Were family records kept in france prior to the norman invasion?

Question:if so, does anyone know how to access them? many thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: if so, does anyone know how to access them? many thanks.

Yes and no. There were records kept amongst the nobles and royals, but not among the lower classes. There weren't even religious records kept at that time. If you want to track people pre-1100 in France, you have a long, expensive road to travel. It involves requesting probated wills, land records and a series of other documents from various archives. The last time someone tried tracking lineages back that far was the Catherine de Baillon research project in Detroit about 10 years ago. At that time, it took three skilled researchers more than a year just to get the massive box of records, and several thousand dollars for the research to be copied and shipped over....and that was on known royals.

As a practical matter, the fact that you can trace your lineage to the 11th century is a wonderful feat. If you have the time and money to travel to France, and the knowledge of Middle French to be able to decipher the documents, then you can attempt to go further. Otherwise, it's a long road to travel. These aren't records that anyone is likely to transcribe onto the internet, given the laws surrounding the antiquities of the French government (and these documents fall under the Antiquities Act). So we have to accept that it is what it is and go there to do the research, or hire someone to do the research for us.