Resources for Research on the French-Canadians
The resources below are offered to members and nonmembers alike as part of our educational mission.
Québec Records (The Drouin Institute)
http://www.genealogiequebec.com/en
The LaFrance collection offers digital images of all Catholic baptisms, marriages, and deaths of the French settlers from their arrival to the year 1849, in the case of baptisms and burials, and to the year 1915, in the case of marriages. The Drouin Institute is now working on reconstituting families and linking with other data within the site. If you are a subscriber to both the PRDH and to this site, you can search for your ancestor on the PRDH site. When you find a record you are looking for you can be transferred to the Québec Records site to immediately download a copy of the church record. Subscription fee.
Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH)
www.prdh-igd.com
Online database containing all the baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish records of the Roman Catholic Church in the province of Québec up to 1800, as well as the census records of 1666, 1667, and 1681. Subscription fee.
Fichier Origine
www.fichierorigine.com
The Fichier Origine is a joint project of the Québec Federation of Genealogical Societies and the French Federation of Genealogy. The service links French-Canadian immigrants to their origins in France. Information may include name of parents, spouse, and children, date of baptism and/or marriage, as well as additional information on siblings and grandparents. Information is in French, but the website is fairly easy to navigate. No charge to search and download the information.
Bibliothéque et Archives Nationales du Québec
https://www.banq.qc.ca
Culture and heritage of Quebec accessible and free to all. Scroll down the home page to "A la carte" and explore holdings in "History of Quebec and heritage" and "Genealogy."
This website was created by Sandra Goodwin and offers a great variety of podcasts to help with French-Canadian genealogical research. The poscasts and "show notes" provide tips for translating French language documents and provide a look at different record groups, repositories, history, geography, culture, and methodology particular to French-Canadian research.
Ancestry.com
www.ancestry.com
The Canadian collection includes census records; birth, marriage, and death records (including the Drouin collection); notarial records, military records; immigration records, and more. A paid subscription which includes the international records is required.
Family Search.org
www.familysearch.org
The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints has digitized all of the Catholic church records of the province of Québec and these scanned images are available in the Collections section at FamilySearch.org. (Note that they are not all indexed.) Free to search and to download images of the documents.
Maison St-Gabriel
This museum and historic site, located in Point-Saint-Charles, Montreal, features the 300-year-old stone building that was purchased by Marguerite Bourgeoys in 1668 to house the King's Wards, also known as King's Daughters. The museum highlights the early days of Montreal and the contributions of Bourgeoys, the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, and other pioneering women of the 17th century. Many of the King's Daughters sent to Montreal stayed at the maison for a period of time to prepare for the rigors of life in the colony before marrying and establishing households of their own.
Acadian & French Canadian Genealogy
A website dedicated to French-Canadian history and genealogical research created by John P. Dulong. Ph.D., historian and author of a number of publications on the subject.
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
Established in 1998 by Lucie LeBlanc Consentino, this website serves as a repository for Acadian and French Canadian researchers. Included are historical documents, parish registers, early American newspapers and suggested research aids.
French-Canadian Genealogical Societies Located in the U.S.
The genealogical societies listed below have a wealth of information on French-Canadian immigrants to the United States and on their ancestors.
Books
King's Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663-1673, by Peter J. Gagné. Gagné has compiled a 2-volume biographical dictionary of close to 800 girls and young women who were sent to the colony between 1663 and 1673 to marry, settle and populate the young colony. Available for a limited time through the American-French Genealogical Society of Rhode Island: http://www.afgs.org. This society has also recently published Peter Gagné's Before the King's Daughters: The Filles a Marier (1634-1662) with permission of the author.
Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle, by Yves Landry (Bibliothèque québécoise, present edition: 2013). Landry's biographical dictionary of the Filles du roi was initially published in 1992. This latest edition is to commemorate the 350th Anniversary of the arrival of the Filles du roi in Quebec and includes additional information on these women. It is in French only. Available at http://www.livres-bq.com
The Good Regiment: The Carignan-Salières Regiment in Canada, 1665-1668, by Jack Verney (McGill-Queens University Press, 1992). Verney presents an account and critical assessment of the significance of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, the only French Infantry regiment sent to Canada in the 17th century. Available at multiple sites.
Other books on French-Canadian History
There are a number of such books that are of interest to family historians seeking to learn more about their ancestors and the period in which they lived. These can be found online at major book publishing companies.
