Canadian Genealogy Addendum
Reading some old issues of the Bibliotheques et Archives du Quebec’s (which also has a lot to offer, but that’s another post) journal, I found that there is actually a web portal for Quebec genealogical research. It can be found here.
The first thing of note is that the English version of the site is not complete. For full information, you need to be able to read French. However if you can, this is a great resource. They offer links, free access to the FQSG journal, and access to some genealogical databases. Some of these databases are only available with (free) membership but “Fichier d’Origine” (a migration list), “Index des contrats de marriage” (a scanned book listing marriages in Quebec), “Phototheque”, “Prenoms rares” (for rare names), “Patronymes doubles” (for ancestors who may have changed names) and “Index des paroisses” (a list of parishes) are available to all.
But perhaps more importantly they have a great deal of advice on how to proceed in your search, how to display your results (including links to free programs) and information about sources that can be used. They even suggest ways (and reasons) to involve children and teenagers in genealogical research.
They also have a glossary of common terms used in official documents and other genealogical sources. This is quite useful if you’re new to the field. It’s organized alphabetically and quite easy to browse even if it isn’t searcheable.
If nothing else, check out their links section. There are links to genealogical sites in Quebec, the rest of Canada, the US and France as well as some other useful links.
I feel I’m going to spend a lot of time on this site in the near future.
