Increasingly, Departmental Archives Websites Are Inaccesable Outside of France

 

Ah, Dear Readers, this is sad news indeed, but predictable. We have here yet another example of the lower orders destroying something fine. There are those who destroy the earth and its resources for their own profit, leaving the rest of us unable to breathe. In the same way, there are those bottom dwellers, once reigned in by their obscurity and now exulting in the light of day granted them by the Internet, who have so misused the various tools and capacities of the World Wide Web, that many websites are taking action to defend themselves against incessant hacking, amongst them the websites of some of the Departmental Archives of France. 

A few years ago, we did write about this, but the pace of blocking access to those outside of France has quickened considerably. Now, you may find that you can access the website but not the digitized records such as parish and civil registrations, census returns, land and succession records, etc.. On many of the websites, you may encounter this message:

"Pour intensifier la sécurité, le Département a décidé de bloquer l’accès hors de France aux pages des “archives en ligne” des Archives départementales."

[To improve our security, the Department has decided to block access to the pages "archives online" from outside France.]

Sadly, this means that those of you outside of France must access the information through the costly commercial genealogy websites that have made deals with some but, it is quite important to note, not all of the Departmental Archives websites. (Yes, those of us who are cynical could think that the blocking is not, in truth, due to hacker harassment but to the money the Departmental Archives can earn by renting access through Filae or Geneanet. By forcing foreign users to use a commercial platform, the archives can increase their earnings, for they surely receive a usage-based royalty.) 

Alternatively, you can try FamilySearch online or, if you live near one, at one of their libraries.

We will begin noting in the panel to the left, which has links to the websites of the Departmental Archives, those which block access to users outside of France. We can learn of this only from you, Dear Readers. As we are in France, we never see the message, so, please do let us know which websites have blocked you. (Access will never be blocked within France, for the law requires that all archives be open to all citizens.)

A most unfortunate development and, sadly, on the rise.

©2024 Anne Morddel

French Genealogy