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This thesis examines the exercise of genealogy in North America in the 19th and 20th centuries through an analysis of the historical and genealogical writings by and about the (real and presumed) descendants of two Walloon brothers, Jesse (c 1580--1624) and Gerard de Forest (1583--1654). It also follows genealogy's slow democratization, from its late 19th century bourgeois users to the explosion of its popularity since 1977. A thorough theoretical base was needed to compensate for the absence of historical studies on the subject. The thesis then follows the construction over the course of 140 years of the de Forest and Forest historical narrative, through the successive publications of various versions of this story, fundamentally one of identity. From research project to research project, these genealogists were influenced by the time period, the social, cultural, and commemorative settings in which they wrote, in New England, New York, Acadia, Quebec, Louisiana, and Ontario. Their research techniques, their processes for acquiring and exchanging knowledge, and the manner in which they wrote their narratives, revealed their aspirations, their self-representations, those of their families and their ancestors, as well as their gender, class, and ethnicity. Their ancestor biographies showed a desire to make public the true history of their ancestors, for their family's glory, whether or not their ancestry was real or invented. In the hope of unifying the family, boaster the popularity of a famous ancestor or of an interest group, these genealogists constructed histories based on oral traditions, primary sources, and in response to the works of their predecessors. Through the years, the material conditions of genealogical research and publication changed greatly, particularly with the advent of computing, but the most important influences on genealogy writing have been the feminisation of genealogists, the multiplication of descendants willing to write, and the chao

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