Record Atlas
7 eras · 1200–2026 · 1 places

Picardy — Amiens, Beauvais, Laon, Saint-Quentin

Amiens, Abbeville, Beauvais, Compiègne, Laon, Saint-Quentin. 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
1200–1419 Counties of Boulogne, Ponthieu, Amiens and Vermandois no registers survive

Before registers.
1419–1477 Burgundian Picardy no registers survive

Philip the Good acquired the counties of Boulogne, Ponthieu, Amiens and Vermandois between 1419 and 1435, and Charles VII confirmed the acquisitions at the Congress of Arras in 1435.
1477–1790 Kingdom of France — the government of Picardy Archives départementales de la Somme · Archives départementales de l'Oise · Archives départementales de l'Aisne

Louis XI took the key towns in 1477 and held all Picardy by the end of that year. In 1557 Habsburg forces ransacked Saint-Quentin after a siege of seventeen days and burned Noyon.
1790–1815 Départements of Somme, Oise and Aisne — Republic and Empire Archives départementales de la Somme · Archives départementales de l'Oise · Archives départementales de l'Aisne

The departments replaced the provinces on 4 March 1790, and the provinces lasted administratively until 21 September 1791. The military government of Picardy had covered the Somme, the north of Aisne and a small part of the north of Oise.
1815–1914 France — Somme, Oise and Aisne Archives départementales de la Somme · Archives départementales de l'Oise · Archives départementales de l'Aisne
1914–1918 France — Northern Picardy a battlefield Archives départementales de la Somme · Archives départementales de l'Aisne

Four major battles of the First World War, including the Battle of the Somme, were fought in northern Picardy.
1918–2026 France — Picardy region 1972-2015, then Hauts-de-France Archives départementales de la Somme · Archives départementales de l'Oise · Archives départementales de l'Aisne

The region of Picardy (Somme, Oise, Aisne) existed from 1972 to 2015 and became part of Hauts-de-France 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, 1200–2026, 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

59 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.

All record regions · The map