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The BMD Cards collection is a repository of baptism, marriage and burial cards from Quebec, Ontario and the United States.
This section is presented in a file tree structure.
The folders can be browsed manually or by using the search bar to find a word appearing in a folder or file name.
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The Loiselle File
The Loiselle File is a collection of marriage cards produced by priest Antonin Loiselle as part of his personal research. In total, this collection contains 1,044,434 marriage cards that pertain to about 100 different parishes.
The tool covers all of Quebec as well as Fall River, MA and Manchester, NH from 1621 to the mid 20th century.
Within the folders, the cards are sorted in alphabetical order of the husband and wife’s first names. A search for Abraham should be conducted within the first few cards of the folder, while a search for Zénophile should be made within the last cards.
The marriage cards contain the following information: the first and last names of the husband and wife as well as last names of the parents or previous spouse. In most cases, a date and location will be given for the marriage. Additional information may also be present, such as the residence of the spouses or the parents.
The Kardex
The Kardex is a directory of marriage cards complementary to the Men and Women series. The cards pertain to Catholic and Protestant marriages as well as notarized documents.
The Kardex covers from 1621 to around 1950 for Quebec, Ontario as well as a small part of the United States.
The cards contain the following information: the name and first name of the spouses as well as the name of the parents, or the name of the previous spouse.
In most cases, the date and location of the marriage may also be included. Additional information may be present in the card.
To better understand the structure of the Kardex cards, here is an example:
- Bertrand, Joseph Alfred Émile – Husband
- (Bertrand), Antoine Wilfrid – Father of the husband
- St-Aubin, Rose Anna – Mother of the husband
- Michaud, Marie Lise Irène – Wife
- (Michaud), Joseph Adolphe – Father of the wife
- Bernard, Marie Lise Elisa – Mother of the wife
- St-Louis de France de Montréal – Parish in which the marriage was celebrated
- 12 juin 1915 – Marriage date
Fonds Fabien
The Fonds Fabien is a repository of 102,000 baptismal, marriage and burial cards from Ontario and the Outaouais region of Quebec. The cards generally contain the name of the subject(s), their parents, the date, as well as the place of recording of the event.
The cards are sorted in a file tree structure by the surname of the subject of the card (the baptized, the deceased, or the bride or groom).
Inside the folders, the cards are sorted alphabetically by the first name of the male subject. For example, an Albert will be found within the first cards and a Zénophile within the last.
Adoptions (Montréal, St-Donat)
The Adoptions (Montreal, St-Donat) folder contains adoption cards from the St-Donat parish located in Montreal. These cards include the name and dates of birth and baptism of the adopted child, the names of the adoptive parents and godparents, the date of adoption, and sometimes additional information on the individuals mentioned such as occupation and residence.
Adoption cards are sorted alphabetically by the first letter of the adoptive father’s last name. Within the folders, the cards are also in alphabetical order. For example, a Gauthier will be among the first few cards in the G folder, and a Gonthier among the last.
- OUIMET, M-Gertrude Chantal – Adopted child
- (OUIMET), Robert – Adoptive father
- Monique Carmel – Adoptive mother
- N 20-08-1964 – Date of birth
- B 30-08-1964 – Date de baptism
- P Marcel Carmel – Godfather
- M Gertrude Bilodeau – Godmother
- A 03-06-1975 – Adoption date
Confirmations Drouin-Kardex
The Confirmations Drouin-Kardex folder contains cards referring to confirmations made in Quebec in the 17th century. The cards are sorted by the last name of the confirmed person. The folders containing the cards are identified by the surnames they contain. For example, the L’Abbé-Lucas folder will contain all the cards associated with individuals whose last name is contained between L’Abbé and Lucas, alphabetically speaking. It will therefore contain all the Lavoie, Livernois, Lozon, etc.
Décès 1845-1855 – QFHS
The Décès 1845-1855 – QFHS folder contains death cards dated between 1845 and 1855 and relating to individuals of Catholic or Protestant faith who lived in or around the province of Quebec. These cards are from the Quebec Family History Society.
The cards are sorted by the last name of the deceased individual.
Fiches (familles)
The Fiches (familles) folder contains baptism, marriage and burial cards relating to various Quebec families, specifically the Briand, Giguère, Hurtubise, Pellerin, Pepin and Pimparé dit Tourangeau families.
The cards contain various details such as the names, dates and places related to the events listed.
Fiches (villes)
The Fiches (villes) folder contains baptism, marriage and burial cards relating to individuals who lived in the city of Châteauguay or in the counties of Arthabaska and Beauharnois.
The cards are sorted in folders according to the surname of the subject.
Fiches BMS (Ontario)
The Fiches BMS (Ontario) folder contains baptismal, marriage and burial cards from various regions of Ontario.
The cards are sorted by surname of the subject.
Finding the original church record used to create a BMD card
Your subscription to Genealogy Quebec gives you access to the Drouin Collection Records, which contain all of Quebec’s parish registers from 1621 to the 1940s as well as many parish registers from Ontario, Acadia and the Northeast of the United States.
Most of the cards available in the BMD Cards tool refer to original parish documents; it is therefore possible, in many cases, to find the original document from the information contained in a card.
We will use Patrick Nagh and Albertine Ménard’s marriage card, found in the Fonds Fabien, to demonstrate the procedure to follow to find an original document in the Drouin Collection.
In the BMD Cards, the name Joseph is often represented by the letter “J.”, as is the case here for Albertine’s father.
The marriage card for Patrick Nagh and Albertine Ménard tells us that the marriage was recorded in the St. François d’Assise parish in Ottawa. This happens to be one of the Ontario parishes available in the Drouin Collection.
To view this register, we begin by navigating to the Drouin Collection.
Once in the Drouin Collection, you will notice that the various registers are organized in a folder tree. Some parishes are listed under the name of the city or region they served, while others are listed under the name of the parish itself.
By searching for the term “Ottawa,” we will be able to access all the registers for the region.
Once the Ottawa (St. François d’Assise) folder is open, you simply navigate to the year you are looking for to reach the list of images contained in the register for that year. It is important to note that, in most cases, the images are arranged in chronological order.
This means that the first image in the folder will contain the first events recorded during that year, which are usually the ones from January. Similarly, the last few images in the folder will hold the records from the end of the year.
Since Patrick Nagh and Albertine Ménard’s marriage was celebrated on the 3rd of April, it’s likely that the marriage record will be found among the first few images.
And so, we were able to find the original document pertaining to a BMD card using the Drouin Collection.
