We have discovered that Charles Price (Press?) - my husband's ggrandfather was born in Gersey(Jersey), Eure in 1842.
Does anyone know where we might search for his birth certificate?

Linda

There is no central registry for births in France tho what happens is that - usually/frequently - information about marriages and deaths, divorces etc are annotated on local birth records.

Do you know whether GERSEY is a commune with a consiel in its own right? If it is, you can ask the Mairie (Town Hall) for an extract from their Etats-Civil for the birth.

If it's not a commune in its own right, you need to identify which 'local authority' it fall under and ask them.

But, be aware the Mairie is not bound to send you a copy, if they do, it will be a kindness on their behalf.

Alternatively, you can approach the Archive Departementale for Eure and ask them as they are the repository for records in their Departemente. But, same thing applies, they are not bound to send you the information and they may refer you to a local genealogist/researcher/genealogical group, which you mau have to pay to get the information for you.

Regards

Tony Fuller
24220 Berbiguieres
France

Thank you for your help. I have been unable to confirm that Gersey is a commune - it is not listed on Wikipedia - although that is no proof! We are hoping to go to Evreux for a few days and I wanted to try and establish where we should go in advance to save time while we are there. I will use the information you have kindly sent to do some more research.

Linda

Gersey appears to be a very tiny village, part of the Illiers-l'Évêque commune and is just south of Evreux.
BMD for Eure are available online at
http://archives.cg27.fr/pleade/etatcivil
For Illiers-l'Évêque there are records from 1541 - 1862.
There are two sets of information for civil registrations - the 10 year indexes and the registrations themselves. A quick look in the index doesn't show anyone of that name though. The closest is a Charles Honore Porches - born 19 Feb. 1842. There are also 3 Prier births, but none a Charles nor in 1842. You may find that previously Gersey may have been part of a different commune than it is today.
Good luck!

Thank you for that link. Unfortunately I couldn't access it. Is it possible the date is inaccurate? Would it be easy to check from 1840 to 1845?
Linda

I had already checked as the indexes are in batches of 10 years and I looked at 1833-1842 and 1843-1852. I attach jpg files of the relevant pages.

I do so appreciate the trouble you have taken. I guess the real problem could be that he was born to a British father - we don't know the nationality of his mother. Maybe they did not actually register the birth, if it was not a legal necessity. Do you think I could explore the possibility of a baptism in a local church?
The pages you attached were very interesting, and I have still not totally discarded Charles Honore, as our Charles is sometimes shown as Charles H.
Linda

I don't know the legal requirements about civil registration in France at that time. The churches would almost certainly be Catholic in such a rural area. I would expect that the church records from the time of civil registration would still be at the churches. Records of registration in British consulates are I believe only available from 1849. It must be very frustrating for you! I have similar blocks where I can't locate the French records due to not knowing the precise location.

Etats Civil have been a way of life in France since just before the Revolution and they remain the property of the State, not of the Church. The records in my Commune start in 1790 (they started a few years after the EC were implemented) so they pre-date the UK by some 40 years or so.

If the records of any Church exist they should/will by law be stored at the Archives Departementales tho in many instances the Church will still have the baptism marriage and death records that they would have been responsible for because of the division between the State and Church - basically, several/many Churches refused to hand them over. But births, marriages and deaths would/should be in the ADs, in this case in Evreaux OR in the Commune.

Protestante Temples covered huge areas so being rural doesn't necessarily prove Catholicism but it is highly likely, if you can't trace him at all, I would suggest the AD is your only bet and remember that many ADs do not provide look up or research services, they will send you a list of private researchers.

Alternatively you could look on the Web to see whether there is a genealogical association locally, when I was working at the Evreaux and Rouen ADs there was always a close link with local genealogical groups.

Regards

Tony Fuller
24220 Berbiguieres
France

I was under the impression that parish records post 1792 were completed in duplicate with one copy remaining at the church and the other being stored in the Diocesan Archives as opposed to the Departmental Archives. It is certainly true that pre 1792 parish records are held in the Departmental Archives and for Eure they are online.