International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences

The International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences is a biennial conference for topics of heraldic and genealogical interest. The Congress convenes scholars and other interested persons from Europe and throughout the world.

The first Congress was held at Barcelona in 1929; at the second Congress, held in 1953, it was decided that future meetings would be held every two years (there being two exceptions).

The 22nd Congress at Ottawa in 1996 was memorable '"for the first time beyond the birthplace of modern scientific studies in genealogy and heraldry"' with HE the Rt Hon. Roméo LeBlanc, Governor General of Canada and his wife Dr Diana Fowler LeBlanc as patrons. The 2006 Congress at St Andrews, had HRH the Princess Royal as its patron, and HE the Rt Hon. Michaëlle Jean was patron of the 2008 Congress at Quebec City.

The main themes of the Congresses have changed greatly over the years, and some disciplines have ceased to form any part of the Congress' study. Abandoned subjects include sphragistics and iconography, which were dealt with at Paris, and vexillology, which was to have been one of the themes at Congresses after Bern. Genetics, which had been a subject of discussion at Stockholm in 1960, did not reappear until the Ottawa Congress of 1996. Chivalric orders were another discarded subject, despite featuring in the Congresses held at Rome/Naples, Madrid, Stockholm and Edinburgh, as well as in a few papers presented at Madrid in 1982.