Finisterre Genealogy Centre, a reference as far as New Zealand! – Chateaulain

The Genealogical Center Finistère (CGF) organized its General Assembly in Juvinat, in Châtillon, on Saturday March 25, 2023. How is the assembly going?

Michel Doros, Vice-President of the CGF: “The Finistère Genealogical Center has about 5,500 members divided into three branches (Brest, Quimper, Morliques) in 2023, compared to 50,000 nationally. Some are Bretonians living in Latin America, California, and even New Zealand … Our aim is to provide, among other things, the tools to create your family tree. Registering with us gives access to our database (12 million reads over forty years). The fruit of the work of volunteers who collect civil records, guardianship decisions and preserved professional cards In the town hall or in the media library. As such, with 277 municipalities, we will not have enough volunteers. Members can also access national data from Geneabank (110 million statements) and we also offer them a quarterly review, Le Lien. “

Volunteers collect civil status records, guardianship decrees, business cards … As such, with 277 municipalities, we will never have enough volunteers.

Do you have more tools for building a family tree?

“To look for your ancestors here is to know where they come from. A couple formed during the 2000 French Revolution may have offspring. It is therefore necessary to rely on software to create your tree (Généatique or Heredis). Once we have the skeleton (names, first names, dates birth), then it is a matter of putting the flesh in. This is where we call upon anthropology (the study of names), or toponymy (place names), or heraldry (blazons) or palaeography (ancient writings), to bring to life: in short , find out where this person lives, his profession … There is no shortage of places to search: archives, libraries, the Department of Defense History, in Brest, the site “ men’s memory » If the ancestor was a soldier… that is how we know that rural Finistère was made up of clog makers, millers and farmers.

There is a problem of personal data protection. How does CGF deal with this?

With 12 million reads, I can assure you that the National Commission on Computing and Freedoms (CNIL) stay tuned. For the dead, there is a law for the protection of the living that obliges us to insure the actions of living persons. So the program blurs out some of the names. Yes, and as a result, this data can be the subject of covetousness among competing companies. On our side, everything is closed. Our database, which is managed with the support of a team of five to six volunteer computer scientists, presents no risk at present. But of course you have to be vigilant on the internet.

communication

This is amazing. 02 98 44 00 64 (Brest). Website : cgf. bzh