France, Cemeteries

Location: France
Surnames/tags: france cemeteries

This page is meant to list information on cemeteries in France and how to use and categorise them on WikiTree.

Contents 1 Cemeteries in France 2 How to categorise cemeteries 3 Where to find information on French cemeteries 3.1 Google 3.2 Geneanet 3.3 Find A Grave 3.4 FranceGenWeb

Cemeteries in France

In France, each town (commune) generally has at least one cemetery. They are not always separated by faith, except in bigger cities.

The right to use specific plot in a cemetery is called a concession funéraire. They can be an individual grave, a collective one (generally for families), or a unit for placing an urn in a columbarium.

Most of those concessions are only given for a specific amount of time (the standards are: 5 to 15 years, 30 years, 50 years, "perpetual.") They can be renewed if descendants want to. They have a duty to maintain the plot in good state.

Once the concession is over or if the plot is seen as abandoned, it is freed up to make space for new sets of remains. The old remains are then either cremated or put in an ossuary.

For this reason, you can't find really old graves in France (except for Notable people with exceptional situation) and most centuries-old Wikitree profiles should not be in a cemetery category.

How to categorise cemeteries

Only cemeteries that still currently exist should be created as categories.

Each cemetery should have "(Département), Cemeteries" as its parent. You can find those on the page France, Cemeteries category (Note: not all départements have one of those yet, so they should be created when needed.)

It should also be placed under the category for the commune it is located in. If that category doesn't exist, it can be created.

The name of the cemetery should be in French, except for American Battle monuments (see: American Battle Monuments Commission category) and Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries (see: Commonwealth War Graves Commission category).

Where to find information on French cemeteries

Google

Google Maps can be a good tool to find the name, address and coordinates of a given cemetery.

Geneanet

Geneanet's Save our Graves Project has a lot of people taking pictures of graves and indexing them.

Find A Grave

Find a Grave has some information on French cemeteries, but it is not always accurate. Please use other sources to confirm what you find there.

FranceGenWeb

FranceGenWeb has a cemeteries section called CimGenWeb. It has a lot of indexed graves filled by volunteers, but sadly most don't have images to allow you to double-check the index. It is also only available in French.