Reference from a Rogue Librarian

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.

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.