In May 1871, during the Commune de Paris (March 18, 1871-May 28, 1871), “communards” set multiple buildings on fire, including the Palais des Tuileries, le Palais-Royal, le Palais de Justice, and l’Hôtel de ville. Unfortunately, the Palais de Justice, and l’Hôtel de ville were the buildings keeping copies of all civil records. As a result, many civil registration records were destroyed. Out of the 8 million of records lost, only 1/3 were reconstituted.

Civil records from 1860 to 1871, however, were not destroyed because they were kept in different buildings.

So if you have French ancestors in Paris, it might be more difficult to find their records, but it’s not impossible.

The Archives de Paris website has a page dedicated to the reconstituted files called “État civil reconstitué (XVIe-1859)“.