Archives départementales de la Marne

Created by the law of 5 brumaire an V (26 October 1796) to preserve in the county town all the archives of the Ancien Régime institutions abolished in 1790, as well as those of the newly created administrations, the County Archives were placed under the authority of the President of the General Council on 1 January 1986. 

With the agreement of the reading room chairperson, readers may make photocopies of certain documents for a fee, provided that their physical state of preservation permits it. The following are excluded from photocopying sealed documents parchments, bound documents and works, documents larger than 30 x 40 cm, photographs and postcards, fragile documents or those likely to be damaged. In addition, readers can take photographs with their own equipment in natural light, without flash. Finally, they also have the possibility of printing the pages consulted on the computers dedicated to the consultation of digitised archives. The photographic workshop of the Departmental Archives can make photographic reproductions for a fee. To make a request, you can download the reproduction request form.  

Two buildings (one in Châlons-en-Champagne and the other in Reims) house a documentary collection of nearly 34 linear kilometres of archives, dating from the 10th century to the present day: charters and parish or civil status registers, administrative files and legal proceedings, notarial minutes, but also private collections, figurative documents (prints, posters, postcards, photographs, etc.), books and local periodicals, and many other documents to be discovered or rediscovered. 

Registration is free of charge, upon presentation of a valid official identity document with photograph. A reader's card is issued and the rules of the reading rooms must be respected. Access to the reading rooms is only allowed to researchers in possession of this card. Registration must be renewed every calendar year. It is not possible to reserve a place or a document. Before entering the reading room, readers are asked to leave their bags, satchels, coats and other personal effects in a locked cloakroom. They are only allowed to keep equipment useful for taking notes: paper, pencil, computer, camera. There is no shuttle service between the Châlons-en-Champagne and Reims centres. The documents can only be consulted in the reading room of their place of conservation. Each reader can consult up to 20 original documents or microfilms per day. Digitised documents can be consulted on computers in the two centres of the Departmental Archives. To be able to consult a document in the reading room, whatever its form, it must be communicable under the laws in force, but also that its physical condition allows it. Microfilmed or digitised documents cannot be consulted in their original form. Readers who wish to consult public archives that are not yet freely communicable may submit a request for exemption to the Departmental Archives. Some private collections are subject to specific conditions of communication or reproduction, set by their owners. The reading rooms are not air-conditioned.