Finding Your French Ancestors in Military Conscription Registers
Description: French soldier in service uniform Date: 1914 Library of Congress, public domain.
If you have recent French ancestors, there’s a good chance they appear in one of the most useful record sets you may not be using: the Registres de Matricule, or Military Conscription Registers. Starting in the late 19th century, every young man was documented with his own page—sometimes several—filled with details about his family, his appearance, his military service, and the places he lived afterward. Those later residences are a goldmine for genealogists. If you have lost track of an ancestor, they can lead you directly to the right census records, even when a man moved across departmental lines.
Men were recorded the year they turned twenty, so someone born in 1867 will show up in the class of 1887, wherever he was living at that time. We’ll use the military conscription of Raymond Faure as an example, reviewing how the record was located and the information it provides, including the census records found, thanks to his military conscription file. His page has been divided into three sections for clarity.
Raymond Faure was born 29 August 1899 in Ladignac, Haute-Vienne, France.[1] His birth year and place of residence were already known before searching for his military record. First, his matriculation number was needed to be able to locate his record in the conscription register. He was identified in the Répertoire Alphabétique [the alphabetical index] for the class of 1919 in the Limoges office.[2]
(Raymond Faure, b1899, Répertoire Alphabétique)
The number 2332 to the right of his name was his matriculation number. The register containing Raymond Faure’s record was identified using this number. Sometimes there are several young men in the alphabetical index with the same name. In those instances, it is necessary to look at each entry and determine which is the person you are looking for, and what is their number.
(Registre Matricule Listings for the Department Archives Haute-Vienne, France[3])
Part 1: The upper part of the document recorded Raymond Faure’s full name. Under his name is his civil status. It recorded that Raymond was born 29 August 1899 in Ladignac. He was a hairdresser and the son of Jean Faure and Catherine Chabrol.[4] To the right of Raymond’s civil status was recorded his physical appearance or the Signalement. He had brown eyes and dark chestnut colored hair. He had an average forehead and oval shaped face. He stood 1 meter 64 centimeters tall [5”5’], with no particular marks to distinguish his appearance.[5] Recorded under Decision du Conseil de Revision et Motifs was his place in the 1918 list for the Limoges Nord canton and that he was number 116.[6]
(Raymond Faure b1899, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire part 1 [7])
Part 2: The middle part of the document recorded the details of Raymond’s service and his different assignments under the title Détail des Services et Mutations Diverses. He was integrated into the army on 18 April 1918. He served in the 88th infantry from the 23 July 1918 as a soldier, first class, and then was promoted to corporal 16 January 1919.[8] He served active duty during the later part of WWI from his entry into the army in April 1918 until 15 April 1921.
Recorded in the details of his service was a note that he was serving in the army of the Levant. As the Ottoman Empire was dismantled toward the end of WWI, France was one of the powers to organize the administration of the region which included modern day Lebanon and Syria. Raymond was among the troops sent to the region. He left from Marseille on 9 August 1919 and arrived in the Levant five days later on 14 August 1919. The last line of the paragraph recorded the dates of his return to France. He left for France on 28 December 1920 and arrived in Marseille 2 January 1921.[9] A few months after his return to France, he was moved to the reserve army in Limoges. He received a certificate of good conduct. In March of 1932, it was recorded that he had four children.[10]
To the right of the details of Raymond’s service, Corps d’Affectations, is a list of the infantry regiments that he served in, but without the dates of his service.
(Raymond Faure b1899, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, Part 2[11])
Part 3: The final part of the document contained a place to record any previous legal or criminal proceedings or charge: Antécédents Judiciaires et Condamnations. No charges or cases were recorded for him and a note indicated that the file was closed on 13 May 1969.[12] The file referred to is likely Raymond’s military record and not a legal affair.
The Campaigns portion of the document confirms that Raymond did not participate in any battles against Germany during his service. The dates of his participation were initially recorded as campaigns against Germany and then crossed out and written again underneath with his incorporation dates, 18 April 1918 to 22 July 1918, and then 23 July 1918 to 28 December 1920 in the Levant Army. The box labeled Blessures, Citations, Décorations, Etc. contained the mention of the Croix du Combattant, but no other details.[13]
The last rubric filled out in Raymond’s military record was the Localités Successives Habitées. This portion of the record enumerated the places that he lived between 26 March 1922 and 5 March 1939.[14] With these details, we can follow Raymond Faure forward in time: he should be in the 1926 census in Levallois‑Perret, and in the 1931 and 1936 censuses in Clichy. Because the registers also record his street addresses, locating the right census entries becomes much more straightforward.[15]
(Raymond Faure b1899, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, Part 3[16])
This is what the French military conscription records look like in this example of Raymond Faure.
(Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025.)
Censuses
Using the places and dates in the Localités successives habitées, Raymond Faure was next identified in the 1926 census in Levallois Perret, Hauts-de-Seines.[17]
(Raymond Faure, b1899, 1926 census[18])
The census recorded him as living alone and working as a hairdresser. The surname of his employer was Lalure, and his birth date and place was 1899 in Ladignac,[19] matching the birth information previously known.
In the 1931 census, Raymond Faure was enumerated with his wife, Berthe Faure, but no children were enumerated with the family.[20] He was still a hairdresser and his birth date and place were consistent with his military record and previous censuses.
(Raymond Faure, b1988, 1931 Census[21])
Raymond was again enumerated in the Clichy census for 1936 with his wife Berthe Berry and a fourteen-year-old son named Maurice.[22]
(Raymond Faure, b1899, 1936 census[23])
Despite the military registre recording that Raymond Faure had four children in 1932,[24] only one son was enumerated with the parents in the1936 census.[25] But that is a story for another day.
Conclusion
The military conscription register is far more than a simple military record. It preserves a wealth of civil and personal detail, such as parents’ names, exact birth information, physical descriptions, occupations, residences, and the full arc of a man’s military service. Because these entries also track changes in residence, marital status, and children born long after discharge, they form a continuous thread that can be followed through census records and other civil sources.
For anyone researching French ancestors, the Registre Matricule is an indispensable tool—one that bridges gaps, confirms identities, and reveals life stories that might otherwise remain hidden. It deserves a permanent place in every researcher’s toolkit.
If you need help researching your French ancestors, Price Genealogy can help. Bonne chance and happy hunting!
Christine
[1] Raymond Faure, L78P-YVG, Family Tree, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/L78P-YVG: accessed 17 November 2025).
[2] Limoge, France, Répertoire Alphabétique, 1919; Archives Départementales de la Haute-Vienne, rechercher, archives-en-ligne, registres militaire, archives.haute-vienne (https://archives.haute-vienne.fr: accessed 17 November 2025.) Image 16/35.
[3] Limoges, France, Registre Matricule, 1919; Archives Départementales de la Haute-Vienne, rechercher, archives-en-ligne, registres militaire, archives.haute-vienne (https://archives.haute-vienne.fr: accessed 17 November 2025.)
[4] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 1.
[5] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 1.
[6] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 1.
[7] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure; Archives Départementales de la Haute-Vienne, rechercher, archives-en-ligne, registres militaire,1 R 824, archives.haute-vienne (https://archives.haute-vienne.fr: accessed 17 November 2025.) Image 439/658.
[8] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 2.
[9] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 2.
[10] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 2.
[11] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 2.
[12] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 3.
[13] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 3.
[14] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 3.
[15] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 3.
[16] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 3.
[17] Levallois Perret, Hauts-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1926, p. 62, Faure, Raymond b1899 in [Lanignac]; Archives Hauts-de-Seine (archives.hauts-de-seine.fr), Rechercher, Recensement de la population, 1 D NUM LEV 1926 2 (de la rue Gravel à la rue Voltaire), (https://archives.hauts-de-seine.fr/ark:/74903/vtae11c2fd7062d1796/img:FRAD092_1MI249_0405_P: accessed 15 December 2025). Image 405/619.
[18] Levallois Perret, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1926, p. 62, Faure, Raymond b1899 in [Lanignac].
[19] Levallois Perret, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1926, p. 62, Faure, Raymond b1899 in [Lanignac].
[20] Clichy, Hauts-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1931, p. 630, Faure, Raymond b1899 in Ladignac, Hte. Vienne; Research, recensement, MyHeritage https://www.myheritage.fr/research/collection-20396/recensement-francais-de-1931?itemId=8666184-&groupId=385b0c754e253482b5240390ad90a061&action=showRecord&recordTitle=Raymond+FAURE#fullscreen: accessed 16 April 2026) Image 316/915.
[21] Clichy, Hauts-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1931, p. 630, Faure, Raymond b1899 in Ladignac, Hte. Vienne; accessed 16 April 2026.
[22] Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1936, p. 171, Faure, Raymond, b. 1899, Haute-Vienne: accessed 15 December 2025. Image 352/510.
[23] Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Recensement de la population 1936, p. 171, Faure, Raymond, b. 1899, Haute-Vienne; Archives Hauts-de-Seine (archives.hauts-de-seine.fr), Rechercher, Recensement de la population, 1 D NUM CLI 1936 1 (de l’impasse Abel Varet à la rue Leroy), (https://archives.hauts-de-seine.fr/ark:/74903/vta43676ff3d6bd8552/img:FRAD092_1MI348_0352_P: accessed 15 December 2025). Image 352/510.
[24] Limoges, France, Fiche d’affectation et matriculaire, No. 2332, Raymond Faure: accessed 17 November 2025. Part 2.
[25] Raymond and Berthe Faure had a total of 9 children. The children lived with them, relatives, or in other homes at various times. Their names, birthdates and places are recorded in the family livret de famille.