In the past few months there have been lots of beginners researching their ancestors who came to New France in the early years, or like mine, immigrated to the province of Quebec after 1800.
If your ancestors were from French Quebec you hit the genealogy jackpot!
If you submitted your DNA to Ancestry you likely have over 1000 "4th cousins or closer" matches. You may also find common ancestors on both sides of your tree.
New France took the French custom of recording women by their maiden name, and most early records reflect this. Many Protestant records gave the maiden name of the mother, but not all, and some gave no parents' names on a marriage record if the parties were not minors.
When going back on your tree always start with a marriage record, then when looking for the birth records you'll have the parents' names to get the right person. So your great-grandparents' marriage record will give you names of your 2x great-grandparents, and so on.
If you don't understand French, easiest is to use Chrome to open websites and right click to choose translate. Some have an English button, but that doesn't always work well. There are people on facebook groups that can help you translate records, but if you pay attention to the wording you will be able to pick out the pertinent words. There are websites that help with this, I have given a couple below.
There are a few things to know about New France...
Land distribution was by the seigneurial system. A seigneur was given land and he was responsible for populating and protecting that land.
A "dit name" is a nickname or nom de guerre, often used to distinguish families of the same name. Example, Pierre Maupetit dit Poitevin had three children all with the surname Maupetit dit Poitevin. Down the line the "dit Poitevin" was dropped for the most part and the name became Monpetit. On the other hand Michel Morel dit Parisien had a son that had his own dit name, Francois Morel dit Mador. His line dropped the Morel and were known as Mador. There can also be a great variation in spellings.
There were a few nominal censuses before 1825, they are on the resource list.
Jean Talon wanted to boost the population, so he
devised incentives. Couples would get a reward of money if they married young,
and another 300 livres per year when they had over 10 children. There were also
penalties for males who were 20 years of age and hadn't married yet and for
parents that had daughters that were 16 years old and still single.
Livres tournois (£ s d) were the first currency of New France (not British pounds). Each livre was divided into 20 sols (sous after 1715) each of which was divided into 12 deniers. Eight ounces of gold (a mark) was worth 740 livres, 9 sols; eight ounces of silver was worth 51 livres, 2 sols, 3 deniers. It took about 200 livres per year per person to live comfortably.
When the British took over in 1759-1760 the currency was British pounds, shillings and pence. They also changed the incentives and gave grants of land to people who had 12 living children.
Birth, marriage and death records are at Genealogie Quebec You need a subscription to research on the site, which is very reasonable at $5 cdn /day or only $13 cdn/month (as on day post was written). There is much more than BMD on the site and it's well worth exploring.
I have compiled a list of mostly free resources to start you on your genealogy travels. It is free to download and share. It is added below, and will remain posted under the Resources tab in the above menu.
Also try the subjects listed on the right of this blog, and the search box at top right.
Relevant Links
Quebec and New France Genealogy Resources (download list)
SOLDIERS
CENSUSES BEFORE 1825
CADASTRES & LAND
DIRECTORIES AND
ALMANACS
EDUCATION
NEWSPAPERS
PARISHES
Les anciennes côtes du lac Saint-Louis avec un tableau complet des anciens et nouveaux propriétaires
QUEBEC CITY
MONTREAL
GENEALOGY SOCIETIES
Translating French records
Très intéressant, et très utile pour tous ceux qui ont des ancêtres québécois, voire français ! Je ne savais pas qu'enregistrer les noms de jeune fille n'était pas appliqué partout dans le monde.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing ;)
It is the same with early French Catholic records of those that migrated to Ontario and the US, but I found the English Catholic records often put the mother's married name.
DeleteJ'aurais aimé qu'ils aient écrit le nom de jeune fille de la mère dans de vieux registres de Grande-Bretagne!
I really enjoyed this article on Quebec and the New France. My ancestors were born and lived in the Three Rivers and around Montreal, one day I hope to visit there.
ReplyDeleteBest time to visit is September into October when all the leaves change colour and not so many summer tourists, and it’s not so hot and muggy.
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