The Seattle Public Library’s French-Canadian Genealogy Collection has expanded over three fold, thanks to the generosity of Carmen Westwater Anderson, who is a local French-Canadian researcher. Many of the titles in her gift are not available anywhere else on the West Coast.
This addition consists of over 180 Repertoires (indexes) to marriages, baptisms and burials from the Catholic Church parish records of Quebec. Mrs. Anderson also donated the very important 47 volume set, Répertoire des actes de baptême, mariage, sépulture et des recensements du Québec ancien (Index of Acts of Baptism, Marriage, Burial and Censuses of Old Quebec). This set is better known by its series name, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH).
In addition to these new print resources, French-Canadian researchers now have on-line access to the Institut Genealogique Drouin’s collection of records through the Ancestry Library Edition subscription database, which is available at all Library branches.
An important tradition in France and in French Canada resulted in women using their maiden names all their life for legal purposes. Therefore marriage records contain the maiden names of all the women listed, not just the bride.
One of the best guidebooks for French-Canadian research is Patricia Kenney Gehy’s French-Canadian Sources: a guide for family historians, published in 2002. The Library has both a circulating and a reference copy of this important resource. Included in this guide is a very important “Timeline for French-Canadian Genealogists” by Marilyn Holt Bourbonais.
Bourbonais notes events in three key years, which are particularly useful to French-Canadian research.
1579- Catholic Church in France began requiring the recording of marriages and deaths.
1621- Parish of Notre Dame de Quebec begins the first Catholic register in Canada.
1867- Dominion of Canada is formed by passage of the British North America Act. The provinces are Quebec (formerly Canada East), Ontario (formerly Canada West), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Another useful resource is The French Canadians 1600-1900: an alphabetized directory of the people, places and vital dates edited by Noel Montgomery Elliot. This work is a name index to people of all ethnic origins, including Acadians and Metis, living in Quebec during this time period and mentioned in primary and secondary sources. A source list is included.
The Seattle Public Library’s Genealogy Collection has several other important secondary works for French-Canadian research including.
Cyprien Tanguay’s seven volume set, Dictionnaire genealogique des familles canadiennes: depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu’a nos jours, presents family groups by generation along with the dates and places of baptism, marriage and burial.
Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu’à nos jours. Complément by J. Arthur Leboeuf contains additions and corrections to Tanguay’s work.
Rene Jette’s “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec was compiled from a variety of primary and secondary sources and also includes additions and corrections to Tanguay’s work.
Inventaire des greffes des notaires du régime français is a 27 volume index to 17th and 18th century records of greffes of notaries of Quebec.
The Seattle Public Library’s Genealogy Staff are available to assist you with your research using these and other resources in the Genealogy Collection located on Level 9 in the History, Travel and Maps Department. ~Darlene H.
Leave a Comment