Over 500 000 new images and files – A look back at 2020

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2020, as difficult as it was, will have been a productive year for the Drouin Institute, with the continuation of our efforts to digitize, index and democratize historical and genealogical data in Quebec and beyond. Over the past 12 months, more than 500,000 new files and images were made available on Genealogy Quebec. Here is an overview of these additions.

The LAFRANCE

Last year, we completed the addition to the LAFRANCE of all of Quebec’s Catholic baptisms and burials up to 1861. Our focus this year shifted to Ontario and Acadia, as well as the Protestant baptisms and burials of Quebec.
In addition, our indexing efforts included parish records pertaining to Indigenous peoples of Quebec, a particularly complex task given the variety of surnames used in these records.


Record 6218959, LAFRANCEGenealogyQuebec.com

In total, 60,526 records were added to the LAFRANCE in 2020.

More information on the LAFRANCE

Browse the LAFRANCE (subscription required)

Connolly File

63,356 baptisms, 51,900 marriages and 32,418 burials were added to the Connolly File in 2020, bringing the total number of records in the collection to over 6.7 million.

The Connolly File is an index of Catholic and Protestant baptisms, marriages and burials from Quebec and part of the United States covering a period extending from 1621 to 2019.

More information on the Connolly File

Browse the Connolly File (subscription required)

Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections

Seven historical newspapers and 5000 wedding photos were added to the Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections in 2020.
Here are the papers that were added:

  • Écho d’Iberville (1880 to 1882 and 1919 – 1920)
  • La Voix du Peuple (1880)
  • L’Alliance (1893 – 1894)
  • L’Essor (1968 to 1970)
  • Le Protectionniste (1882 – 1883)
  • Le Courrier de St-Jean (1887 and 1896 to 1909)
  • The Chesterville Record (1894 to 1939 and 1978)

You may browse them in the Miscellaneous Collections under the 23 – Journaux anciens folderAs for the wedding photos, they can be found under the 26 – Généalogie Saint-Laurent – Cornwall, Ontario folder.

The Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections contain a mix of images, documents, books, pictures and directories of historical and genealogical significance.

More information on the Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections

Browse the Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections (subscription required)

Drouin Collection Records

26,392 parish register images were added to the Drouin Collection Records this year. These images are from the register of Notre-Dame-de-Montréal (church copy), which can be found under the Registres paroissiaux 1621-1876 folder in the Drouin Collection, and from 73 protestant parishes of the Montreal region, this time under the Registres non-catholiques 1760-1885 folder.

The Drouin Collection Records contain 5,208,563 images of parish registers from Quebec, Ontario, Acadia, New Brunswick and the Northeast of the United States.

More information on the Drouin Collection Records

Browse the Drouin Collection Records (subscription required)

Obituary Section

Internet obituaries

The weekly addition of internet obituaries continued throughout 2020, with now more than 2,550,000 obituaries from across Canada available in this collection.


These cover a period extending from 1999 to today.

 

Newspaper obituaries

25,000 death notices sourced from Quebec newspapers were added to Genealogy Quebec in May 2020.

  

These new obituaries date, for the most part, from the 21st century and more specifically the year 2019.

 

Tombstones

Finally, some 98,433 new tombstones were made available on the website in 2020.

  

This collection now contains over 710,000 headstones. A search engine allows browsing via the names and text inscribed on the stone.

More information on the Obituary section

Browse the Obituary section (subscription required)

Acadia – Families

35,000 family files were added to the Acadia – Families tool during the year, which contains 130,342 files pertaining to Acadian individuals.

The files contain the names and first names of the parents, the name of the child, the dates of birth and/or baptism, death and/or burial, and marriage, as well as the parish. Links to the original documents of baptism, marriage and burial mentioned are usually available.

More information on the Acadia – Families tool

Browse the Acadia – Families tool (subscription required)

Browse these collections – and many more – by subscribing to Genealogy Quebec today!

 

Genealogy Quebec Forum

Got questions about GenealogyQuebec.comPRDH-IGD.com or genealogy in general? Want to share your research findings with other genealogy enthusiasts?


Look no further! Subscribe to the recently launched Genealogy Quebec forum today. It is free and open to all!

Drouin Institute’s blog

Here are the articles that were published on the Drouin Institute’s blog in 2020! If you’ve missed them, now is the time to catch up!

To conclude, we would like to wish you good health and a lot of success in your genealogical endeavors for the year 2021.

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team