Before you begin your search for a civil record in France, you will need some basic information – the name of the person, the place where the event took place (town/village), and the date of the event. In large cities, such as Paris or Lyon, you will also need to know the Arrondissement (district) where the event took place. If you are not certain of the year of the event, you will have to conduct a search in the tables décennales (ten-year indexes). These indexes usually index births, marriage, and deaths separately, and are alphabetical by surname. From these indexes you can obtain the given name(s), document number, and date of the civil register entry. for more click here