La généalogie constitue un élément du patrimoine culturel immatériel mondial. Elle constitue un moyen de preuve juridique des filiations familiales. Sa nature et sa fonction se sont transformées en Europe et plus spécifiquement en France depuis la Révolution française. Après avoir occupé une place centrale du droit privé, la généalogie finalement coupée du droit de succession politique des souverains, n'a pu conserver une place éminente qu'en raison de la captation publique universelle de la définition filiative des personnes physiques enregistrées par l'état-civil, captation imposée par l'idéologie révolutionnaire ; et par sa position historique d'auxiliaire du droit notarial garant d'une généalogie des biens immeubles et conséquemment des personnes. Cependant, cette passion reliant l'histoire au droit est confrontée à la perte de repères sociaux des personnes. La généalogie instrument inconditionnel du droit notarial reliant l'homme à son histoire et à son patrimoine, permet la reconnaissance, le maintien et la redécouverte de repères fondamentaux. La reconnaissance d'un statut officiel du métier de généalogiste constitue un préalable à un retour possible de cet art au centre du droit privé en France, en Europe et dans le Monde. / Genealogy ispart of the immaterial human heritage. It is legal proof of filiation. Its nature and function have evolved in Europe and more specifically in France since the French Revolution. After being a key feature of private law, genealogy was eventually cut off from the political succession law among sovereigns and has hold an eminent position only because of the universal public registration of the filiation of individuals in civil registers. Such registration was imposed by revolutionary ideology and its historically utilitarian status in notarial law that allowed the records of immovable property and, as a consequence of people. However, such an interest in making connections between history and law comes up against the loss of social landmarks. Genealogy, which is compulsorily part of notarial law, links up the individuals to their history and property. It allows the recognition, the keeping and the rediscovery of fundamental landmarks. Official recognition of genealogists is a precondition for a possible return of this art in the realm of private law in France, in Europe and around the world.

The purpose of this study is to understand what future role archive institutions have for genealogists as a result of genetic ancestry testing. To answer the purpose of this study, three additional research questions have been given. The research questions are as follows (1) what type of information genealogists search for when using genetic ancestry testing (2) what kind of information genealogists are able to retrieve by performing a genetic ancestry test (3) how the archive institutions perceive genealogists who perform genetic ancestry testing. Three different methods have been used to retrieve relevant source material. The methods used are netnography, introspective action research and interviews. The source material has been retrieved by analysing three different discussion forums, interviewing representatives of archive institutions as well as performing genetic ancestry testing ourselves. The theories used in the analyses is based on the theoretical framework established by Martin Saar that involves three dimensions of genealogy, and a secondary framework based on Lisa M. Givens and Donald O. Case’s particular understanding of information behaviour, as well as information seeking. The results of the study have enabled us to conclude three different future scenarios on how the archive institution’s role for genealogists will change. The first conclusion is that the DNA-services will slowly phase out the primary role archives play for the genealogists today. Instead, the commercial DNA-services will become the primary source of information. The second conclusion is that the definition of “value” in regard to the material generated by a genealogist will change, and their research will in the future be seen as valuable by the archive institutions. The third and final conclusion is that the archive institutions will begin to facilitate information and knowledge regarding different aspects of genetic ancestry testing, due to demand of archival users. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Archival Science.