Pierre-Valéry Archassal

About Pierre-Valéry Archassal

After studying at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, Pierre-Valéry Archassal chose to focus on social history, new technologies, and communication. As an auditor of Professor Jacques Dupâquier’s seminars at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, he became familiar with historical demography, which complements his personal work that began at the age of 14.

Since 1981, Pierre-Valéry Archassal has been regularly consulted by national radio and television channels (France Inter, RTL, Europe 1, RMC Info, TF1, France 2, France 3, LCI, Direct 8,…) on general genealogical questions or more specific topics such as the transmission of surnames or the contribution of the Internet to family research.

In the fall of 2008, he presented on the channel Arte, “Sur les traces du passé” and, since November 2009, has collaborated on France 2 with “Retour aux sources,” the French adaptation of the successful Anglo-Saxon show “Who do you think you are?”.

Pierre-Valéry Archassal joined “Généalogie-magazine” at the age of 19, where he traced each month the “True Story of the French.” He was then called to the editorial team of the “Revue française de généalogie et d’histoire des familles” to design the first articles dedicated to “Internet & Genealogy” in 1998. This section has now become a 10-page supplement titled “Cybergénéalogie,” for which he still holds responsibility.

Over the past twenty years, he has also been a guest of newspapers such as Le Monde, Libération, Le Figaro Magazine, Marianne, and many other weekly publications. In 2000, Pierre-Valéry Archassal published the first book dedicated to genealogical research on the Internet. He is also the author of several public guides and, in 2006, a groundbreaking work on genealogical biography (“Genealogy, a Modern Passion” – ourin Éditeur). In this book, he describes how individual history is more extraordinary than official history and why this modern passion has become one of the favorite pastimes of the French.

In 2003, Pierre-Valéry Archassal chaired the scientific committee of the XVII National Congress of Genealogy in Limoges, where he presented, along with Joël Surcouf, director of the Departmental Archives of Mayenne, the first demonstration of online consultation of digitized archives.

Elected as a full member of the International Academy of Genealogy in 2004, a founding member of the European Federation of Genealogy, and director of the European Observatory of Genealogy, he regularly gives lectures on topics close to his heart, particularly the vices and virtues of new technologies in genealogy or the initiation to research for beginners.

}