The revolutionary system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar, and was part of a larger attempt at decimalisation in France (which also included decimal time of day, decimalisation of currency, and metrication). But it can be difficult to identify a town mentioned in a record during this period.įor example, in the following marriage record, the groom is said to come from Vitry-sur-Marne.The French Republican calendar (French: calendrier républicain français), also commonly called the French Revolutionary calendar ( calendrier révolutionnaire français), was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871. These name changes won’t be an issue to find records, because the records of this period have usually been classified under the current name of the town. You can find a list of the communes whose names changed on this Wikipedia page.īut these changes were only temporary: most towns took their old names back in 1814. For example, Saint-Nazaire became Port-Nazaire at the time. Some towns with the word “ Saint” also had their names changed. New names were usually based on geography or on Republican principles.įor example, Bar-le-Duc in the departement of Meuse was renamed Bar-sur-Ornain because “ duc” (meaning duke) was a nobility title (Ornain was the name of the local river). This was mostly done to erase all signs of royalty, nobility or religion from town names. Town n ame changesĭuring the Revolutionary period, many towns had their names changed. The reverse conversion is also possible with this link.Īs an example, the date seen above would convert to July 29th, 1801.
If you want to convert a date from the Revolutionary calendar to the current calendar, some tools have been made available by French archives, such as this one by the Archives of Pas de Calais (select the year in the drop-down menu above the table, then click on the chosen date and a popup will tell you the date in the current calendar). For example, the date above would be written “ 10 thermidor an IX“. Note: when Revolutionary dates are written with numbers, roman numerals are usually used for the year. 3 months for summer, ending in -dor: Messidor, Thermidor and FructidorĮxample of Revolutionary date on a birth record.3 months for spring, ending in -al: Germinal, Floréal and Prairial.3 months for winter, ending in -ôse: Nivôse, Pluviôse and Ventôse.3 months for autumn, ending in -aire: Vendémiaire, Brumaire and Frimaire.With this calendar, the year was divided into 12 months with names based on seasons:
Therefore, the calendar went back to normal on the 1st of January 1806. But it was set to begin on the 22nd of September 1792, day when the French Republic was established.Īs a result the first year of the Revolutionary calendar started on the 22nd of September 1792, the second year in September 1793 and so on. The French Revolutionary calendar - also called Republican calendar - was created in October 1793. The Revolutionary calendar, or Republican calendar And second, because the names of some towns changed at the time. First, because during this period a new calendar - the Revolutionary calendar - was used. The Revolutionary period (between 17) can be quite challenging for French genealogy.