In the 19th and 20th centuries, during their 20th year of age, young men were recorded by the military administration to be incorporated. So you will need to search for what’s called a military “classe” of their 20th year. For instance, a young man born in 1860 will be registered in the 1880 class.
Military recruitment records (Registres matricules) are very frequently used in France. Just like the civil, parish and census online records, the online Military Archives are organized by department and are accessible for free. You don’t need to have an online account to access them. They are also organized by “bureau de recrutement” (the closest district around the city they lived in at the time of their military registration). Once you find a military record for your ancestor, be sure to verify if it contains more than one page.
Military records are a wealth of information to discover a lot of details about your ancestor and his life! Have you ever wondered if he participated in various conflicts? Or what he looked like? Was he tall or short? What color were his hair and eyes? Did he have any particular physical trait? Was he wounded? Did he get a military award? This information is often located on this record!
Below is my great-grandfather’s military information. His name was Marcel Radet (1895-1960). He fought in World War I (Première guerre mondiale) and obtained a prestigious award: the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War). It’s a military decoration of France, first created in 1915. It was awarded in World War I, World War II, as well as in other conflicts, to soldiers who distinguished themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with the enemy.
Here is some of the information you can usually locate on the “registres matricules“:
This is Marcel Radet, my great-grandfather. This picture was taken between 1914-1918. He was drafted for World War I at the age of 19… As a mother, I just can’t imagine sending my 19-year old son off to war…
Marcel Radet lost his brother Lucien and one cousin during the war… My grandmother told me many times that her dad had respiratory issues all of his life due to the poison gas he breathed during the war, and that it was horrible to hear him cough during the winter.
3 times during WWI, he was wounded by pieces of shrapnels. He lost most of the use of a hand. He was wounded on May 5th, 1915, at Mouilly, then wounded again on April 23, 1917, close to Bugny au Bac (Aisne department). This and much more information is located in the 4 pages of his “Registre matricule”.
Example to search for an ancestor’s “registre matricule”
You will need to know what département your ancestor lived in when he started his military service. For our example, I will go to the “Archives de la Marne“, département where my great-grandfather was living when he started his military service.
1) Access the online departmental archives
- Do an online search for “Archives de la Marne“.
- Go to their site: https://archives.marne.fr/.
- In the top menu, hover over “Rechercher” (“research”) and select “Archives numérisées” (online archives).
4. Click on “Matricules militaires, classes 1878-1921“
Usually, online departmental archives offer a search by name. Otherwise, you can search by classe.
2) To locate your ancestor’s military record
- In the “Recherche nominative” field, enter your ancestor’s last name (Nom) and first name (Prénom). I always heard my great-grandfather being referred to as “Marcel Radet” or “le grand-père Radet”. I did not know that he had a middle name. So I entered “Marcel Radet” in the search field.
- Click on “Rechercher” (search)
I got the page below, with several “Marcel Radet” (Marcel Émile, Marcel Georges, etc). It’s by opening the documents that you can compare with names of parents, date of birth, locations, etc. He is “Marcel Georges”.
If you find multiple records for the same person (same name and first names, same class year, and same registre matricule number), it means that this person will have multiple pages on their military record. There are four pages for my great-grandfather.
Click on a document to view the military record.
My French Lineage 