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This case study deals with the diary written by a town counsellor living in eighteenth-century Lyons. It contains important evidence describing various family events such as wet-nursing, the sending of sons, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law to boarding schools, the arrival of relatives, travels and, of course, death. This essay proposes a very simple method for analysing the changes in family structures as determined by the strategy put forth by the head of the family, as well as the varying forms adopted by the group during a complete cycle lasting 59 years. It also examines the contrast between childhood and adult life course of the five sons according to their respective ranks within the family.