The Heritage Code plans that the archival administration may authorise the consultation of public records before the expiry of the time limits laid down in Article L 213-2 of the Heritage Code.  

• For all requests for a dispensation concerning non freely communicable public records, please fill in the form below: once logged in to your account, fill in the request for a dispensation concerning non freely communicable public records’ form. 

• All requests are nominative and individual. 
   

• After being informed by the SHD, dispensation requests are sent to the Department of the Armed Forces and the General Secretary of National Defense for decision. After  notice from the services, requests concerning identification states as well as services and gendarmerie official records are submitted to the decision of the Director of the SHD. 

• The time limit for a response for a consultation by dispensation request cannot exceed 2 months as from the registration of the request (art. L 231-3 of the Heritage Code). The majority of the requests submitted to the SHD are processed within one or two months: it is advised to take hold of this matter in advance and not to show up to the reading room without a response. 

• In case of refusal, and in application of the clauses of the law n°2000-321 of the 12th of April 2000 relative to the rights of citizens in their relations with administrations, it is possible to submit for an opinion, within two months, the commission for access to administrative documents (CAAD).

• ​​​​​​​It is mandatory to register as a reader in order to book an assessment in the reading room and to consult archival documents and libraries in the different rooms of the SHD. In order to be registered as a reader, you must create your personal account. Once this is done, log in to your account by clicking on the tab My account, on the top right hand side of the homepage. Then, insert your username and your password.
• You may then create your reader number directly on the website by filling in this form : Request reader’s registration.

• ​​​​​​​Once you are logged in to your account and registered as a reader, you will be able to book an assessment in the reading room by filling in the following form : Requesting an assessment reservation in the reading room. On this form, you will notify the date you have chosen to consult your documents. For the Vincennes site: the majority of documents must be reserved within 5 working days.
• A notification will be sent to you by email as an acknowledgment of receipt. It is by no means the confirmation of the dates you have chosen for your session nor the availability of the documents. Please wait for the confirmation which will be addressed to you by the SHD in your personal mailbox within 5 working days. This same confirmation also notifies you of the processing of your booking request. Please note: it is not possible to book by phone. 
• For the archival documents consulted by dispensation, please indicate the reference number and the decision of agreement’s date in the document reservation form. The decision of agreement must be shown in the reading room, during the withdrawal of the documents at the desk. 

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• Once you have received confirmation by email, you may come and consult your documents.
• For the archival documents, a quota of 5 articles by reader and by session is settled. 
• For the library documents, a quota of 12 documents by reader and by session is settled.
• Also find all the practical information concerning the Louis XIV’s reading room. 

The only document which allows to trace a private or a non -commissioned officer’s journey during the First World War and the Second World War is the number sheet. 

In most cases, this number sheet is to be looked for at the departemental archive centre at the place of registration of the person in question if he was born before 1921. For privates and non -commissioned officers born after 1921, you may find the number sheet at the SHD -CAPM (Pau). 

The SHD does not possess any documents proving an individual’s naturalisation. Those decrees are stored at the National Archive centre : https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/web/guest/dossiers-de-naturalisation

It should be noted that there is no legislative provision to grant French nationality to veterans solely on the basis of that status. The same applies to their spouses and descendants. The fact that one of your relatives in the ascending line served or fought in the French army therefore does not give rise to any special right to French nationality.

Folders concerning the Resistance are stored at the SHD of Vincennes, listed at the following ratings: GR 16 P and GR 28 P.

The individual folder’s inventory of the Resistance as well as the networks are open for consultation on the SHD’s website, in the search by thematics guidebook.

You may also do a research on the database of the website of Memory of men. 

You will receive the rating’s reference of the folder (GR 16 P xxx or GR 28 P xxx) and on the SHD’s website, from your personal space, you will be able to make a request for the reservation of a rating as well as a session, on the tab “My personal space”. 

The Medical and Hospital Archive Service of Arms (MHASA/ SAMHA in French), at Limoges, stores today (2013) personal folders and registers of the patients admitted in the military hospitals and the military rooms of civil hospitals. 

SAMHA.
Département Exploitation
23 rue de Châteauroux
BP 21105
87052 LIMOGES Cedex 2
05 55 12 12 46
exploitation.samha@orange.fr ou samha@orange.fr 

For more information: https://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/guides-aide/votre-ancetre-ete-blesse-ou-malade-en-service

Algeria : the archives concerning the French (of origin or naturalised) subject to conscription are given by the SHD-Pau to the National Archives of Overseas Territories (ANOM) in Aix-en-Provence: https://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/ usually 90 years after the birth of the persons in question. The archives concerning the non -French indigenous are permanently stored at the SHD -CAPM (Pau). Services for harkis and other categories of substitute during the Algerian War are sought at the Central Returnees Service (SCR) in Agen :

68 Bd Sylvain Dumon
47000 AGEN.
0553692100

Morocco and Tunisia : the archives of French conscripts are kept by the SHD-CAPM (Pau) at the Diplomatic Archive Centre of Nantes (CADN), 90 years after the date of birth of the persons concerned : https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/archives-diplomatiques/informations-pratiques/site-de-nantes/
For the Moroccan and Tunisian natives and other non -naturalised residents, search at the SHD -CAPM (Pau).

For more information :  https://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/guides-aide/votre-ancetre-vu-du-pays-grace-larmee

If your request concerns another topic, please make sure you have checked our Research support guidebooks and the Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q).

    • In order for you to receive access and permission, you are asked to fill in a consultation request form, by notifying especially the cause of your request and your coordinates. According to their state of conservation, the library may decline the request for consultation of several documents seen as fragile. In order to do so, log in to your personal space and then fill in the following form : Request for reviewing library books subject to permission. 

    • After the collection responsible’s approval, you will receive on your personal space a date and a schedule for the consultation. The number of heritage documents that can be consulted per session is determined at the time of the appointment booking.

• The documents will be given to you by the collection responsible, who will also give you several recommendations concerning the handling, will provide you with a reading medium to relieve bindings and in some cases will give you gloves to avoid fingerprints on the sheets.

•  All documents are excluded from photocopying for reasons of preservation. When the state of the documents allows it, the reader is authorised to take pictures himself with a digital camera without flash and without a tripod, respecting the recommendations of consultation and after having committed to limit himself to a private use of the pictures taken. Full reproduction of a volume is prohibited.

Old, precious, rare, fragile and reservation documents are available upon authorization.
Some documents from the old collection of the Vincennes library (manuscripts, printed works from the Reserve, grand formats...) are available on request and communicated in the Louis XIV reading room only by appointment. In order for you to receive access and permission, you are asked to fill in a consultation request form, by notifying especially the cause of your request and your coordinates. According to their state of conservation, the library may decline the request for consultation of several documents seen as too delicate. After the collection responsible’s approval, you will receive on your personal space a date and a schedule for the consultation. The number of heritage documents that can be consulted per session is determined at the time of the appointment booking.
 

• If you have booked a rating in a reading room but wish to cancel this session, log in to your account by clicking on the tab on the top right hand side in order to fill in the following form : Cancelling my session.
• You will arrive on a form which will allow you to cancel your session in one of the SHD’s reading rooms. This form is to be used if you are unable to attend your session on the previously desired date. The documents which were booked are therefore set back to  the storeroom and a time limit of approximately 3 weeks is then settled in order to book them once more. 

• If you wish to postpone your session to a later date, log in to your personal space from the homepage, then fill in the following form : Postponing my session.
• You will then have access to a form which will allow you to postpone your session in one of the SHD’s reading rooms. All requests for a postponement must not exceed 8 consecutive working days. If you are unable to attend your session within 8 days, the documents will not be put in reserve and will be placed in the storage room. You will receive a reply from the SHD in your personal mailbox. 

Inside the reading rooms, freely communicable documents may be photographed by the readers with their cameras (for more information, please go to the rules of the reading rooms).
For any online requests concerning the duplication of a document, the following actions can be done: 
    • Paper photocopy, A4 or A3 format
    • Digital view (with CD- ROM)
 

A duplication request must absolutely be attached with the following indications : 

    • In the case of a career folder, a pension or the one of an accreditation of the services of the Resistance’s request : 
    • Folder’s rating
    • Name and first name of the individual

    • In other cases : 
    • Ratings of the cardboard, the folder, the register or of the piece of work in which the document is stored. 
    • Precise identification of the document (ex: technical notice of the management of transports in Algeria, June 5th 1961) 

    • Chosen duplication support: photocopy or digitization (the different resolutions appear on the price order). Note: career folders, a pension or the ones of an accreditation of the services of the Resistance’s request are reproduced only by photocopy (unless there is a duly justified need).
    • The use to be made of the reproduced document is desirable :
    • Private distribution
    • Public distribution for non commercial purposes (ex: blog)
    • Public distribution for commercial purposes (ex: publication, exhibition)

Consult the rules of reutilization for the reproduced documents from the SHD’s collections.

•  Either by postal mail, to the address of the site which stores the wanted document.
•  Either at the site, to the reception desk in the reading room.
•  Either by filling in a form available on the SHD’s website.

• Out- of - format documents
• Non freely communicable documents which the duplication was refused. 
• Damaged papers
• Documentary sets equipped with a rigid coverage which will not sustain to be flattened nor turned over (registers, books, booklets, thick brochures, etc).
• Parchments 
• Sealed papers
• Tracings and coats ( creasable and tearable base)

Only the main papers are reproduced :

• In the case of the officers’ individual folders and accreditation of the services of the Resistance’s request.
• Furthermore, due to a high demand, and in order to satisfy as many users as possible within a reasonable time-frame, each request may not exceed more than 5 folders.

Concerning duplication requests related to other documents :

• It is mandatory to identify with precision the document(s) you wish to duplicate, by indicating their nature and date ( ex: technical notice of the management of transports in Algeria, June 5th 1961) 
•  Warning : the SHD is not in a position to substitute for users to identify for them the documents in the books, folders or cardboards, which they are storing. 

Requests related to an excessive quantity of documents cannot be treated :

• For information only, an entire archive cardboard (ex. : GR 34 N 183, GR 12 P 82, MV TTY 392, AI 1 A 67, GR 1 H 2343, GR 7 U 1441, etc.) represents 1000 to 2000 pages of volume. 

The troop control records kept in the sub- series GR 1 YC to GR 48 YC are not duplicated for their state of conservation :

• Please note that the archives preserved in the sub- series GR 1 Yc to GR 17 Yc as well as GR 20 Yc and 21 Yc may be consulted (and photocopied) online on the Memory of men’s website: https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/article.php?larub=17&titre=parcours-individuels

The sub- series of archives which may be consulted (and photocopied) on the Memory of men’s website may not be the object of a duplication request :

•     https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/

Due to a high demand of duplication related especially to personal folders (officers, accreditation of the services of the Resistance, etc.), the time limit of treatment may reach 12 weeks. 

Digitization (extract of the appendix of the decree of June 28th 2006 published during the JO on the 22nd of August)

Photocopies (extrait des annexes de l’arrêté du 28 juin 2006 publié au JO le 22 août 2006)

    • If you wish to consult any private archives under authorisation, you must fill in a form. In order to do so, log in to your personal account.
    • Then, notify the form dedicated to the request for the consultation of private archives under authorisation. Warning, this form does not enable you to book a session in a reading room, neither does it allow you to request a duplication. Please go to the forms dedicated to these matters: Request a reservation and Request a duplication.

   • After being informed by the SHD, if applicable, authorisation requests are transmitted to the donors or to the applicants. The claimants are notified of the decision by postal mail or via their personal account. It is not possible to book any documents from private collections submitted to this agreement before receiving this decision. Warning, military career folders or accreditation of the services of the Resistance’s request (sub- serie GR 16 P) are not private archives. 
    • All incomplete or poorly filled forms will be refused and returned to the complainant. 

Click on the "MY ACCOUNT" tab at the top right of the window. Then choose "REGISTER" from the drop-down menu.

You can now fill in the account creation form with your contact information and email address, and choose a password. If you have forgotten your password, it is possible to change it by filling out the password reset form.

Once you have created your personal space, you can log in to your personal account and register as a Defense Historical Service reader in order to complete all of your procedures online.