Behind the Name
This is my favorite names database; I use it for all my writing. It has fairly sophisticated search options: you can search alphabetically, by country of origin, by meaning, and by name. You can limit results by gender. They offer a very broad range of countries to search through.
There are some other fun features such as random name generators, anagram names, names for twins and thematic names. They list namesakes, name days and lists of most popular names. There is also a name translator which will convert the name of your choice into a number of other languages.
I’d like to point out some bad features but I really am quite fond of this page.The content is helpful, the design is simple but attractive and they update frequently. They even allow user input through their message boards and polls.
Behind the Name has a sister site known as Behind the Surname but while it functions in the same way I find myself less impressed with it. Perhaps I’m just bitter because none of the surnames in my family are in the database. But that’s what the message boards are for, I suppose.
Canadian Genealogy
Oh dear, I’ve been neglecting this blog for quite some time. I blame school but hopefully I can do better.
Not long ago I went about searching for my roots. Fortunately for me and my fellow quebecois, there are quite a few references online to help in this endeavor.
My favorite is Genealogie Quebec. It lists names alphabetically by last name and has a search and advanced search option. The information is available in both English and French. It also contains a great deal of information about the people in its database: births and deaths, occupations, origins, marriages, parents, children, etc. This information isn’t even throughout; some have almost no information. Nevertheless there is enough to move back through time. I was able to trace several lines of my family back to 16th century France. The one problem is that the most recent information is from the early 19th century; you do need to know a little about your family tree to get started.
One tip I can offer about looking for information on ancestors online (especially in Google) is to search for married couples. I’ve found marriage records to be the easiest to track down and they often list the names of the parents as well. For example looking up my great-great-great Grand parents “Francois Picard” and “Cedulie Ruel” told me that they were married on January 14, 1862 at Ste Claire, Dorchester and the names of their parents (all of whom I was able to locate on Genealogie Quebec).
Some other resources include the Dictionaire Genealogique (a scan of the original document, useful but difficult for unknown searches) and Pistard (which allows users to search archives by keyword).
There are also many people who post their family trees online and many communities (such as Rootsweb and Geneanet) devoted to genealogical research; these can be a valuable resource. My own tree should be going up this summer and hopefully it will be of help to all the other Ricards and Picards out there.
Next I plan to get started on my maternal family which hails from Germany. If anyone has advice on where to get started, please let me know.
