Genealogy, a French passion

What's happening in genealogy in other cultures? Are there ideas we could pick up from the way things are done elsewhere?

The French Federation of Genealogy, La Fédération Française de Généalogie, which unites more than 150 associations to encourage and help people to conduct genealogical research, had its 2011 Congress in Lille from 2-4 June.

There were presentations in multiple parallel session, a marketplace/exhibition and tours of local sites of interest. All familiar features of conferences many of us attend.

There was a theme, our ancestors and work, the topic of several but by no means all talks.

Some the more interesting sounding titled presentations were in the theme sessions: "The development of midwifery in the 18th century"; "Customs officers and defrauders"; "Trades of the father in France, trades of the son in New France"; and "Prostitution in the Middle Ages". There were also presentations on case studies, how to write a family history and explanations of what you might find in a particular archive.

While I didn't see anything startlingly different about this Congress the theme of work might be an interesting one to explore for a conference, or perhaps a one day workshop.

There's a conference website at: http://www.genealogie-lille-2011.org/ where you will find a copy of an article, in French, from which the title of this item is taken.