The “Tables de succession et absences” or “Tables des décès et des successions” are mandatory alphabetical records of deceased people established after the French Revolution for taxes purposes (the law passed on 22 frimaire an VII (December 12, 1798)).

The “tables de succession et absences” are very useful to find dates of death and obtain our ancestors’ information on inheritance and heirs, especially if their death happened more recently (in that case, their death record might not be available online yet). I was able to find the death date of my paternal great-grandmother using the table de succession.

Example to locate an ancestor on the “Tables des décès et des successions”

For this example, I will use the site of the Archives de Paris to locate my paternal great-grandmother. Her name was Aline Février (1879-1927)

1. Do an online search for “Archives de Paris”
2. Click on their website: https://archives.paris.fr/
3. Click on “Archives numérisées” at the top of the page

• Click on “Archives fiscales“

• Click on “Successions“

• Click on “Tables des décès et des successions (1791-vers 1953)”

• Scroll down to the section called “Méthode de recherche” (you will need to find the “bureau” for your ancestor. This is based on the “arrondissement” (district of Paris) they lived in).
• Click on “le tableau de concordance”. This will open to a new page.

• Note the “bureau” number corresponding to the correct arrondissement
• Go back to your previous page and scroll down to the bottom of the page to fill out the information you have.
• I found my great-grandmother on the register below, and clicked on the images icon.

I found her on page 58 of 149. She died on July 21, 1927, and the address is also listed, as well as her age, profession, and her married name.