In the Beginning
Records of people who emigrated to France in the 20th century are limited due to privacy requirements, however there are records of French deaths from 1970 to 2022 available online. These records include not only the death date and place but also the birth date and place and identify almost 400 individuals with name spellings of Baldacchino, Baldachino and Baldaquin. Overall, the death records are comprised of about 60% people born in Tunisia, 20% in Algeria, 15% in France and 5% others. Only 5% of births in this group occurred in France before 1950, supporting our assumption that the migrations took place predominantly during times of war and independence of the North African colonies of France. Tunisia gained its independence in 1956 while about one million European-Algerians, also known as ‘pieds noir’, fled Algeria at the time of its independence in 1962.
Migration
The birthplaces of those born in France are primarily in Marseille and other locations in the south of France, consistent with today’s distribution shown below. The birthplaces in death records also indicate that internal migration to Paris and surrounding areas mostly occurred in the past 50 years or so.
The Surname Today
forebears.io estimates that, in 2025, there were 917 people with the surname Baldacchino, 222 with Baldachino, 44 with Baldaquin, 2 with Ballacchino and 1 with Ballachino. Those with all three of the main forms of the surname today prefer southern France, not surprising for people originating in the Mediterranean area, with the great majority of all three forms in the area of Marseilles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. A substantial number of those with surname Baldacchino have also settled around Paris in the region of Île-de-France and Seine-Maritime, Normandy on the north coast. We know from the records that the few Ballacchinos and Ballachinos in France were a family who emigrated unsurprisingly from Licata, Sicily.
