This compilation looks at the towns and villages in the Lower Laurentian area, north of Montreal, where German-speaking immigrants settled, and lists the churches these people may have frequented. It also lists several books and articles that discuss these people and their communities. There is a list of repositories and addresses at the end of the compilation that will help you find records of births, marriages and deaths.
German Presence – Lower Laurentian Region of Quebecl Mar 19-1
As in other parts of Quebec, German-speaking immigrants, including some Loyalists with German roots, integrated well into life in the Eastern Townships and surrounding regions. This compilation describes the towns and villages where some of these people have lived from the late 1700s to the 20th century. It names the churches they attended and the cemeteries where they were buried, and it helps the researcher locate these records.
This compilation looks at the Protestant churches in seven counties of Quebec east of Sherbrooke and north toward the St. Lawrence River, including the cities of Drummondville, Victoriaville and Richmond. The guide includes a list of names of Protestant families who settled in this area, a list of ministers who served these congregations and brief descriptions of the towns and villages where these churches were located. It guides researchers to the repositories where the records of these churches can be found. Protestant cemeteries in these counties are also listed.
This compilation looks briefly at the history of the Congregational church in Quebec. Many communities in the Eastern Townships had been settled by Loyalists from the United States, and many of those people were Congregationalists. Montreal’s first Congregational church opened its doors in 1831, while Quebec City had had Congregational services since 1800. Researcher Jacques Gagné also explains where the records of these early churches might be found.
The current-day province of Quebec was called New France until British soldiers defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City in 1759. The French permanently surrendered their Canadian colony to the British a few years later in the treaty that concluded the Seven Years War (also known as the French and Indian War.)
Following their victory on the battlefield, British soldiers stayed in Quebec City to defend the territory and British bureaucrats arrived to manage the colony. Soon British merchants, shipbuilders and their families joined them. Although the population of Quebec remained primarily French-speaking and Catholic, there was now a significant English-speaking population too.
Most of these people were members of the Church of England or Church of Scotland, or they were Methodists. Protestant church services were introduced to serve their religious needs, with the first Anglican church in Quebec City established in 1760. Eventually, new Protestant churches were erected in the communities surrounding the capital.
If your ancestors were among these settlers, you’ll appreciate a new compilation from Montreal genealogist Jacques Gagné. This compilation will help you find the baptismal, marriage and death records of your Anglican ancestors in Quebec City. Jacques has listed the repositories where these records are held if they are somewhere in North America, although some early records may be stored in England.
……..of Morin Heights Quebec now of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, is 93 years old.
I have known her for about three years. We talk for an hour every day about her young life and all sorts of interesting subjects. I find her quite open minded with regard to religion, the latest news on the radio, world affairs and articles I download and read to her, as her eyesight is failing.
Ruby was born in Morin Flats, as it was called until 1911, when the name was changed to Morin Heights.[1] There were 5 children in the family, one boy and four girls.
Her great-grandparents were pioneers who came to the area from Ireland in the 1800’s possibly due to the potato famine. Her parents met and married and worked a cattle and dairy farm first in the 1890’s in Leopold, Quebec, but when family started to arrive they moved to Morin Heights so the children could be educated, and they ran the family farm, called ‘The Red and White Farm’ where Ruby was born.
The first settler in Morin was Thomas Seale, from Connaught, Ireland, who had started clearing his farm at Echo Lake in 1848. Families that had originated as pioneers in Gore, Mille Isles and other townships settled Morin along with emigrants directly from Ireland.[2]
The first Census in the area was the 1861 Census of Morin Flats, County of Argenteuil, Quebec, Canada and many of the 470 people named on it when I read them out to her, were familiar to Ruby either as family, friends, or neighbours’ names.[3] So it would seem the residents of Morin Heights tend to stay put!
Ruby’s family farm had four Jersey milk cows, one Holstein, which she tells me gave ‘blue milk’ which was fat free milk, one Ayrshire and 2 Clydesdale horses and some chickens. The family farmed hay, oats, corn and buckwheat. The River Simon ran through their property and Ruby often fished for perch and bass, and her mother cooked them for the evening meals. Ruby told me that they had a small spring next to the river from which her father piped water, into the barn and the house, and that the water was ‘fresh, cold, and the best water around’
In the winter, Ruby had to shovel snow, help in the kitchen and anything else that needed to be done. As she told me ‘We were never bored, we had no time to be bored’
In April, all the family spent a week in the fields, with the ‘stone boat’ a large piece of wood, with ropes at each end. All in a row, and bending down the family cleared the whole field of stones and debris, putting them on the ‘stone boat’ and either pulling it as they went or hitching up one of the horses.
A STONE BOAT
The stones would then be piled in a corner of the field, often higher than the children and then Father could plough and sow the fields.
At 4am every day, her Father would rise, curry and comb the horses, clean and feed the animals put wood in the wood burning stove and boil the kettle. By that time Mother was up and the family day began. In summer and spring, Father would milk the cows then put the milk into the metal churns, take it to the road running outside the property and leave it for pickup. Once a week, they received a cheque.
Some milk would be kept back for Mother to make her butter, to sell in the village for extra income. It was Ruby’s job to churn the wooden churner, with the family dog standing very close by, waiting for the butter milk he knew he would get at the end of the churning. Her mothers’ dairy was scoured daily and kept spotless. After the butter was churned and firm, which could take up to three hours or longer, her mother would take the two large wooden paddles and shape the butter into one pound blocks. Then they were wrapped in parchment paper for the trip to the village to sell them at the local shop.
Ruby commented, that in the winter months cows are usually ‘dry’ and calving but Father still had plenty to do. He would go into their woods, and bring out the huge trees, and ‘skin’ them ready for the warmer months, and on the first day of February, he would go to the river and cut huge ice blocks, bring them back and store them in sawdust in the barn, ready for the ice-box in the summer.
When spring came, the cows had fresh green grass, and a herb called Sorrel that they loved to eat, the butter was a beautiful yellow. In the winter, and early spring however, when the cows could not get the lush grass and herbs, Mother had to add a drop of carotene to make the butter look more attractive.
CHURNING THE BUTTER
The barn which Father built by hand, was very large, clean and warm and held the cows and two Clydesdale horses. Clydesdale’s can grow to over 18 hands tall. A hand is four inches, so this would be 72 inches or 6 feet. A horse is measured from the ground to its withers. If you feel at the end of a horse’s mane, you will find a small flat spot, which is the withers. [4]
RUBY’S FATHER WITH THE CLYDESDALE HORSE
Ruby said that the horses drank an enormous amount of water daily and they had to have their water buckets filled three times a day. They were gentle and calm and the children never felt afraid being in their presence, unlike the Jersey cows! One day, she said, one of the Jerseys kicked her younger sister for no reason and the next day, Father sold her! The Jersey cow, not the sister.
The barn was kept free of rodents by the barn cats, who were never allowed in the house, but fed daily at milking with warm milk given to them on the porch by Mother. The house was lit by oil lamps until Ruby left home at 16 and for a few years afterwards. On a Saturday, it was Ruby’s job to wash the glass chimneys trim the wicks and fill all the lamps in the home. She would also walk to Christieville a long walk, to pick up the mail and shop.
The cast iron wood stove was where Mother did all of her cooking and baking. Ruby said, Mother never made cookies, they were too expensive! Everything else was home made. During the hot days doors and windows were always kept open for a clear draft through the house, to cool the cook.
The girls went berry picking in the summer, looking out for bears whom they could see had left their imprint, whilst they too, picked the berries. Always on 12 July, next to the river, they had a celebration picnic of the ‘Glorious 12th’ an Irish holiday celebrating the Battle of the Boyne where the Protestant King, William of Orange ‘beat the Catholics’ in 1690.
Ruby was home schooled until she was about seven years old, as before that it was too far and too cold for a youngster to walk or ski to school. Of course, there were no school buses. Ruby frequently skied to school in winter and walked there and back in Summer. Occasionally, if the snow was very deep her father would hitch the Clydesdale’s to the sled and take them to school, but not very often as he was too busy!
The one room school house for the high school children, had one teacher, hired from England and he taught them every subject, at every level, including French with the curricular coming from England and exam results sent ‘away’ for marking. There was a total of 8 pupils in Ruby’s high school. At lunch time everyone including the teacher, brought the same thing every day – a peanut butter and jam sandwich, and occasionally a cookie or piece of cake, They drank water. In the summer they all played baseball after lunch and in the Winter, skied. Ruby had homework every single night, and that had to be done after household chores. Ruby left school after passing all her exams, when she was 16 years old.
RUBY’S ONE ROOM SCHOOL – RUBY ON THE FAR RIGHT
Whenever I download historic information regarding Morin Heights to read to Ruby, she points out that the people I am reading about were her uncles, cousins, her fathers’ brother, or mothers’ family and other family members. There is a Rural Route named after her family and there are many historical articles about the building of churches and other buildings, where her family names are mentioned frequently.
Her Irish/Quebec roots run deep and many of the pioneers of Morin Flats were connected to her or her family, friends or neighbours she remembers.
You can learn a lot from the elderly and I love talking to Ruby about many things, which I hope to continue for many a year, but her stories of her early years are the most interesting!
Sources:
[1 2] http://www.morinheightshistory.org/history.html
[3] http://www.morinheightshistory.org/census/1861MH.html
[4] http://www.clydesusa.com/faq/
……and particularly, my friend Ruby.
Ruby McCullough Clements passed away peacefully on 24 November, 2016, RIP.
Early Settlers
The following database contains information on villages and communities where families settled in Lower Canada and Quebec from 1760 onward. This document will assist researchers seeking to find the names ( past and current ) of these settlements.
Over the years there have been many name changes in both the counties, villages and settlements. These changes are noted, giving both the original name and the current name on modern maps.
There is a Table of Contents, along with several links to old county maps.
Click the link below to open in a new window
British, Irish, Scottish, Loyalist, American, German, Scandinavian, Dutch in Quebec
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:
On this 259th anniversary of the Acadian deportation, those researching their Acadian heritage might find the research guide, Acadians of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland of interest. It consists of Acadian Parish Registers under the French and British regimes in addition to the modern-day period under Confederation.
Click on this link, Acadians of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, to see a 162-page downloadable document that will help you find your family’s name in community parish records, etc.
2014 Acadian Congress
The Acadian Congress takes place August 8 to 24, 2014. The map below indicates the areas where many of the Congress activities will take place.
“Then uprose their commander, and spake from the steps of the altar. Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission. “You are convened this day,” he said, “by his Majesty’s orders… Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must be grievous. Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will of our monarch; Namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle of all kinds, forfeited be to the crown; and that you yourselves from this province be transported to other lands. God grant you may dwell there. Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable people! “
“Prisoners, now I declare you; for such is his Majesty’s pleasure!”
Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and then arose louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger. “
Here’s a guide to the Irish Catholic Churches of Quebec.
Use this guide to find out where the documents you want to find are located. You can also find photos of the church parishes your ancestors attended.
See: the-irish-catholic-churches-of-quebec
This compilation was edited on Nov. 21, 2018. A new version will be coming in 2019.
Genealogy Ensemble 