The records of Paris civil registration consisted of two original copies: the first is kept in the town hall, the second sent to the Registry of the Court House to guard against a possible disappearance. But that will not preserve the Parisian civil status. In May 1871, during the Commune, fires ravage the City Hall and the Palace of Justice of Paris. All registers of civil status drawn up before 1859 in the twelve former departments of Paris then go up in smoke. In the face of the disaster, a commission of reconstitution of the civil status is held between 1872 and 1897. These 2+ million acts are the results of the commission’s work.