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Public and Private Archives
It is difficult to establish a distinct boundary between archives held by libraries
and by the various national, departmental, or municipal archives existing in France.
Usually, libraries possess archival collections of private origin, while public
records are kept by various national or local archives. But this is not a hard
and fast rule. Private collections may well be found at the Archives Nationales,
the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, or in local archives as well
as in libraries or museums.
Locating Archival Material
The Direction des Archives de France organizes both the Archives
Nationales and the Archives Départementales.
The Archives Nationales are
supposed to include material that refers to the nation itself, as
they were created to preserve the archives of the successive governments.
The French Revolution allowed all citizens to deposit material in
the Archives; the Archives thus contain many different kinds of
documents.
Archives dealing specifically with regional life are kept in the
Archives Départementales,
usually in the préfecture city of the département.
However, certain major cities have preserved their own archives,
which can be consulted in their Archives Municipales. For
Paris, municipal and departmental archives are not differentiated.
The following institutions
have the right to keep their own materials:
Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (Quai d'Orsay)
Ministère de la Justice
Ministère de la Guerre et de la Marine (Archives de l'Armée
de Terre, Archives de l'Armée de l'Air, Archives de la Marine)
L'Assistance Publique (chief administrative unit managing public
hospitals and social welfare) for central administrative files and
historical material. Hospitals also keep their own archives.
Consultation of
Public Archives
General cases: Many documents are available
for consultation after a period of 30 years; administrative documents
not concerning individuals' private lives may be consulted without
delay
Other types of documents are subject to various delays, depending
on their nature:
60 years: Public documents addressing
the private lives of individuals, or concerning the interests of
the French state or of national defense
100 years: Civil registration records
(état civil), judicial documents, recordings, minutes,
and directories of notaries
120 years: Personnel files
150 years: Files giving information
of a medical nature
Exceptions may be made under certain conditions
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