Kamouraska Resource

A branch of this family I am researching settled in Yamouraska. Another place I have not looked at before. 

Any search I do for the surname or the place took me to a book at google titled: Kamouraska (1674-1948) by Alexandre Paradis, limited search only. Besides google books, it was only coming up on book stores. I checked at Internet Archive and at Hathitrust, not there. Darn!

Next I went over to BAnq and put the surname in the general search box, and oh... first result that came up is the book! Not only can you look at it, you can download the whole book free as a 434 page pdf. 

Kamouraska, pg 51, mark 81

There are some appendices at the end of the book with lists of notaries, priests and marguilliers, and some marriage contracts and dates of burials to name a few.

There are so many resources online at BAnq, not just newspapers and pistard, but also publications and documents. Try it - you can visit the site in English, but of course the matierials will be in the original language. 




Relevant Link

BAnq - Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

Kamouraska (1674-1948)

Serendipity Sunday - Generations of Birthdays

Update: 13 Dec 2016

Mom has passed now and is with her mother and grandmother looking down on me as I celebrate yet another birthday. My Mom always made birthdays special, not just for us but even for strangers I would bring home that had no family close by. That is a gift I gave to my children as they are doing now for theirs!




I came across some old birthday books, and it just happens to be my birthday!

I love birthdays! They are always a celebration in our family, as they were in my parents', grandparents' and great-grandparents' families!

Mom getting kisses from her great grandchildren on her 90th birthday, 2015

Granny getting kisses from her great-grandchildren on her 90th birthday, 1984

My great-grandmother with her grown children on her 75th birthday, 1942

I sure hope I am around to get kisses from my great-grandchildren on my 90th birthday!

I have one daughter that was born Christmas Day.  I made sure her birthday was separate from Christmas, with a celebration at lunch with balloons and birthday-paper-wrapped gifts.  She liked having a Christmas birthday, just don't ever send her a Christmas/Birthday card (which we all did for her 30th hehehe!).

My grandmother never forgot an anniversary or a birthday.  She always bought her greeting cards ahead of time and kept them in her Birthday Organizer.  It was a book of envelopes in which she could place the cards for each month and write on the line for the right day the names of people having birthdays or anniversaries.
Something like this....

Every year I got a greeting card from my Granny and Grampa in the mail, and when I was young the card always had $2 tuck in it. When we went to my grandparents' for their birthday, my Granny always made a birthday cake with waxed-paper-wrapped money baked in it. Some nickles and dimes and one quarter. That was fun for us kids! Who would get the quarter?

In the 1800's to early 1900's it was popular to give someone a Birthday Book.  Some of these books had sayings or poems from famous writers, some had birthdays of famous people entered. There were lines to add the birthdays of family and friends.

From Astrological Birthday Book, 1915

I guess I am old enough to have seen some of the movies made by the actors in the Actor Birthday Book. Or, I just like old movies.

How do you celebrate birthdays differently, or the same, as your ancestors?




Relevant Links


Actor Birthday Book, 1908

Past and Present Birthday Book, 1899

The Comic Birthday Book, c1900's

The Canadian Birthday Book, English and French, 1887

Astrological Birthday Book, 1915



Related post:  The Day Granny King Turned 75

I Don't Know Everything!

One of my daughters gave me this genealogy book for Christmas, by George G Morgan and Drew Smith, titled Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques.

And you know what?  I don't know everything! 

Just by page thirteen I had already read tips I had not thought of. Thanks Mel!

Many genealogists share their knowledge by writing books.  Some are specific to an area, family or an event, others more general with tips and tricks.

Check your local Historical or Genealogical Society, Amazon online, and the following links for books that may help you with your family tree. Use keywords "genealogy books" in your favourite search engine. 

Relevant Links

Olive Tree Genealogy, Lorine McGinnis Shulze

The British Genes, Chris Paton

Books on Irish Genealogy, Mike O'Laughlin, Irish Roots Cafe

Resource Books for Canadian Genealogy, Cyndi's List

7 Top Genealogy Books, Family History Daily

10 essential Genealogy Books, Family Tree Magazine

Top 11 Essential Reference Books for Genealogists, About.com

The Book Trade

Some of my fondest kid memories are of lying on the top bunk in my room at our cottage on a rainy day and listening to the rain on the roof as I read the adventures of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

The grade three teacher at my kids school was very artsy and she had a friend who was a bookbinder. She had all the students write an illustrated story and draw a fancy cover, then had them bound into books by her friend.  What a fabulous thing to do - that was over thirty years ago and I am still talking about it!

I like going into bookstores, but I LOVE going into used book stores. Sometimes I luck out and find a book I wanted that is long out of print.  There are still a few I am looking for, and booksellers all over town are keeping an eye out for them for me.

Do you have an ancestor who was a bookseller, bookbinder or publisher?

These are links to people in the book trade. Also look in trade and commercial directories.

Relevant Links


Alien members of the book trade during the Tudor period: 1906

American Book Trade Directory 1922

A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550-1800 (limited view)

A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, England, Scotland & Ireland, 1668-1725

Abstracts from the wills of English printers and stationers, 1492-1630

History of Booksellers, the old and the new 1873

Sketches of booksellers of other days - 1901

Sketches of some of the booksellers of the time of Dr Samuel Johnson, 1902

Dictionary of the Antiquarian Booksellers and dealers in second-hand books, US 1885

International directory of Antiquarian Booksellers - Internationales adressbuch der antiquar-buchhändler - 1906

The Booksellers' League: A history of its formation and ten years of its work US 1905

Abstracts from the wills and testamentary documents of printers, binders and stationers of Cambridge, 1504-1699

The International Directory of second-hand booksellers and bibliopile's manual 1894

Hodson's Booksellers, publishers and stationers' directory for London and Country 1855

Register of artists, engravers, booksellers, bookbinders, printers & publishers of New York City 1633-1820

Directory of second-hand booksellers & list of public libraries British and foreign 1891

The Victorian Book Trade

Cooking up a Storm

My maternal grandparents usually came to our house for stay-over visits, but every New Year's Day and a couple of other times a year for special occasions we would go to their middle cold-flat in Verdun, Quebec. My grandmother didn't cook.  She only made desserts. Usually something with whipped cream, as that was our favourite, and Dad and I would fight over the bowl. But for meals my grandfather did all the cooking and as most people did in those days... heavy on the meat and potatoes.  Which is probably why I am a carnivore. When I was first married I would call Grampa sometimes to find out how he cooked a certain dish.  It made him feel happy to be helping me, and I loved talking to him. Sometimes when the girls were little he would call me and ask what I was making for supper. He wanted to make sure I was making "healthy" meals for the kids. One time I told him I was making Lasagna. "Lasagna???" He bellowed! We never had pasta of any sort at Grampa's house. "I'll call you back".  I guess it took him a while to look it up (no internet you know), because it was almost an hour before he called. "There's some pretty good stuff in there!" Grampa wasn't big on greetings. "Yes, and I put ham in mine." I replied. "And spinach. The kids call it grass." It took him a minute to digest this (pun hahaha). "Well, alright then" he said, and hung up.

New Year's dinner at Grampa's... I'm on the right and Great Granny King is mid-front.

My Mom is one of "those" cooks that can make something out of nothing, and rarely needs a recipe.  She learned from Grampa. She did have a few recipe books, but she would find a dish she thought sounded good, then say.. well I don't have that but this will do, and this will taste better than that, and so on until she had a completely different recipe.  She would never write it down, so it was different every time.  My mom used to love giving dinner parties for a few close friends, but it was also nothing for her to cook for 200 people in her community. Mom is 89 now and would rather go to Burger Bob's than cook for herself. They make good rotisserie chicken.


I, on the other hand have always needed a recipe, and have to follow it pretty closely. I guess that's the OCD in me. I am getting a bit more adventurous with age. Among my Mom's recipe book collection was my grandmother's unused 1913 Five Roses Cook Book, and a newer more up-to-date one (1938) that I used quite a bit when I was learning to cook (my grandfather's sister worked at the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, who made Five Roses Flour). I like the first one, but they say things like "butter the size of a walnut" and those measurements are not precise enough for me. In the 60's I sent away for my own, and you can see I use mine a lot, for most everything! This issue has Foreign Fare and Wild Game.

When my girls started to leave home, I got four cheap little recipe books about the size of a recipe card, and for each daughter wrote out the recipes for their favourite dishes, and put them in their Christmas stocking.

One recipe that is being handed down in our family is my Mom's recipe for pie crust. Every year Mom won 1st prize in the Apple Pie Contest at the town Apple Festival. One year Dad was entrusted with the task of getting the pies out of the oven and taking the best looking one to enter in the contest.  They both looked good to him, so he entered them both.  Mom won 1st and 2nd prize that year. But we needed one for dessert as we had company for dinner, so he had to buy one back at the auction they hold after the judging. Dad waited till dessert time to tell everyone the story of the pie.  What everyone wanted to know was.... is this the 1st or 2nd prize pie?? Another of Mom's famous recipes using that pie crust, and my personal favourite, are her absolutely scrumptious butter tarts, and I like them best a little overdone!  

Do you have favourite recipes or recipe books handed down from your ancestors? 

Church, club, school and community groups often made cook books as a fund raiser, and in many of them the person's name follows her recipe.  I have listed a few below - some with names, and some just because they are interesting. You may find other local club or church recipe books at the library.


Relevant links:


The New Memphremagog Cook Book 1907 

Cobalt Souvenir and Cook Book (Ontario) 1909 

The Cobourg Congregational cookbook, Ont 1909

Centenary cookbook, Methodists Salem, NC 1968

The parish Cook Book 1901 - St Agnes Guild, Church of the Redeemer, Sayre, PA

Central Congregational Church cook book, Topeka, Kansas - 1913

California Street M.E. Church cook book 1911 (SF)

Harvest Festival Cook Book 1905 - Fall River, Mass

The Peerless cook book, Ladies of St James Methodist Church, Montreal 1888

Epworth League cook book (young Methodists) 1899 - Ontario


King's Daughters Cook Book - Newport, NH 1903

The Refugees' cook book - for those that lost theirs in the San Francisco Earthquake 1906

George Street United Church - Favourite Newfoundland Recipes 1956-57

The Pet Cook Book (Mass) 1878

High River (AB) Cookbook - Chalmer's Church Ladies Aid 1907

Daughters of the Allies Friday Unit, Calgary AB 1918

Riverside Recipe Book, NY 1890

Allied Cookery, British, French Italian, Belgian, Russian - 1916

Paper-Bag Cookery: with nearly 200 recipes - London 1911

Pot-Luck: The British home cookery book; over 1000 recipes from old family ms books

Menus made easy: how to order dinner and give the dishes their French names - 1913 

Mrs. Maclurcan's cookery book: practical recipes specially suitable for Australia - 1899

The Canadian Economist - a book of tried and tested recipes - Ontario  1881

Lake of the Woods Museum

Lake of the Woods Milling Company Limited Roll of Honor

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.”

: Louisa May Alcott (A Story of Experience)

 I love books. I love browsing in used book stores much more than browsing at the mall. Today books are not just on the WalMart shelves between the electronics and the party supplies. The internet is packed with books, pamphlets, collections of court proceedings, reports and essays that have been digitized and are waiting for us to discover a mention of our ancestors in them.

Did you ever Google yourself? Come on, I know you did. I never found myself, but I did find some ancestors. For example, I typed in the search box "john porter ulverton", and one of the results that came up surprised me. I knew from my grandmother that her grandfather was a carpenter and, like most carpenters in small communities, was also the local coffin maker. In one of the results I found a website about Ulverton, Quebec which stated the following:
"Among these buildings is the Blanchette Mill (1850-1945), now the Ulverton Woolen Mill, with its turbine, energy transmission system, and still-functioning machines from yesteryear! Close by, one can find a perfect reconstruction of the covered bridge that John Porter built at the turn of the century." Well, how about that? Builder of coffins and bridges! I also discovered that the road that goes across the bridge and to the Mill is called Porter Road.
One search I tried was for "clement king Loddiswell" (which is in Devon, UK) and in the Google menu (web, images, news etc) I clicked on More and choose Books. One of the results was a "...report of the Commissioners concerning charities" mentioning my ancestor and a part of his land called Harvey Marsh in Loddiswell. Another Report came up detailing a nearby grocer/baker that went bankrupt and owed money to my ancestor's son John Clement King, the mill owner.

Many Societies and Government Agencies wrote reports that sometimes contain the names of our ancestors. One such is a Report of the Treasurer of Quebec that contains names of owners of companies and individuals who were paid money by the government.

Local Histories are also a great place to look for our ancestors. Most libraries keep books written about their community on their shelves. My favourite online place to go for Canada is Our Roots / Nos Racines, which is searchable within the book. After I discovered that my great grandfather's brother moved west to Daysland, AB I did a search at Our Roots for Daysland and I found 2 books on the history of the area that tell about the early settlers there.  So I learned that my ancestor called his ranch Hatley (after the town in Quebec where he married his wife) and all about their life there.
I also searched the place where my children's ancestor lived, Cap St-Ignace, and there is a book there about the history, including a list of names of the churchwardens of which he was one, and that another in the family was given the contract to build the pews for the church.

Try any of the above searches for your ancestor. Use different search parameters - "surname AND town name", "my village history", "History of my village", - be creative. Also try the ancestor and his occupation. Another good place to search is at the Internet Archive Digital Library.

At Jstor they have a huge journal and pamphlet collection and have now added books. Enter a keyword and results will give you a book and the chapter of the book it is in.

Update: Mar 3/15:  added a link to new book website



Relevant Links:

HathiTrust Digital Library

Ourroots/Nos Racines

Monographie de St-Ignace duCap St-Ignace depuis 1672 à 1903

Report of the Treasurer of Quebec 1890-91

Early records of Ontario- judicial

BuriedTreasures. The History of Elnora, Pine-Lake and Huxley

A list of Genealogy Books online - Quebec   

Open Library - borrow, read, upload

Digital Public Library of America

Jstor - Journals, pamphlets, books

Genealogy Gophers - search books from various websites at one place