French BMD records and censuses being added to Ancestry
 

These are mostly available free online on the various mairie websites (or at least the BMD records are), but not searchable by name, so having them on Ancestry should make it easier to find what you're looking for. They had already done the Paris BMD's, but here are some new ones:

Aisne, 1792-1905
Ardennes 1791-1892
Haut Rhin 1793-1892

and also Aisne censuses:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61965/

Yvelines, Doubs, and Belfort have been added.

What years does the French Census cover, Kate?

My great-grandfather was at school in France, but we don't know where. Probably in the north somewhere. I have him on all the England censuses of his life - he would have been in France some time between 1870-1882.

They haven't got all the French censuses available yet. The Aisne censuses on Ancestry go from 1794 to 1911 but the database titles in English and French don't reflect that. Haut Rhin 1866 only so far. Belfort 1836-1911. Doubs only 1906-1911 so far. In the years you want, there were French censuses in 1872, 1876 and 1881. FamilySearch has indexes to some of the 1876 census (link below).

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/France_Census

Thanks!

They have just added Somme BMD's, Yvelines censuses and Alpes-de-Haute-Provences BMD's.