Documents for your administrative procedures

Civil registration documents are held in two copies: one kept in the town hall and the other sent to the High Court Administrative Records Centre. The Court copy is then stored in the departmental archives.

The Heritage Code states that civil birth and marriage records can be disclosed to the public 75 years after their closure date. Recent records, whether held in the town hall or in the departmental archives, are not accessible to readers. Under certain conditions it is possible to obtain copies of certificates from the municipal civil registry service (see general instruction on the civil register, Article 197-9).

Divorce judgements, like other judgements, can be disclosed if they were made publicly. Their reasons are blanked out when the consultation is made by a third party. Only those directly involved in the case, who prove their identity, shall have access to the entire document before a period of 75 years.

Naturalization records and declaration of nationality are not kept at the Departmental Archives. They are held in the National Archives in Paris or Fontainebleau (for contemporary archives) or at the Sub-Directorate for Access to French Nationality in Rezé (Loire-Atlantique).

However, the Departmental Archives do hold declarations of intent sent by applicants to the court dealing with the French nationality applications.

Adoption records of minors who are wards of the state (where one or both parents disappeared or were incapacitated during the war and could not meet the family's needs) are kept in the Departmental Archives in the court and social services collections.

In 1870, the choice of French or German nationality was offered to the people of Alsace Moselle. Those wanting to be French had to declare their choice to the mayor of the receiving municipality.

These documents are searched in the National Archives under sub-series BB31 :

• BB31-1 to BB31-507: list of people who opted for France ;
• BB31-508 to BB31-510: list of people who opted for Germany ;
• BB31-511 to BB31-529: individuals opting, sorted by receiving department.

Documents issued by registry offices are kept at the Departmental Archives. Their public release may be subject to a 50-year period if they jeopardize the right to privacy.

Departmental Archives hold registrations and transcripts made in mortgage storage offices. For the most recent years and, generally, for the whole twentieth century, the records are not held in the departmental archives: tax administration service should be contacted.

Building permit documents have existed since 1942 in Paris and have been stored since 1955 in Seine-et-Marne. The municipality and the Departmental Directorate of Territories (DTT) each retain a copy of the file. After 10 years, the DDE (Public Works Department) copy is sent to the Departmental Archives of Seine-et-Marne after sampling.

• For the period 1955 to 1987 the following are kept at the Departmental Archives of Seine-et-Marne :
  • all large files (public buildings, monuments, large assemblies)
  • all records from one year out of ten, plus those for population census years, insofar as records were actually made.
• Since 1988 the following have been kept at the Departmental Archives of Seine-et-Marne :
  • all "State" building permits (i.e. where the state is the sponsor: public buildings, buildings in new towns, buildings built in towns without land use plans or local development plans ;
  • 10% of other records for the years ending -0, -5 and for population census years.

Since 1988, the municipalities have been required to keep all their building permits. The search for a recent document should first be addressed to them.

So-called classified establishments – i.e. that pose pollution or industrial risk (e.g. nineteenth century slaughterhouses, chemical laboratories, etc.) - are subject to a specific declaration and an installation and operating permit. Records created on such occasions can mostly be disclosed. If consultation of the file involves industrial and commercial secrets, the consultation period is increased to 25 years. For national defence-related institutions, the period is 50 years.

The Departmental Archives hold prefectural licensing records and old vehicle licensing records from 1924 to 1950.

Sentences and case files processed by the courts of Seine-et-Marne are held in the departmental archives. However, for the most recent dates (under 10 years) the court that handed down the judgement must be approached.

Judgements, i.e. court decisions and their "grounds", are only freely available if they were made publicly. For judgements in camera, the document release period is set at 75 years, 100 years if it involves a minor (except for persons involved in the case, who must prove their identity).

The file of judged cases can be released after 75 years (100 years if the case relates to a minor or if it is a sexual assault case).

Like other documents resulting from the registration of deeds, declarations of inheritance are kept in the departmental archives. They include :

• Inheritance tables (alphabetical and chronological indexes) where the name or date of death of the person can be used to find an inheritance whose exact date is not known.
• The actual inheritance deeds, specifying the declarations.

Their public release may be subject to a 50-year period if they jeopardize the right to privacy.

Military recruitment registers are kept in the departmental archives, where they can be freely disclosed 120 years after the birth of the individuals concerned.

It is possible to obtain an exemption to consult the most recent records, particularly to view the recruitment record of an ancestor. The disclosure will then take place with possible blanking out of certain terms (medical or legal) whose release period has not yet been reached.

Moreover, it is necessary to know where the person in question lived at the age of 20 (age of military recruitment), as there are several recruitment offices in the department.

The records of those assisted by Child Social Welfare, whether by the State services (Department of Health and Social Affairs: DDASS) or by the Department (General Support Delegation: DGAS), are kept in the Departmental Archives for older records and at the offices of the DGAS for more recent records. They can all be consulted through the DGAS.

Qualifications are not kept in Departmental Archives.

These documents are delivered to the recipient when they are issued. Institutions of higher education, the academic registrar's office and the school inspectorate may destroy copies of these documents two years after the graduation year (circular of 22 February 2005) and they do not, therefore, assign them to the Departmental Archives.

It may be possible to obtain a copy of the minutes of the results from the establishment or from the departmental archives if they were transferred.

Payslips or other proof of employment are not held in the Departmental Archives.

For employees of private companies, the personnel department of the company must be contacted directly. If the company has closed and has not resumed operations, the document search becomes more difficult: the Commercial Court may indicate the identity and whereabouts of the liquidator responsible for winding up the company and will know where the archives are held if they have been preserved.

For civil servants, staff records are kept in the administration in question: Region, Department, Municipality. For state officials, the record is held by the ministry (with exceptions). Old records are held in the corresponding archive service: regional, departmental, municipal or national. Please note, old records are kept only by sampling.

The priority should be to contact the schools themselves and the mayors of the municipalities involved. If the search fails, it can be pursued in the departmental archives.

The circular of 22 February 2005 actually stipulates that the records of some schools in the department (nurseries, primary and secondary schools, universities) are allocated to the departmental archives.

The Departmental Archives hold :

• Stewardship plans drafted before the French Revolution as part of the distribution of the taille (Ancien Regime direct tax).
• Plans by volume and nature of crops drawn up between 1801and 1807.
• The land register itself, atlas, land surveys, sections and register reports: The Napoleonic cadastre or the cadastre général parcellaire (comprehensive land survey) from 1807. The renewed cadastre parcellaire performed pursuant to the law of 16 April 1930, to allow revision of the land-tax values as a basis for taxation. Plans drawn up after 1930, produced by the tax offices. These, however, are preserved in a very patchy manner. The so-called cadastre remembré (reconstitution survey) performed by the Departmental Agriculture and Forestry Directorate.

For recent cadastral (land registration) surveys, the tax offices (land registry) should be approached directly as they hold a copy of the current cadastral register. It can also be consulted in the municipality.

Tax returns are held in the tax offices for 5 years. They are then sampled: some of the material is transferred to the departmental archives, the rest is destroyed.

The departmental archives hold income tax notices for population census years [link]. Corporate income tax returns are also held for census years and for randomly chosen intermediate years.