Corpse hunters
In other words, Mormons can be considered genealogical benefactors, and for many professional archive researchers on both sides of the Atlantic, developing a family tree on commission has long become a source of income. Searching for relatives can become a very profitable occupation, given that after the death of relatives, an inheritance most often remains. Often a genealogy specialist is something between a treasure hunter and a notary, plus the temperament of a detective and the diligence of a historian. As soon as a lonely person dies, the Pinkertons of genealogy are right there. And if, moreover, the deceased did not leave a will or the notary is unable to identify the heirs, a whole commotion begins.
So, in France, the law allows even a relative in the sixth degree to claim inheritance rights. In other words, with a fortunate set of circumstances, you can get your hands on the capital of the departed grandchildren of your great-aunts or great-uncles, if these distant relatives have no direct heirs. Of course, a considerable part of the inheritance goes to the state in the form of tax. But if the person was rich, a decent amount of capital still remains, and from 10 to 50% of it can go to the pedigree hunter who first sniffed out an interesting deal and began searching for heirs. That is why genealogy specialists try to 'feed' funeral homes. 'Rooks' – as their workers are called in France – inevitably learn first about the death of potential clients. So the genealogical archivists pay their people in funeral homes. The scale of this bribery is such that the phenomenon can no longer be ignored.
"Our confederation possesses neither police powers nor any control capabilities that would allow us to prohibit our members from receiving money for the various services they provide," Nelly Chevalier-Rossignol, general delegate of the Confederation of Funeral Services Professionals, was forced to state. "Yes, by virtue of our duties we are obliged to maintain confidentiality. But at the same time, no legislative act prohibits the cooperation of our specialists with genealogy specialists."
And what about the moral code of the profession? However, this lofty concept becomes inappropriate when genealogy turns from a hobby into a business. Professionals in America charge from $20 to $75 per hour for genealogical services. Given the current high euro exchange rate against the dollar, similar rates in France are sometimes even higher – up to 100 euros per hour of consultation.
Addresses of 'genealogical offices' can be easily found both on newspaper advertising pages and on the Internet. For example, on one specialized website there is information that a special genealogy seminar for beginners is held on weekends at the Bonneveau Castle in Brittany. If you decide to stay for the weekend at the chateau, you have to pay 264.6 euros for two days. There is no shortage of people wishing to learn how to find great-grandfathers – the genealogy business is thriving.
In France, mastering this craft is not so difficult, given the abundance of various official papers in the country that gave humanity the word 'bureaucracy'. First, there is the Livret de famille – the so-called family book, without which it is impossible to imagine any French household. This little dense booklet was introduced into circulation in 1877, and since then it has been passed down in each family from generation to generation, always inherited by the eldest of the offspring. And secondly, there are many other, more ancient documents: church parish registers, municipal records, cantonal registers...
In our country, given the turbulent history of the last century, the situation with such papers is more complicated. However, as my archivist friend asserts, despite revolutions and uprisings, on the archival front everything is in order with us. In some places, church parish registers dating back to 1703 are preserved.
So if you are fired up with the idea of finding a great-great-grandfather pirate or a great-grandmother – an imperial maid of honor – in your family, not all is lost. But keep in mind, if you descend your family tree into the depths of centuries, you may well discover that all people have a common ancestor. At least, that is what the French scientist Bernard Derrida claims.
According to the scenario he proposes, it is enough to go back just 76 generations to find the common ancestor of humanity, scientifically called Most Recent Common Ancestor – the earliest common ancestor. Given that one generation is approximately thirty years, it turns out that biological Adam – let us call our super-ancestor that – lived about 2,300 years ago. Does it all look too simplified? Most likely. But what an advertisement for genealogy!