Archives of Origins. Traces and Narrative (Dis) Continuities in the Archives of France’s Child Welfare System (France, 1995–2015)

Abstract

Framed on an investigation in the French Childhood social welfare services, this article analyses the “traces” kept within the files of the children born “in the secret” and/or abandoned. The treatment of the administrative documents, letters, pictures or things that have been kept informs the birth relationships conceptions in adoptive situations, enlightening a new side of contemporary multiparenthood.