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  1. #1
    pottoka
    Guest

    Smile Good news from Paris

    Great news from Paris!

    They have digitalised five million records, notably bmds from 1860 to 1902, which can now be consulted directly online.

    This is the link: https://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/.lut?page_id=149

    Top right, it says that you can choose the language (English/Español) you prefer, but don't be taken in by that as it takes you to a site for Paris for tourists. You need to go down to "Les archives numérisées sont en ligne !", a headline on a blue background over on the right side. There's a short paragraph underneath and "Consulter les archives numerisées" which you click on to open a new page.

    When looking for a certificate (un acte), the best thing is to look it up in the ten-year tables (les tables décennales). This is particularly useful in Paris if you don't know in which district (arrondissement) the birth was registered in.

    If you choose the ten-year tables, click on "accédez aux tables décennales". Due to the fire in 1871, these only cover 1860 to 1902. You will be taken to a new page, where you have to choose the type of certificate you are looking for, from drop-down menus: birth (acte de naissance); marriage (acte de mariage) and death (acte de décès). Then you choose the dates you want: 1860-1872; 1873-1882; 1883-1892; 1893-1902. If you are lucky enough to know which district of Paris the event took place in, you choose that; if you don't know, just miss that menu and you will be offered all the districts to trawl through. Finally you write in the surname you are looking for.

    Click on "Rechercher" and a new page will open with, for one district, four boxes. The first box tells you the first name at the top of the first page being offered; the second box tells you the last name on the last page. The third box is a reference number for the register, and the fourth is a picture of an eye on which you click to load the images with the number of pages. For example, I did a trial for you with Bordenave, a local name in our region. I was offered 22 pages from Bizant to Bougant.

    Clicking on the eye loads the first page, but you can click several times, and they skip to the last click and load quickly. There is also a slide at the top of the page to move from page to page which is probably a better way to change pages. There is a dimmer/brightener (I hope that there aren't technical words for these things), a zoom, a padlock (to lock the zoom), and two signs which look more like laundry signs to me () The one with a sheet being dipped into a bowl of water is to print the image; if you put the cursor near it, it says "imprimer"; the one with a blue cross in a square which becomes red and says "retour" when the cursor comes close takes you back to the page with the boxes where you can start a new search or modify the one you were doing.

    If you don't choose a district, you will get a page with the four boxes for each district. When you have looked at one district, it becomes shaded, so you don't get lost with what you've done and not done.

    I hope this is clear enough. Tomorrow, I'll come back and tell you what to do when you've found your certificate in the ten-year tables.

  2. #2
    v.wells
    Guest

    Default

    What a great thing Pottoka!! I am sure our forum members looking for French ancestors, will be utterly thrilled. What is kinder, is your ability to decipher the wording to make it easy to understand for those who lack knowledge of the language.

  3. #3
    AnnB
    Guest

    Default

    I agree with Vanessa - well done Pottoka for bringing attention to the site and for explaining how to use it

    None of my lot ventured further than the Isle of Wight, but if I did have any connections with France, I would welcome any help I could get

    Best wishes
    Ann

  4. #4
    SBSFamilyhistory
    Guest

    Default

    I have some French relatives but just my luck they were born in 1826 and 1827 so no help for me, but it will be of help for so many people.


    Sue

  5. #5
    Mutley
    Guest

    Default

    It is such a good one, it deserves to be stuck at the top of the Europe Forum.

    Well done pottaka

    Love the sig

  6. #6
    pottoka
    Guest

    Default

    Thank you, Vanessa, Ann and Mutley, for your kind words; perhaps your faith in me was a little misplaced given the time I've taken to return with the next episode which was promised for the following day! I hope that no-one is champing at the bit Such are the hiccups of life, unfortunately.

    So, if you are all sitting comfortably, I will begin, erm, continue (sigh of nostalgia )

  7. #7
    pottoka
    Guest

    Default Looking up the certificate

    As I said in my previous post, it is best to look up "un acte" in the ten-year tables. This can be for a variety of reasons: if you only have "Paris" as a birth place; if you have an approximate birth date or year; if you want to find if there are siblings and don't have the exact first names, etc.

    It can also save a lot of time when it turns out that a British person has put Paris on the Census for a birth place, but they, or their child, were not actually born in Paris itself. They may have been born very close to Paris, in the suburbs, for example in Le-Pré-Saint-Gervais or Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, in which case the event will have been recorded at the Town Hall of those places, but, for the purposes of the Census, the person might well have considered that Paris was just as good, and a lot easier to spell. But not helpful at all for their descendants!

    For the example, I decided to use another Basque surname, Etcheberry, and the 18th district between 1860 and 1872. There were five births recorded as so:
    Etcheberry - Gaston Prosper Henri - 19 - mai - 1862
    Etcheberry - Paul Jules Henri - 12 - avril - 1869
    Etcheberry - Caroline - 11 - 8bre - 1863
    Etcheberry - Louis Pierre - 12 - mai - 1868
    Etcheberry - Aldre G--e Pierre - 20 - avril - 1870

    These are all in columns. "8bre" is a shorthand way of writing octobre; '8' for 'oct', like in octogon and octopus.

    I'm going to look for the last one as I can't make out his middle name. His first name is written 'Ald' and then 're' in small letters like 'th' for a date in English, so I presume that it's Alexandre. I thought his second name was Gaston, but there seems to be an 'e' on the end, so I'm intrigued. I hope the registry officer had better writing!

    From the second page where you find "consulter l'état civil de Paris", click on that, then on "accédez aux registres d'actes". A new page will open with drop-down menus to choose the type of certificate that you want, the district in which the event happened and the date on which the event happened. So I have entered:
    • type d'acte: naissance (birth certificate)
    • arrondissement: 18e (district)
    • date (jj/mm/aaaa): 20/04/1870 (dd/mm/yyyy)

    A click on "rechercher", and I have the register from 17th April to 3rd May 1870. A click on the eye loads the first image; the register is opened flat so there are two pages, each with four entries (this can vary). The name of the person concerned is written in a wide margin to the left of each entry, where there are sometimes also further notes, such as when the person got married, to whom and where, when and where they died, a belated recognition of an illegitimate child by the father or the marriage of the parents which legitimated the child.

    The certificate says that Alexandre Gustave Pierre Etcheberry was born on 19th April 1870 at 9 p.m. to Pierre Etcheberry, a fruitseller aged forty-five, and his wife, Constance Giamboné, aged thirty-five, of the same profession. The birth was at his parents' home at n° 78 rue des Martys. The certificate was established on 20th April 1870 at 3 p.m. in the presence of Josué Giamboné, aged thirty, a painter and glazier living at n° 78 rue des Martyrs, and Daniel Giamboné, aged twenty seven, same profession and address.

    In the margin, there is a note to say that Alexandre was married on 11th August 1914 in the 11th district to Augustine Marie Martin.

    It is not possible to get the certificate to a size which is legible if you want to print it. Presumably the best would be to print it and make a larger photocopy.

    Happy hunting!

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