French Canadian
Genealogy
Etienne Truteau/Trudoeau
1641 – 1712
Departed La Rochelle July 2, 1659
Arrived Quebec City, September 7, 1659
So you have French Ancestors
in your family Tree?
Do you know Where they were born
France or New France?
What is New France?
Mainly what is now Quebec,
Michigan, Missouri, Illinois then
down too Louisiana
Where do you start
• As you would with any other research start with what you know
or can get from family.
• Use the available websites that would have Family Trees
Websites to start with in English
or easy to read French Family Trees
Remember! Some of these are records
Other Quebec Websites (Could
submitted by other researchers and may Be Paid sites)
not be correct • ($)Ancestry.com
• Quebecgenweb.org
• Familysearch.org
• ($)Geneanet.org
• Rootsweb.com
• Nosorigines.qc.ca
• Google.com
• ($)BMS2000.org
• Automatedgenealogy.com
• ($)PRHD Programme de
recherche en démographie
historique.(Research
Program in Historical
Demography
Is this what you are thinking?
There’s no way I can do this - I can not Read French
.
Ne peut
faire
STOP – I CAN’T DO!
OUI, JE PEUX
There are ways!
Most researchers would call you lucky
There are lots of records available to help you
thanks to three earlier Genealogist
1. Rev Cyprien Tanguay
2. Rene Jette
3. Joseph Drouin
Rev Cyprien Tangauy (1819-1902)
• 1867 he got his first interest in genealogy
• Dedicated his life researching the archives of
Quebec and France
• Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes
• Covers years 1700 to 1760
• Online at
http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/dicoGenealogie/
• Glendale Stake FHC has these on Microfiche
Example of a entry
from Tanguay’s Book
Abbreviations
b is Baptism
n is for Naissance (Birth)
m is for Marriage
s is for sepulture (Burial)
Rene Jette (1944-2003)
• Introduced to genealogy from a young age
• Worked on the PRHD with the University of Montreal
• Genealogical Dictionary of Families of Quebec first major
work
• it’s a collection of families in Quebec to 1730 published in 1983
• Glendale Stake FHC has this on Microfiche
Example of a entry from
Jette’s Book
Abbreviations
b is for Baptism
n is for Naissance (Birth)
m is for Marriage
s is for sepulture (Burial)
Census
• Most French Canadians were in Quebec there Census’ started 1666, 1667,
1681,1811,1825,1830,1831, 1832-35, 1842,1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901
• Women Kept their Maiden Names
• Just like US Census you need to know where they lived and a little about the
family.
• Check carefully a lot of Men and Women had the same names
Sample of 1666 Montreal Census
Gilbert Barbier 40 Charpentier, habitant
Catherine de Lagneau (de Lavau) 45 Epouse
Adrienne Barbier 17 Fille
Barbe Barbier 12 Fille
Gabriel Barbier 9 Fils
Nicolas Barbier 7 Fils
Charles Barbier 5 Fils
Marie Barbier 2 Fille
Nicolas Chartran 22 Domestique, engage
Joseph Drouin (1875-1937)
• Passionate about Genealogy
• Collected and Researched Quebec Vital records
• Founder of Les Genealogies Drouin renamed to Institut Genealogique
Drouin in 1913
• Sold over 1500 family genealogies through his institution
Gabriel Drouin (1913-1980)
•
•
Took over after his father passed away
Got father’s records microfilmed into 6 different books
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Quebec Church and Vital Records 1621-1967
Ontario French Catholic Church Records 1747-1967
Acadia French Catholic Church Records 1670-1946
French US Catholic Records 1695-1954
Quebec Notarial Records 1647-1942
Miscellaneous French Records 1651-1941
• 2007 University of Montreal Negotiated with Ancestry.ca to make records
available Ancestry indexed some of the records
• Now are available on Ancestry.ca and the Ancestry.com with a world subscription
• Familysearch has some of these images not index as much as Ancestry
Hits to read a French Parish record
• Record Books are by Parish and then Baptism Date
• Birth Records -- Child’s name, baptism date, birth info, parents
and godparents
• Death Records – Name, burial date, death info, parents or spouse
name
• Marriage – Marriage date, Bride and Groom name, parents name,
or previous spouse
• For location I like to use Ancestry’s version because many of the
parish records will give you city, County, and some time Church
name on the far left had side.
Keys for Reading French Catholic Records
• French Canadian Names are similar make sure you know the
family well. You could have two brothers one named Joseph and
one Joseph Marie but the records just will call him Joseph
• Women names can look masculine like Josephte or Josephe the
name Amable is both male and female or Elizabeth could be
called Isabelle.
• How do you tell the gender of the child at Baptism
• The word for born is ne for male and nee for female
• Some christenings will have fils for son and fille for daughter
Example of
the Location
tab on the left
side of a
record page.
So Burial or Christening locations for
these records would be
St Joseph, Chambly, Chambly, Quebec,
Canada
Baptism Record showing Birth
Information
This is a Christening record for older children there is no mention of when
they were born just that Marie was about 11 and Marguerite was about 9
The Opening line translates as this day and month again saying you need to
see the other records.
Another style of Christening records
This record is amother one where you need the other records on the page usually before
This one since the date says the 14 of this month than the childs name and parents
A Burial Record Example with extra information
(includes Cause of Death)
Names can be the most confusing part in researching
your French Canadian records.
Here is an Example
Marie Louise Pelerin
B: 28 September 1808 St Jacques-L’Achigan
N: 27 September 1808 St Jacques-L’Achigan
Parents: Joseph Pelerin and Marguerite Landry
Marie Anne Pelerin
B: 18 May 1808 St Jacques-L’Achigan
N:10 may 1808 St Jacques-L’Achigan
Parents: Joseph Pelerin and Marguerite Landry