The reason I have been quiet this past couple of weeks, is because I am doing the genealogy for a friend. His ancestors go back to Acadia, an area for which I have never done any research. It doesn't help that the Acadians were expelled from the area in the mid 1700s and they scattered to the four winds. There is a good write-up about it with maps and dates at erudit dot org.
I think they were part of the 1758 migration, because their 3rd-to-last child was baptized in Port Royal in 1754. There were two children born after that - the trick is to find where?? I know they exist because they later married in parts of Quebec, settling around St-Philippe and St-Constant.
You can see by the map at erudit that I have many places to look for my friend's ancestors, including New England, parts of Quebec... and France.
Taking a 55 minute ferry from the town of Fortune, Newfoundland you can reach St-Pierre et Miquelon, islands owned by France. Some Acadians fled there.
For overseas places owned by France, such as the islands and Martinique, there is a website called Archives Nationale d'Outre-Mer (anom) that has register images you can download. The site is in French but you can use a tool like Google Translate to switch to English. You can sort the results by year or by place. It is easy to navigate and figure out.
Another fact I didn't know, is that L’île Saint-Jean (now PEI) was under French rule and registers for the city of Port-La-Joye from 1721-1758 can be found at this site. Under Canada there is also an index of deaths 1748-1760 for l'Hopital Quebec.
If your ancestors went to mainland France and you have an idea where they went, many places have their registers online - the links are at The French Genealogy Blog in the left hand column, by department.
If you have any advice or suggestions to help in my research, I'd be glad to hear from you!
Relevant Links
Overseas National Archives
The French Genealogy Blog
Fascinating isn't it Dianne - I learn a great deal when I got back into the early 1600's and my New France Roots. Will be saving this blog to have a good read later :D
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm learning as I go, being a new area for me.
DeletePort-La-Joye. Can you give a link? I went there but didn't see any way to find it.
ReplyDeleteUse above link to Overseas National Archive
DeleteOn left drop-down menu...
Territoire: choose Canada
Commune: choose Ile St-Jean (Port La Joye)
This past summer, we traveled to Port Royale to see where my husband's 6th great-grandparents lived. There was even a plaque along the waterfront with some history of Louis Allain.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been fascinating! I love traveling to where my ancestors lived to get a sense of place when researching them.
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