1. What is established [Contents]
187 affected pages
The court file lists 187 missing or torn pages in several civil-registration and notarial registers held by the Departmental Archives.
A cut microfilm
The report of 26 August 2011 concerns, in particular, microfilm 5 MI 6/2. The file records physical cuts affecting this medium.
The exact date of the damage
August 2011 is the date of discovery, not a proven date on which the damage occurred. The judgment specifically records this chronological uncertainty.
The essential distinction: the physical damage is established. The precise date on which each page was torn out and the attribution of all the damage, however, have not been judicially established.
2. Documentary chronology [Contents]
Copies of several records concerning the Cheynet family are preserved before the damage is discovered. They will later make it possible to compare earlier images with the incomplete registers.
A request to consult microfilm 5 MI 6/2 prompts the damage report. Further checks are then undertaken.
Torn pages are formally identified in register 2 E 18623. The ensuing inspection campaign produces a total of 187 missing or torn pages.
The criminal division of the Privas Tribunal de grande instance delivers its judgment. The Ardèche General Council had joined the proceedings as a civil party.
Several records that had previously been unavailable reappear in the Departmental Archives’ online viewer.
3. Two gaps that remain visible [Contents]
Death of Marianne Cheynet, 1875
The image covering the death recorded on 21 January 1875 shows a physical gap. The affected page remains directly accessible in the official viewer.
1898 death register
The index identifies record no. 21 as the death record of Jean André Cheynet. In the register, the numbering jumps from record no. 19 to record no. 22: records 20 and 21 are missing.
Estate declaration and will
The estate declaration and will provide an independent administrative source documenting the death despite the absence of record no. 21.
4. Records unavailable and later restored online [Contents]
The absence of a record from the former online viewer is not, by itself, proof that an original was physically destroyed. Three records preserved before 2011 were restored online on 25 September 2018.
| Record | Documented situation | Current access |
|---|---|---|
| Birth of Jean André Cheynet 22 July 1814 | A copy had been preserved by 2010; the record subsequently became unavailable in the former viewer. | View the record |
| Marriage of Jean André Cheynet 9 January 1838 | The 1838 marriages had been reported missing; an earlier copy had been preserved. | View the record |
| Death of Antoine Cheynet 1 March 1836 | The first entries in the register had been reported missing; an earlier copy existed. | View the record |
Three situations must therefore be distinguished: a page that has been physically torn out, a digital image that is temporarily unavailable, and a record that is later restored online. Restoration by itself does not identify the reproduction used.
5. What the 2016 judgment says [Contents]
The judgment delivered by the criminal division of the Privas Tribunal de grande instance on 21 January 2016 is the principal judicial document concerning the damage to the departmental holdings.
The physical reality of the damage is not rejected. The court acquitted because doubt remained as to the exact period during which the damage had been caused and, consequently, whether it was time-barred.
The scope of this decision must be stated precisely: it confirms the existence of numerous torn or cut pages, but does not make it possible to attribute all the damage with certainty or to date each instance individually.
Two subsequent decisions, delivered in Dijon on 3 December 2018 and in Paris on 2 June 2021, also find certain falsifications in separate cases; the Paris decision refers in particular to civil-status records. This aspect is distinct from the specific issue of the 187 pages held by the Departmental Archives.
6. A separate case: the 1907 register [Contents]
This case must not be confused with the 187 pages at the Departmental Archives. It concerns the copies held by Rochemaure Town Hall and by the court registry.
On 4 February 1991, the Town Hall compiled a list of 22 death records drawn up in 1907. An annotation beside the first states that it is “the only one remaining in our possession”: 21 municipal records were therefore missing.
On 12 March 1991, the public prosecutor replied under reference 26/91-E02. He confirmed that records nos. 10 and 11 were missing from the court registry’s volume and wrote that the records in this volume “appear to have been lacerated.”
7. Sources and other holdings [Contents]
- Privas Tribunal de grande instance, criminal division, judgment of 21 January 2016.
- Ardèche Departmental Archives, microfilm 5 MI 6/2 and register 2 E 18623.
- Ardèche Departmental Archives, digital images of the Rochemaure registers linked in the preceding sections.
- Rochemaure Town Hall, “État civil 1907 (décès) — actes manquants,” 4 February 1991.
- Public prosecutor’s office at the Privas Tribunal de grande instance, letter no. 26/91-E02, 12 March 1991.
- Holdings 71 J 42: work and photographs concerning Notre-Dame-des-Anges, 1965–1976.
- Ardèche Departmental Archives, file 2138 W 17: letters dated 20 January, 12 February and 19 February 1987.
The final two holdings principally concern the history of the Rochemaure chapel. They supplement the inventory of sources from Ardèche but do not constitute additional evidence relating to the 187 torn pages.