Once arriving back to the eighteenth century, many French-Canadian researchers will find an Acadian or two in their ancestry. That is because, after the deportation, some of these unfortunate folks escaped to or returned to French-Canadian settlements and eventually intermarried. Every five years a celebration of Acadian heritage takes place in a venue with close […]

New Hampshire saw a large influx of French-Canadians in the 19th century, and the American-Canadian Genealogical Society and its library have helped many descendants trace their roots back to Québec. President Jim Gaudet fills you in on the history and happenings of the ACGS. Then in Language Tip #18, you’ll learn how knowledge of French hypocorisms, […]

Thanks to the hard work of hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers across Canada and the United States, those of us who were researching our French-Canadian ancestors a decade or two ago were very grateful to have a multitude of repertoires at our disposal. Once we discovered to which parish our ancestors belonged, these repertoires […]

When entering data into your genealogy database, have you ever asked yourself: Do I enter Nouvelle France or Canada? Is St-Charles the parish or the village? Where is the Pays d’en Haut? With the help of our guest Suzanne Boivin Sommerville, we will attempt to answer some of your questions as we explore the history […]

Marriage records are the backbone of your French-Canadian research upon which you build your family structure. Before we dissect a marriage record, it helps to understand what’s behind the parts that make up the whole. In preparation, today we will discuss the history of marriage in New France, as well as what is meant by banns […]

After reviewing common French terms found in baptism records and learning some less-common terms, you should then be ready to try your hand at reading a record from start to finish on your own. Test your skills and revel in your accomplishment! In the main segment, we are treated to an in-depth look at the […]

If you are not fluent in French, then tracing your ancestors in Québec records is a daunting task. In the last episode, we determined that we could use gender clues to answer some questions. Today we’re going to begin to recognize the words that make up French dates since they are usually written out in […]

The goal of every genealogist is to get back to the original record whenever possible. Tanguay (episode 6), Jetté (episode 8), and the published Drouins (episode 9) are great as finding aids and indexes. With the microfilming of the Drouin collection based on the civil copy in the 1940s and the microfilming of the parish copy […]

Because of the proximity of Québec and the northern states of America, those of us from the northern US most likely have immigrant ancestors who traveled back and forth between the two. We also find that they often had children in both places. This initial nomadic lifestyle presents a challenge when a genealogist is trying […]

What would we as genealogists do without genealogy societies and their libraries? They are critical in compiling, preserving and disseminating the information we need to prove our family lines. In our first Spotlight on a Society segment, Loraine DiCerbo, president of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan (FCHSM), tells us about her society and apprises […]