Record Atlas
6 eras · 1000–2026 · 3 places

Lyonnais and Beaujolais - Lyon and the Rhône department

Lyon, Villefranche-sur-Saône, Belleville, Vienne (across the Rhône), Tarare. 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
1000–1312 Lands of the former Kingdom of Burgundy, French influence growing after 1254 no registers survive

Before registers. French control around Lyon grew after the fall of the Hohenstaufens in 1254.
1312–1792 Kingdom of France - province of Lyonnais (seat Lyon) Archives du département du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon · Archives municipales de Lyon · FamilySearch · Geneanet

Lyon joined the French crown in 1312 or 1313 depending on the source (1312 is tied to the Treaty of Vienne). Parish baptism registers were required from the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539), marriages and burials from Blois (1579), and duplicate registers from the ordinance of April 1667.
1792–1793 French Republic - department of Rhône-et-Loire Archives du département du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon · FamilySearch · Geneanet

From the decree of 20 September 1792 births, marriages and deaths were recorded by the municipalities. Lyon and the Beaujolais lay in the department of Rhône-et-Loire until it was split in 1793.
1793–1967 France - department of Rhône Archives du département du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon · Archives municipales de Lyon · FamilySearch · Geneanet

The department of Rhône was created on 12 August 1793 when Rhône-et-Loire was split into Rhône and Loire, so records on either side of the old boundary are held by separate archives. In 1852 four communes were added from Isère.
1967–2015 France - department of Rhône, enlarged Archives du département du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon · FamilySearch · Geneanet

In 1967 the department took 23 communes from Isère and six from Ain, and in 1971 one more commune from Isère, so a village on the eastern edge may have older records in the Isère or Ain archives.
2015–2026 France - Rhône department and the Métropole de Lyon Archives du département du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon · Archives municipales de Lyon · FamilySearch · Geneanet

In 2015 the Métropole de Lyon was separated administratively from the department of Rhône, taking about 16 per cent of its territory and 75 per cent of its population; the departmental archives are named for both.

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, 1000–2026, 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

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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