France Project: 2020 in review - Revue de l'année 2020

Question

Voir ici pour la version française!

What happened with the France project in 2020? Here's a review of the year.

1) Teams

We started the year by reshuffling the project teams, based on responses to the Members Check-in conducted late in 2019:

• The Profile Improvement Team worked on sources and correcting Data Doctor suggestions. Special thanks to Emma McBeath for her stellar performance in the 2020 Spring Clean-a-Thon, to Rick Peterson for his solid work all year round, and to our star sourcerer Kyla H.
• Check out the topics covered by the Topics Team!
• The Ancestors Clean-Up Team is working on sourcing, improving and cleaning up the connections of deep ancestor profiles. Several lines of ancestors were cleaned up by Roger LeBlanc, while Julien Cassaigne solved many problems through G2G. 

We are looking forward to more volunteers for our teams next year, and hope to see members step up to become Team Leaders. With 2021 being the Year of Accuracy, we expect the Ancestors Cleanup team to be particularly busy. 

2) Building an "Orphelin" Trail 

We’ve been building an "Orphelin Trail" to help guide new members to French archives records! It’s almost ready to start – just a couple of stickers to arrange. This was made possible by Doug McCallum who volunteered to test the Trail by following it himself. Also thanks to Greg Lavoie for reviewing all the pages.

3) Featured Profiles

Here are the French profiles that were featured in the Connection Finder this year:

• Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille system for the blind, was featured in January
• Alexis de Tocqueville, political scientist, featured on 29 July (his birthday)

Starting in August, the Profile of the Week has been featured with 8 other profiles related to the same topic, which has of course increased the presence of French profiles in the weekly Connection Finder. Since then we have seen:

• Louis Blériot: Aviation Pioneers, August 18
• Alexandre Dumas : Thriller Novelists, August 25
• Josephine Baker : Harlem Renaissance, September 1
• Jean Poiret : TV and Film Detectives, September 15
• Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette and Jean-Baptiste Vimeur de Rochambeau : Hamilton! September 28
• Henri Becquerel : Nobel-Prize Winning Scientists, October 20
• Charles de Gaulle: Military Heroes, November 11
• Marguerite Durand : Newspaper Founders, December 8,
• Elisa Deroche: Aviators, December 15
• Yves Montand: Christmas Crooners, December 22
• Léon Zitrone: Game Show Hosts, December 29

4) On the Home Front

France had an eventful and somewhat painful 2020. It was not an election year but we changed our Prime Minister and government in July. We were also hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis with 64,000 deaths to date and serious economic consequences.

Notable deaths

A short and subjective list of deaths in 2020:

• Claire Bretécher, cartoonist (10 February)
• Christophe, singer and songwriter (16 April)
• Michel Piccoli, actor (12 May)
• Jean-Loup Dabadie writer and lyricist (24 May)
• Guy Bedos, stand-up comedian and actor (28 May)
• Gisèle Halimi, lawyer, feminist and essayist (28 July)
• Juliette Gréco, singer (23 September)
• Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, former President of France (2 December)
• Claude Brasseur, actor (22 December)
• Pierre Cardin, fashion designer (29 December)
• Robert Hossein, actor, director and producer (31 December)

Without forgetting Belgian entertainer Annie Cordy who was well known in France. 

War Heroes

2020 saw the death of many heroes of World War II and the last remaining of them are close to 100 years old. 3 of the 4 Compagnons de la Libération still alive in 2019 died this year: Edgard Tupët-Thomé, Pierre Simonet and Daniel Cordier. Other deaths include Dora Werzberg, Frida Wattenberg, Georges Cukierman, Marcel Le Roy, Paulette Sarcey, Cécile Rol-Tanguy, Emile Chaline, Denise Domenach-Lallich, François Amoudruz, Paul Morin, Noëlla Rouget.

Comments

Thanks for the well-composed update, Isabelle! France Project members have been accomplishing great things under your leadership.

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Thank You for the report Isabelle ! 

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Here's the link to the France Project page.

France Project

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I've made a French version of the page - Traduction française du texte: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Projet_France_Ann%C3%A9e_2020

Answer 1

Thanks for the update, Isabelle. My thanks in particular to the suggestions from the France project to the weekly Connection Finder themes!

Comments

Thanks, Abby. I hope there are more to come!

Answer 2

Excellent review Isabelle. Thanks so much for updating us on all the progress last year! Well done, everyone :)

Comments

Gillian said what I was thinking :D

Congratulations y'all!

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Thanks, Gillian and Liz!

Answer 3

Really well done review Isabelle!

And congratulations on launching your Orphelin Trail.

Comments

Thanks, Dave!