom of France - Normandy annexed by Philip II FamilySearch

Philip II captured mainland Normandy in 1204 and the 1259 Treaty of Paris recognised French possession. During the Hundred Years' War Edward III landed in the bay of La Hougue.
1419–1450 English-held Normandy FamilySearch

The English controlled most of Normandy from 1419 to 1450.
1450–1790 Kingdom of France - province of Normandy Archives départementales de la Manche · Archives départementales du Calvados · Geneanet · FamilySearch

The ducal ring was broken in 1469, ending the duchy on the continent. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) required parishes to keep baptism registers, Blois (1579) extended registration to marriages and burials, and an ordinance of 1667 provided for a second copy to be lodged with the court clerk; one source says systematic duplication began only from 1736. The naval Battle of La Hogue was fought off Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue in 1692.
1790–1944 France - departments of Manche and Calvados Archives départementales de la Manche · Archives départementales du Calvados · Archives municipales de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin · Geneanet · FamilySearch

Five departments replaced the province of Normandy in 1790; Manche was created on 26 February 1790 and its capital was Coutances until 1796, then Saint-Lô. A decree of 20 September 1792 moved register-keeping from priests to mayors, and civil registers proper begin in 1793.
1944–2026 France - Normandy Archives départementales de la Manche · Archives départementales du Calvados · Geneanet · FamilySearch

The D-Day landings took place on 6 June 1944, with Utah Beach on the Cotentin coast, followed by the campaign to take Cherbourg; Valognes lost many of its grand houses. Saint-Lô was largely destroyed in the war, and Coutances briefly served again as prefecture before Saint-Lô was rebuilt.

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, 933–2026, 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.

9 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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