The Congress brings together scholars and other interested persons from all the nations of Europe and from many countries around the world.
A memorable 22nd Congress held at Ottawa in 1996 "for the first time beyond the birthplace of modern scientific studies in genealogy and heraldry"[1] had the Rt Hon.
Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada as its patron.
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.