Effective family research requires some understanding of the historical events that may have affected your family and the records about them. Learning about wars, governments, laws, migrations, and religious trends may help you understand political boundaries, family movements, and settlement patterns. These events may have led to the creation of records such as land and military documents that mention your family.

Your ancestors will become more interesting to you if you also use histories to learn about the events in which they may have participated. For example, by using a history you might learn about the events that occurred in the year your great grandparents were married.

Some key dates and events in the history of France are as follows:

1334	Earliest Roman Catholic parish register in France begins.
1348	Black plague kills one third of the French population.
1572	Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. Many Protestants flee France.
1579	Parish register of marriages and deaths required.
1598	Edict of Nantes (Protestants granted religious freedom).
1632	French begin settling Quebec and Acadia (Canada).
1685	Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which causes many Protestants to leave France.
1722	First wave of settlers begins moving from Alsace-Lorraine to colonies in the Banat (Austria-Hungary, in southeastern Europe).
1755	French Acadians (Canadians) deported by the British.
1764	First wave of settlers begins moving from Alsace-Lorraine to colonies in Russia and the Ukraine.
1787	Edict of Tolerance grants freedom of religion to the Protestants and Jews.
1789	French revolution. Half a million refugees flee.
1792	French civil registration started.
1808	Jews required to take a fixed family surname in addition to their given name.
1870	Franco-Prussian War. Alsace-Lorraine annexed by Germany.