Category Archives: Quebec

Loyalists, Quebec, United States

Loyalist Churches in Brome-Missisquoi – Upper Richelieu Valley – South Shefford

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The American Revolution left  profound marks on the development of the areas of Brome-Missisquoi, the Upper Richelieu Valley and South Shefford. The Americans who wished to remain loyal to the British Crown fled the United States. These Loyalists  came from the northern states and settled very close to the border. Within a short period of time they began to develop many small communities, from Abercorn , near what is now the Vermont border to St. Armand near Missisquoi Bay..

This compilation describes the many towns and villages that emerged from the late 1780s to this day. Their churches contained documents of birth, marriages and deaths that have  been preserved and are available in various archives.

The contributions of these Loyalist can be found   throughout the area.  Many of the churches are still standing and are a tribute to their perseverance.

Click on the link: Loyalist Churches in Brome Missiquoi

Upper Richelieu Valley and South Shefford

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genealogy, Loyalists, Quebec

The Loyalist Churches of Sorel, Three Rivers, Saint Johns, Chambly and Surrounding Areas

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This compilation, prepared by Montreal genealogist Jacques Gagné, looks at the churches frequented by Loyalists who settled in three regions of Quebec in the late 18th century: Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers) and Sorel, east of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, and Saint-Jean (St. Johns) and Chambly, south of Montreal on the Richelieu River. It outlines the histories of these churches and where to find surviving records.

Click on the link: Loyalists Churches Sorel – Three Rivers

genealogy, Quebec

The Loyalist Churches of the Gaspe Peninsula

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Following the War of the American Revolution, those who had remained loyal to the British felt compelled to leave the newly independent United States. While most settled in what is now Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec’s Eastern Townships, some moved to the Gaspé Peninsula of eastern Quebec. This is a region of interior forests and mountains and of fishing villages along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

The newcomers settled in towns and villages such as Matapédia, Bonaventure, Percé, Gaspé and New Carlisle. Their neighbours were of French Canadian, Acadian and Micmac ancestry, and most were Roman Catholic. The newly arrived English-speaking, Protestant Loyalists needed their own places to worship and to record their births, marriages and burials.

At first, these needs were met by Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries, but eventually the newcomers built churches of their own. This compilation lists the churches they founded and the ministers who served the English-speaking community. It guides the genealogist to the various places where their records are kept, including government and church archives, and the library of the Quebec Family History Society.

The compilation also mentions the records of the Gaspé residents who came from Jersey and Guernsey, in the Channel Isles, and the early settlers from Scotland. The introduction pays tribute to two individuals who researched and documented the lives of the English-speaking residents of the Gaspé, Kenneth Annett and David J. McDougall, and tells researchers where to find their work.

                                                        Click the link to open in a new window:

Gaspe-Loyalist Churches

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Quebec, Research tips

The Europeans in Quebec and Their Churches

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The Europeans in Québec                         Lower Canada and Québec

Churches of the Scandinavian, Baltic States, Germanic, Icelandic people in Montréal, Québec City, Lower St. Lawrence, Western Québec, Eastern Townships, Richelieu River Valley – The churches of immigrants from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia. Lithuania, Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria plus those from Eastern European countries – Churches which were organized in Québec from 1621 to 2005. Also included within this document you will find a number of book titles relating to the subject.

Click the link:

The Europeans in Québec

Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Research tips

The French Canadians in Western Canada

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The Archives nationales du Québec in Montréal on Viger Avenue are the repository of a wonderful and unique collection of books of marriages, baptisms, deaths of French Canadian families who left the Province of  Québec between 1840 and 1930 for destinations in Western Canada, especially in Alberta and Manitoba.

Monsieur Daniel Olivier,  former archivist at the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Montréal on Sherbrooke Street East, the latter no longer in operation, referred to for years as Salle Gagnon was responsible with the assistance of his associates for the acquisition of many of the books of marriages, baptisms, deaths, and burials outlined in this research guide.

Madame Estelle Brisson, former archivist at the Archives nationales du Québec on Viger Avenue East in Montréal with the assistance of her associates was also responsible for the acquisition of many of the books of marriages, baptisms, deaths, and burials outlined in this research guide compiled by Jacques Gagné.

Click on the link            The French Canadians in Western Canada

Quebec, Research tips

The Pitfalls of a Neophyte Genealogist

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Who was my third grandmother? Which one of these women married Moyse Hypolite  Fortin? Were they cousins? Were there mistakes in the information I was finding? I needed answers.

Genealogy requires exact details and facts in order to get the story right. As a new genealogist I learned this very quickly.

In the case of my third great grandmother there were conflicting reports. One day I would find Henriette Bertrand in Ile Perrot and then later find an Henriette Bertrand in Vaudreuil. The dates varied by only two years and they fit in with the time frame of my third great grandfather.

The two communities are very close to one another, a matter of only a few kilometers.

It soon became apparent that there were in fact two Henriettes. I found the baptismal  document on line for Henriette 2. The discovery made me realize that perhaps I had been researching the wrong person.

At this point I needed clarification. I made a visit to Centre d’histoire La Presqu’íle in Vaudreuil and was able with the help of the archivist learn for certain which of the Henriettes was the correct one. Now I had what appeared to be a monumental task ahead. Research had  been done for Henriette 1 thinking she was the right person.  Now, this lineage was of little value as she was not one of my ancestors. This meant  starting over with Henriette 2 and tracing her line.

The archivist was very helpful finding documentation and pointing out the right direction to proceed.

This was indeed a valuable lesson and I am grateful having  learned it early on in my research. It has constantly been a reminder that before making the next move, make certain you have as many exact verified facts as possible  about the particular person you are researching. That way you can avoid  mistakes.

The following two documents were found on Ancestry-Drouin Collection

Baptism:

Baptism Henriette Bertrand

Burial

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Registres paroissiaux et Actes d’état civil du Québec (Collection Drouin), 1621 à 1967

Name: Henriette Bertrand
Event: Enterrement (Burial)
Burial Year: 1815-1900
Burial Location: Montebello, Québec (Quebec)

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations

Inc, 2008.

Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.

Comparison of data for the two Henriettes

Henriette Bertrand   1                                                                    Henriette Bertrand 2

Born:  December 28, 1811 in Vaudreuil                                  Born March 7, 1813 in Ile Perrot

—————————————                                                       Died November 5, 1838

Mother:  Apoline St. Julien                                                           Mother:  Scholastique Sabourin

Born: Nov 6. 1783 in Vaudreuil                                                 Born:  1789 in Rigaud

Died:  Aug 2, 1834 in Vaudreuil                                                 Died:  July 28 1821 in Rigaud

—————————————                                                       Married: September 12 1831 in Montebello

Father:  Francois Vital Bertrand                                                  Father: Francois Joseph Bertrand

Born:  Jan 4, 1780 in Vaudreuil                                                   Born 1784

Died:  July 11, 1859 in St. Joeph du lac                                      Died:  1832 in Ste Justine de Newton

In 1832 Henriette  2   married Moyse Hypolite Fortin, my third great grandfather. She died November 5, 1838 at the age of twenty-five  in Montebello,  having given him a daughter, Leocadie Fortin, my great-grandmother and a son, Louis.

       

               Centre d’histoire La Presqu’íle

Achives regionales de Vaudreuil Soulanges

431 BC St. Charles

Vaudreuil-Dorion J7V 2N3

http://www.chlapresquile.qc.ca

Quebec

Étiennette Alton: A Marriageable Woman

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Business people, merchants and the church recruited 262 French woman who agreed to travel to New France and set up families with strangers before Louis IV decided to set up his “filles du Roi” (daughters of the King) project in 1663.

My ancestor Étiennette Alton was among these women, who are now collectively known as “les filles a marier” (marriageable daughters). Étiennette was a 20 year-old orphan[1] living in France’s Loire Valley when she was recruited by Claude Robutel, the 39-year-old Sieur de Saint Andre and one of 95 surviving members of the “Company of 100 Associates”. Three years earlier he had sailed to Quebec as part of the Grande Recrue and settled in Ville Marie to protect it from Iroquois attack. Robutel returned to France in February 1659 to marry Suzanne Gabriel and search for potential spouses for the other soldiers. Étiennette and others agreed to marry, have children, and ensure the future viability of the settlement of Ville Marie. In return, the company paid the cost of her journey and provided her with a small dowry to set up a household. Étiennette joined Robutel and his wife for an ocean voyage to New France. The Saint-André left La Rochelle on July 2, 1659 and arrived in Quebec on September 7. It took another 22 days to get to Ville Marie via a small boat known as a “chaloupe.” [2] Étiennette Alton wed Marin Hurtubese in Notre Dame Basilica on January 7, 1660. Claude and Suzanne were among their witnesses. Ten months later, their first son Pierre was born. Over the following twelve years, the couple had three more boys, including my direct ancestor Louis, and two girls. Marin died either on Valentine’s Day or on May 12, 1672. On June 13 that same year, she wed Berthelemy Vinet dit La Reinte and moved to the fief de Verdun outside of Ville Marie on the Île de Montréal. Vinet worked for Jean-Baptiste Migeon, an activist who went to jail for accusing the Governor of Montreal of breaking fur-trading laws and then was himself accused of breaking the same laws. Vinet died on November 18, 1687 and Étiennette was alone again, but only for a little longer than a year. She signed a contract to marry Claude Garigue, a man 13 years her junior on December 13, 1688. By the following April, she tried to enter a convent but ended up getting married anyway on October 18, 1689. The couple legally separated three years later after Étiennette testified in court about regular spousal abuse. “My husband hit me with sticks, his fists and his feet; he threw me to the ground, and wanted to butcher me by trampling me with his feet.”[3] She ran from this particular incident to the home of her children. Garigue died a year later, four days before Christmas 1693. Étiennette lived for another 29 years. She died just before Christmas in Notre Dame Hospital at 84 years old.

[1] Gagné, Peter J., Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles a Marier, 1634-1663 (Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 2002,) p 318 Includes a translation of the bride and groom’s marriage contract by Bénigne Basset a clerk in Ville-Marie. In it, Etiennette Alton’s parents, Francois Alton and Étiennette Barillay, are described as “late.”   *Note that a previous version of this story did not include this source.
[2] The dates of Étiennette Alton’s journey to Quebec and Montreal and the ship she sailed on come from a report prepared for my grandmother by genealogiste Paul-André Langelier in 1996. The report also says she was an employee of Claude Robutel. The report also includes the fact that Etiennette was baptised on Saturday November 13, 1638 at the Saint-Thomas a La Flèche church and that six other brothers and sisters were baptised in the same location. Two sisters are apparently buried there.
[3] A court case to consider their separation took place on January 14, 1692.
Quebec, Research tips

French Canadian Research tips

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To look up French-Canadian Catholics:
1. Plug in the name of your ancestor in to the BAnQ archives directly (refer to our link for the right address): no need to know the church or village name.
2. Remember that in Quebec, women are listed under their birth family name in records, from birth to death, regardless of whether they married or not. There may ‘’wife of’’ or ‘’widow of’’ also included.
3. To make it even easier, parents are listed on marriage records.
You can use the Drouin collection of books, one for men and one for women, with marriages 1760-1935, or online Drouin or Ancestry or Family Search at home or at the Quebec family History Society or at numerous other sources.

Quebec

Portrait of a Scandal: a Book Review

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Portrait of a Scandal: the Abortion Trial of Robert Notman, by Elaine Kalman Naves, is many things: a non-fiction courtroom page-turner, a story about illicit love, a tale of Scottish immigrant families in mid-19th century Montreal, and an exploration of some of the social customs and beliefs of the times. The fact that the book describes abortion practices and life in Kingston Penitentiary makes it all the grittier, while the high-profile identity of the main individual — the younger brother of society photographer William Notman — makes the details all the juicier.

I wanted to learn more about life in 19th century Montreal, home to several of my ancestors. But this real-life story hooked me within a few pages, with the mysterious death of a young physician, Dr. Patton. I won’t be spoiling the book by revealing that Patton committed suicide because he mistakenly believed his patient, a student named Margaret Galbraith, had died as a result of the abortion he performed on her. Her lover, Robert Notman, was charged with procuring the abortion.

The book is full of strong individuals, from the young woman whose hopes of becoming a teacher were doomed the minute she fell for Robert, to the lawyers who argued the case with dramatic flourishes. Their story is in excellent hands. Author Elaine Kalman Naves is an award-winning author, having already written a memoir about her own family, a book about Montreal writers and numerous articles for The Gazette.

Many family historians would relate to Naves’ research process, from her frustration with the red tape she encountered at the McGill University archives to her pleasure following Margaret’s footsteps back to the shores of Loch Lomond in Scotland. Much of the material has been culled from sources familiar to genealogists, including newspaper articles, family papers and city directories. Naves has brought these 150-year-old sources together in a way that makes sense to modern readers. And despite only having fragments of information about Robert’s and Margaret’s lives, she has succeeded in bringing these people back to life.

The bibliographic essay at the end of the book is also worth a look. Two of Naves’ favourite sources, Call Back Yesterdays by Edgar Andrew Collard, and Montreal: Island City of the St. Lawrence by Kathleen Jenkins, are probably on many Montrealers’ bookshelves, while the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online is only a Google search away.

Elaine Kalman Naves. Portrait of a Scandal: the Abortion Trial of Robert Notman. Montreal: Vehicule Press, 2013.

 

Genealogy societies, Governance, Quebec

QFHS has its Certificate of Continuance

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The Quebec Family History Society obtained its Certificate of Continuance from Industry Canada on March 6 of this year, according to Industry Canada’s website, https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/cc/CorporationsCanada/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=2362252&V_TOKEN=1405560793699&crpNm=Quebec%20family%20history%20society&crpNmbr=&bsNmbr.

Meanwhile, QFHS members in good standing (meaning those who have paid their dues) are invited to a special general meeting on September 13. There are two items on the agenda: “approval to obtain our Certificate of Continuance” and “discussion for possible future changes to our Constitution.” The certificate of continuance allows the society to continue to exist as a not for profit corporation under the new federal NFP Act, and the bylaws have to be revised to be in compliance with the new act.

Members did not approve the executive decision to obtain the certificate and were not informed by the executive that the certificate has been issued. It is not clear whether the bylaws have already been revised.

If the bylaws have yet to be revised, the society is now operating under the Default Rules provided by Industry Canada. See http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cd-dgc.nsf/eng/cs04967.html.

In either case, there is still an opportunity for members to respond to the invitation to suggest changes to the bylaws, in writing, by August 13.

To read more about this issue, see Societies – Are they Changing, on genealogycanada.blogspot.com, posted July 20, http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2014/07/societies-are-they-changing.html, and the previous article on Genealogy Ensemble, QFHS Invites Members to Submit Recommendations on Bylaw Changes, posted July 8, https://genealogyensemble.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/qfhs-invites-members-to-submit-recommendations-on-bylaw-changes/