A Breakthrough in France Genealogy: MyHeritage Publishes a New Collection of 731 Million Records Extracted From French Newspapers
We’re happy to announce the release of a new historical record collection on MyHeritage: France, Names & Stories in Newspapers. This collection includes 731 million structured records extracted from French newspapers. These records were created using advanced AI technology developed in-house by MyHeritage.
This is the first Names & Stories collection on MyHeritage in a language other than English — following the 11.6 billion English-language records published previously in 15 other collections.
Search France, Names & Stories in Newspapers
Historical newspapers offer rich details for family history that official records often lack. They add color and context — stories of everyday life, personal achievements, public recognition, photos, and much more. With the Names & Stories collections, these stories are searchable and also matched to your family tree. You can uncover surprising new details — even about relatives you didn’t think to search for.
Records in this collection typically include full names and identified relationships, relevant locations, occupations, and associated institutions, as well as the newspaper title, publication date, and place. They provide a snippet of text from the newspaper, a short article summary generated by AI, and the full scanned text (OCR) of the article. In addition, each record includes a link to view the original full scan of the newspaper page on the Gallica.fr website.
Examples
Here are a few examples from the France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection.
Example 1
An article from L’Époque, published in 1938, describes the wedding celebration of Jacques Delacour and Marie-Louise Rambaud — a richly detailed item packed with family connections. The marriage took place at the Saint-Paterne church in Orléans, and the article is notable for the number of named individuals and family relationships it includes.
Record entry for Jacques Delacour in the France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection on MyHeritage.com (Click to zoom)
MyHeritage was able to extract a lot of information into this record. Jacques is listed as an engineer in naval construction. The names of his parents have been extracted, as well as four wedding witnesses. It shows how much information can be uncovered from just one well-documented article.
Full newspaper article about the marriage of Jacques Delacour on Gallica.fr (Click to zoom)
Example 2
The example below describes the funeral of Fernand Jacopozzi, an engineer and artist celebrated for his imaginative public lighting displays across Paris.
Record entry for Fernand Jacopozzi in the France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection on MyHeritage (Click to zoom)
Beyond his contributions to the city’s aesthetic, the article reveals his interesting role in a wartime deception project during World War I that was largely unknown to the public. Faced with the threat of German air raids, Jacopozzi was tasked with designing a fake illuminated version of Paris in the forest of Saint-Germain, just outside the city.
His plan was to mislead enemy pilots by replicating the appearance of Paris from the air, complete with glowing outlines of monuments, industrial zones, train stations, and even fake moving trains. He carefully chose a location that matched the layout of Paris, including a loop in the Seine to mimic the city’s river geography. Though the project was never fully completed — the war ended before it could be fully implemented — the level of detail and ingenuity behind it is striking. If you would like to read more about this attempt to confuse German bombers, see the article on Fake Paris in World War I.
Full newspaper article about the funeral of Fernand Jacopozzi on Gallica.fr (Click to zoom)
Example 3
The example below describes an unusual workplace incident at the train station in Moulins involving a railway mechanic named Jean Gravière.
Record entry for Jean Gravière in the France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection on MyHeritage.com (Click to zoom)
In September 1909, while inspecting a freight train, Gravière became involved in a heated argument with a supervisor who insulted him. Another worker joined in, striking Gravière and causing him to fall under a moving train. He was dragged along the tracks and sustained severe injuries to his head and arms before managing to escape. The article notes that he was treated by a company doctor and taken to the hospital, while his wife was urgently notified by telegram. The account also captures the investigation that followed, with the attacker denying responsibility.
Full newspaper article describing the incident, on Gallica.fr (Click to zoom)
The technology behind this collection
In 2024, MyHeritage developed specialized AI technology to extract structured records from newspaper pages published on OldNews.com. MyHeritage started publishing these collections, initially for English newspapers only, in December 2024, and they included newspapers from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
What sets these collections apart is how the information is extracted. MyHeritage’s custom-built AI goes beyond indexing names alone, and successfully captures relationships, occupations, life events, addresses and many other data points from each article. This makes historical newspapers much easier to search, and facilitates better matches of newspapers with family trees, making historical newspapers far more useful for family history research.
You can read more about how this project began in our original announcement from December 2024, when we first added 3.4 billion records, and in the follow-up from January 2025, when the full 11.6 billion records were completed.
Now, MyHeritage has adapted the technology for French content and additional languages will be added soon.
Accessing the new collection
You can search the France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection for free on MyHeritage. Viewing the full record details requires a Data, Complete, or Omni subscription.
If you have a family tree on MyHeritage, you will soon begin receiving automatic Record Matches to articles in this collection that mention people in your tree. This will help you discover articles about your relatives without needing to search manually.
Conclusion
This collection is part of our ongoing work to expand access to historical records — with a growing focus on French genealogy and the French-speaking world. It reflects our commitment to helping more people explore their French roots through meaningful, high-quality resources. It also highlights the technological prowess of MyHeritage and the ingenuity of its team.
Ready to explore the stories of your French relatives? Search the France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection now.
