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| Yearly indexes and ten-year indexes have several characteristics in common. The registrar usually indexed births, marriages, and deaths separately. The indexes are alphabetical by surname. They usually list the given name(s), document number, and date of the civil register entry. In marriage indexes, the groom's name is usually in alphabetical order, with the bride's maiden surname listed after the groom. In some indexes, only the first letter of the surname is in alphabetical order. | | Yearly indexes and ten-year indexes have several characteristics in common. The registrar usually indexed births, marriages, and deaths separately. The indexes are alphabetical by surname. They usually list the given name(s), document number, and date of the civil register entry. In marriage indexes, the groom's name is usually in alphabetical order, with the bride's maiden surname listed after the groom. In some indexes, only the first letter of the surname is in alphabetical order. |
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| === Locating Civil Registration Records ===
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| Two civil registers were created for each event. One register is kept at the registrar's office [bureau de l'état civil], usually in the town hall [mairie]. The other register is made available to the public at the departmental archive after it is 100 years old.
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| You must determine the town where your ancestor lived before you can find civil registration records. Your ancestor may have lived in a village that belonged to a nearby larger town. In large cities there may be many civil registration districts. Each district has its own registrar. You may need to use gazetteers and other geographic references to identify the place your ancestor lived and the civil registration office that served it. See the "[[France Gazetteers|Gazetteers]]" section.
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| In addition, it helps to know the approximate year in which the birth, marriage, divorce, or death occurred. Records less than 100 years old are confidential. This means the registrar will issue a birth or marriage certificate less than 100 years old only to direct relatives.
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| ==== French Archives Online ====
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| For the past few years France has been digitizing its archives (both Civil registers and Parish registers) and making them available online from a variety of Departmental links.
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| To find out what is available, check this website for a clickable map:
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| [https://francearchives.fr/map/b2b076144a3c4392a34b14bb5e364c95 '''Archives en ligne''']
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| ==== Records at the FamilySearch Library ====
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| The FamilySearch Library has microfilmed civil registration records from about half the departments of France to the 1870s, and some departments up to 1890. Most of these records are from the northern, eastern, and southern areas of France. Fewer are from central France.
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| The FamilySearch Library has no nationwide collections or special indexes of French civil registration records. Yearly indexes and ten-year indexes are available for almost every individual town. Ten-year indexes for several towns in a canton are often bound together in the same volume on the same microfilm.
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| The FamilySearch Library has civil registration from towns in many departments of France. However, if a record has been destroyed, was never kept, was not available in the archives at the time of microfilming, was not microfilmed, or is confidential, the FamilySearch Library does not have a copy. You may use the records at the library for your family research, but the library does not issue or certify certificates for living or deceased individuals.
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| The specific holdings of the FamilySearch Library are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog. To find civil registration records in the FamilySearch Library, search in the Place search of the library's catalog under:
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| FRANCE - CIVIL REGISTRATION
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| FRANCE, [DEPARTMENT] - CIVIL REGISTRATION
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| FRANCE, [DEPARTMENT], [TOWN] - CIVIL REGISTRATION
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| The library's collection continues to grow and its catalog is updated annually. Don't give up if records are not available yet. Check the FamilySearch Catalog every year for the records you need.
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| ==== Writing for Records Not Online ====
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| France has no single, nationwide repository of civil registration records. Birth, marriage, divorce, and death records may be found by contacting or visiting local registrars' offices or departmental archives in France. To protect the privacy of living persons, records of the most recent 100 years are confidential and have restrictions on their use and access.
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| Local registrars' offices [bureau de l'état civil] will usually mail one or two birth, marriage, or death certificates at no charge. However, they are busy and they may not respond to requests for more than two certificates at a time. If the records are less than 100 years old, they are confidential and will be sent only to direct descendants. Records more than 100 years old are more accessible at the departmental archives.
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| [[France Search Strategies for Births, Marriages and Deaths|French Search Strategies]] and [[France Letter Writing Guide|French Letter-Writing Guide]] give details about how to write to town registrars and departmental archives in France for genealogical information.
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| If the reply does not have the information you request, try to get help from the local genealogical society.
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| === Regional Differences in Record Keeping === | | === Regional Differences in Record Keeping === |