France conducted a national and standardized census every five years between 1836 and 1936 except for 1871 (delayed one year to 1872 due to the Franco-Prussian War) and 1916 (not conducted due to World War I). The manuscript census registers (<i>lists nominatives</i>) of the French population are a name-by-name listing of each resident followed by additional information about the individual and subsequent information on the family and its members. Genealogists and family historians working in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries will find France’s censuses to be an important source of information -- providing rich details on family-relationships, occupations, birth years, birth places, residences, and nationalities. <br><br>
