Micromatt-IGD digitization service

The Drouin Genealogical Institute, in collaboration with its partner Micromatt, offers a scanning service adapted to your needs and requirements which takes into account your budgetary constraints.

Since 1972, Micromatt has provided a wide range of products and services related to microfilm and electronic document management. Their reputation is built on a personalized approach that takes into account your needs and requirements, the possibilities offered by current technology and your budget realities. Micromatt cares about the success of your archival projects and takes the time to better target appropriate solutions.

In addition to common administrative documents scanning, Micromatt also has the equipment and expertise to digitize your plans and technical drawings, your books and bound documents, even old and fragile, as well as your microfilms on 16 and 35 mm reels, microfiche or aperture cards. Micromatt can even scan very large artworks at very high resolution.

For its part, the Drouin Genealogical Institute specializes in sharing and preserving the historical and genealogical heritage of Quebec. Today, this preservation involves the digitization of the hundreds of millions of documents which reside, often forgotten, in the many libraries, societies and other institutions of the province.

From there was born the Micromatt-IGD collaboration, which aims to offer you a high-quality digitization service accompanied by unique offers made possible by the commercialization of historical and genealogical archives performed by the Drouin Institute.

PLANS AND DRAWINGS

Your large documents, in black or in color, can be converted into digital files to keep, transport and view, even on your mobile platforms. Micromatt can scan your plans, technical drawings, maps and other large documents up to 48 inches wide, even using advanced image processing to improve readability.

DIGITIZATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE DOCUMENTS

Micromatt can take over the scanning of your day-to-day business documents such as contracts, invoices, human resources documents, event and research records, etc.

In addition to the obvious space saving they provide, digitized documents can be viewed and shared without travelling, and they can easily be stored and secured in multiple locations to control access.

While microfilm serves a long-term archival need, digitization can be used on records that you need to access every day.

MICROFORMS SCANNING

While the secure preservation of microfilm documents has now been replaced by digital scanning, there is still a very large quantity of legacy microfilm and microfiche, from which we can also extract indexed digital files to make them accessible and easier to read and share.

BOOK SCANNING

You can now ensure the longevity of your old and precious books, even fragile, entrusting us scanning your bound documents of all sizes. Using highly specialized scanners, ensuring the capture of pages without physical constraints or damaging lighting, our operators will be able to extract high quality images allowing even full text search. This allows you to give broad access to these rare documents more easily to more people.

DIGITIZATION OF GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

Over the past 20 years, Micromatt has digitized more than 20 million historical records for the Drouin Genealogical Institute, and has developed unparalleled expertise in digitizing historical records of all formats and types.

In addition, Micromatt offers a free optical character recognition (OCR) service, producing a detailed index of scanned documents for you to search.

Digitize twice as many of your historical documents while keeping the same budget!

Thanks to a collaboration with the Drouin Genealogical Institute, you now have the opportunity to double your digitization capacity while keeping the same budget!

The concept is simple: the Drouin Institute subsidizes 50% of the costs incurred by the digitization of your archives and gives a second life to these documents by making them available on its website GenealogyQuebec.com. The documents digitized on Genealogy Quebec will be used by its members to discover and trace the history of their families in the province.

We are mainly interested in the following types of archives:

List of electors
Censuses
Birth, marriage and death registers
Obituaries
Baptism, marriage and burial directories
Headstone pictures
City directories
Property assessment rolls (List of land owners)
Memorial cards
Wedding photos (with names)
Postcards
Newspapers
School yearbooks
Boarding school registers (Adoption, nurseries, hospices, orphanages, schools, convents)
Other historical documents with a high density of names

Ready to launch your digitization project or have a question about our services?

Phone: (514) 931-7508

Email: micromatt@institutdrouin.com

Address: 1170, rue Beaulac , Saint-Laurent, QC H4R 1R7

14 June 202114 December 2022

New documents on Genealogy Quebec and how to donate archives to the Drouin Institute

Some 5000 documents have been added to the BMD cards tool, one of 15 collections available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.

These documents are from the Société d’histoire de la Seigneurie de Monnoir located in Marieville, Québec.
Here are the details:

Collection Monast
2186 family and BMD cards.
Fiches St-Sulpice
1134 marriage cards from the St-Sulpice parish in Lanaudière.
Recensement (census) 1765 de St-Mathias
226 handwritten cards pertaining to residents and the content of their farms.
St-Joseph-de-Chambly
279 baptism, marriage and burial cards from the St-Joseph-de-Chambly parish, 19th century.
Généalogie et fiches (Genealogies and cards)
1078 family cards, Dominique Lague’s genealogy, and death cards from the Chambly region.

These new documents may be browsed with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

What is the BMD cards collection?

The BMD cards tool is a repository of baptism, marriage and burial cards from Quebec, Ontario and the United States.

This tool contains the Antonin Loiselle, Kardex and Fabien fonds, as well as Ontario BMD cards, BMD cards sorted by cities and families, adoption cards, and death cards sorted by family name, provided by the Quebec Family History Society.

The documents in this collection are organized in a tree structure. In the majority of cases, the cards are distributed in alphabetical order, according to the last name of the subject of the card or the name of the place where applicable.

This screenshot shows the path to follow in order to find cards relating to members of the Gobert family.

You will find more information about this collection on the Drouin Institute’s blog.

You can browse the BMD cards collection as well as tens of millions of other documents of historical and genealogical interest by subscribing to Genealogy Quebec today!

Donating documents to the Drouin Institute

Whether you are a genealogist or a history enthusiast, you probably have accumulated a lot of information and documents over the years.

The Drouin Genealogical Institute, whose mission is the preservation and democratization of the historical and genealogical heritage of Quebec, is constantly looking for documents and data to add to the collections available on Genealogy Quebec.

If you would like to donate your documents and ensure their preservation and access for future generations, please contact us at contact@institutdrouin.com.

We are mainly interested in the following types of archives:

List of electors
Censuses
Birth, marriage, and death registers
Obituaries
Baptism, marriage, and burial directories
Headstone pictures
City directories
Property assessment rolls (List of land owners)
Memorial cards
Wedding photos (with names)
Postcards
Newspapers
Boarding school registers (Adoption, nurseries, hospices, orphanages, schools, convents)
Other historical documents with a high density of names

Do not hesitate to contact us!

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

31 May 202114 December 2022

Genealogy Quebec celebrates its 10th anniversary!

On May 20, 2011, the Drouin Genealogical Institute completed its digital shift by launching Genealogy Quebec, providing online access to more than 100 years of historical data accumulated over the course of its existence.

When it launched, Genealogy Quebec offered ten collections totaling 34 million images and files.

Genealogy Quebec’s homepage from 2011 to 2014

The website has evolved quite a bit over the past 10 years!

Genealogy Quebec’s homepage today

But much more than just the design has changed. Indeed, millions of new documents and images have been added over the last decade. Here is an overview of what is available on Genealogy Quebec today.

The LAFRANCE

The LAFRANCE is an index with link to the original document of births, marriages and deaths from Quebec, Ontario, Acadia and the United States. It contains:

ALL of Quebec’s Catholic baptisms and burials from 1621 to 1861
ALL of Quebec’s Catholic marriages from 1621 to 1918
ALL of Quebec’s Protestant marriages from 1760 to 1849
1,450,000 Quebec Catholic marriages from 1919 to today
80,000 Quebec civil marriages from 1969 to today
140,000 Ontario marriages from 1850 to today
38,000 marriages from the United States
3,000 Quebec Protestant marriages from 1850 to 1941
17,000 miscellaneous Quebec marriages from 2018 and 2019
68,000 miscellaneous Quebec BMD records from the 20^th and 21^st century

You may browse the LAFRANCE with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

Marriages and Deaths 1926-1997

This tool is an index of most of the marriages and deaths recorded in Quebec between 1926 and 1997, all religious denominations included. The original document is available for the marriages.

You may browse the Marriages and Deaths 1926-1997 tool with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

Obituary section

This section contains all of the obituaries and headstones available on the website. It contains:

2.6 million Canadian obituaries published online between 1999 and today
1,250,000 obituaries published in Quebec and Ontario newspapers between 1945 and today
97,000 memorial cards published between 1860 and today
712,000 tombstones from Quebec and Ontario cemeteries

You may browse the Obituary section with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

12 additional tools and collections

In addition to the collections mentioned above, Genealogy Quebec members have access to 12 additional tools containing various types of documents. These include notarial records, postcards, birth, marriage and death directories, city directories, censuses, family genealogies as well as archival funds containing historical documents and photos of all kinds.

You will find a list of all of the website’s tools at this address.

In total, Genealogy Quebec now offers more than 49 million images and documents allowing you to retrace the history of your ancestors in Quebec and the surrounding areas. Subscribe now to get access!

To all of our subscribers, whether you’ve been with us for a day or 10 years, thank you! It is through your support that we have been able to develop and grow our collections, and thus participate in the preservation of the historical heritage of Quebec and French Canadians.

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

18 May 202110 March 2022

Donating documents to the Drouin Institute

Whether you are a genealogist or a history enthusiast, you probably have accumulated a lot of information and documents over the years.

If you would like to donate your documents and ensure their preservation and access for future generations, please contact us at contact@institutdrouin.com.

We are mainly interested in the following types of archives:

List of electors
Censuses
Birth, marriage, and death registers
Obituaries
Baptism, marriage, and burial directories
Headstone pictures
City directories
Property assessment rolls (List of land owners)
Memorial cards
Wedding photos (with names)
Postcards
Newspapers
School yearbooks
Boarding school registers (Adoption, nurseries, hospices, orphanages, schools, convents)
Other historical documents with a high density of names

Whether your documents are listed or not, do not hesitate to contact us!

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

17 May 202114 December 2022

Six historical newspapers added to Genealogy Quebec

Six historical newspapers have been added to the Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections, one of 15 tools available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.

Here are the newly available newspapers:

Le Franco-Canadien (1893 to 1899)
Le Richelieu (1935 to 1969)
Le Richelieu agricole (1978 to 1980, 1983 and 1984)
Le Richelieu agricole et Dimanche (1986 and 1987)
Le Richelieu Dimanche (1987)
Le Canada-Français (various years between 1888 and 1987)

You will find these 72,841 new images in the Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections, under the “23 – Journaux Anciens” folder. These six publications add to the many newspapers already available in the section:

Chesterville Record	Commercial Gazette (Montréal)
Daily Witness (Montréal)	La Chronique de la Vallée du St-Maurice
La Minerve	La Semaine (Québec)
La Tribune Canadienne (Montréal)	La Vie Illustrée (Montréal)
La Voix Du Peuple (St-Jean)	L’Action Canadienne
L’Alliance (St-Jean)	L’Avant-Garde
L’Avenir de Quebec	Le Carillon (Québec)
Le Castor (Québec)	Le Charivari (Québec)
Le Courrier (St-Jean)	Le National (Montréal)
Le Progrès du Golfe	Le Protectionniste (St-Jean)
Le Semeur Canadien (Montréal)	Le Trésor des Familles (Québec)
L’Écho d’Iberville	L’Essor (St-Jean)
L’Obligation (Montréal)	L’Opinion Publique (Montréal)
L’Union de Woonsocket	L’Union des Cantons de l’Est (Arthabaskaville)
Midi-Presse (Montreal)	Paris-Canada (Montréal)
The Advertiser	The Canadian Jewish Review
The Dominion Illustrated News (Montréal)	The Inquirer (Trois-Rivières)
The Quebec Gazette

You may browse these documents as well as 49 million images and files of genealogical and historical interest by subscribing to Genealogy Quebec today!

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

3 May 2021

Obituary section update on Genealogy Quebec

More new content on Genealogy Quebec! This time in the Obituary section, which contains all the obituaries, memorial cards and tombstone pictures available on the website.

Memorial Cards

5,350 memorial cards have been added to the Obituary section, which now contains a total of 97,802 cards.
You can search this collection by name or first name of the deceased as well as by date of death.

Most of these cards pertain to individuals who died in Quebec between 1860 and today.
You can browse this collection with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

Internet obituaries

A new milestone is within reach in the Internet Obituaries section, with close to 2,600,000 death notices now available. As the name suggests, this section contains obituaries from various online sources and covers all of Canada from 1999 to today.

This collection is updated monthly and is equipped with a search engine allowing you to browse obituaries by name, date, or via the text of the notice.

All these documents can be browsed in the Obituary section, where you will also find, in addition to memorial cards and internet obituaries, 710,000 indexed photos of headstones and 1,250,000 death notices from Quebec and Ontario newspapers.
More information about the Obituary section can be found on the the Drouin Institute blog.

Subscribe to Genealogy Quebec to have access to the Obituary section as well as 14 other tools totaling nearly 47 million images and files!

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

19 April 2021

LAFRANCE update: 31,586 new records from Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick

31,586 new birth, marriage and death records are now available on the LAFRANCE, one of the 15 tools offered to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.

These new parish records are from Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick.

Record 7968864, LAFRANCE, GenealogyQuebec.com

Here is a detailed overview of the added records by year and location:

Parish / Location	Record type	Min year	Max year	Records
Ontario
Penetanguishene (St. Ann)	m	1850	1861	103
Ottawa (St-Joseph)	m	1858	1861	45
Ottawa (Notre-Dame)	m	1850	1861	979
Curran	m	1850	1861	179
Cornwall (St-Colomban)	m	1850	1861	128

Quebec (Non-Catholic)
Québec (Protestants)	b	1768	1800	1689
Québec (Protestants)	s	1768	1800	1041
Montréal (Anglican, Saint Thomas)	s	1842	1859	358
Montréal (Anglican, Saint Thomas)	b	1842	1860	615
Montréal (Anglican, Saint Thomas)	m	1850	1860	106
Montréal (Anglican, Christ Church Cathedral)	m	1850	1861	229
Frelighsburg (Anglican Church, Holy Trinity)	b	1804	1861	999
Frelighsburg (Anglican Church, Holy Trinity)	s	1808	1861	480
Frelighsburg (Anglican Church, Holy Trinity)	m	1850	1861	28
Montréal (Anglican, Saint Thomas)	b	1842	1860	615
Montréal (Anglican, Saint Thomas)	m	1850	1860	106
Montréal (Anglican, Saint Thomas)	s	1842	1859	358
Montréal (Anglican, Trinity Memorial Chapel)	b	1840	1861	827
Montréal (Anglican, Trinity Memorial Chapel)	m	1850	1861	146
Montréal (Anglican, Trinity Memorial Chapel)	s	1840	1861	465
Montréal (Congregational, Second)	b	1843	1857	83
Montréal (Congregational, Second)	m	1850	1857	13
Montréal (Congregational, Second)	s	1844	1857	46
Montréal (Congregational, Zion)	b	1834	1861	599
Montréal (Congregational, Zion)	m	1850	1861	111
Montréal (Congregational, Zion)	s	1834	1861	418
Montréal (Jewish – Spanish – Portuguese)	b	1841	1861	152
Montréal (Jewish – Spanish – Portuguese)	m	1851	1858	15
Montréal (Jewish – Spanish – Portuguese)	s	1841	1861	78
Montréal (Methodist, Mountain Street)	b	1843	1861	722
Montréal (Methodist, Mountain Street)	m	1850	1861	106
Montréal (Methodist, Mountain Street)	s	1844	1861	296
Montréal (Presbyterian, American Presbyterian)	b	1831	1861	507
Montréal (Presbyterian, American Presbyterian)	m	1850	1861	61
Montréal (Presbyterian, American Presbyterian)	s	1832	1861	408
Shefford (Anglican Church)	b	1822	1854	726
Shefford (Anglican Church)	m	1850	1854	29
Shefford (Anglican Church)	s	1822	1854	202

Quebec (First nations)
Sault-St-Louis (Kahnawake)	b	1825	1861	2266
Sault-St-Louis (Kahnawake)	s	1825	1861	1878

Acadia / New Brunswick
Cocagne	m	1801	1859	84
Cocagne	b	1800	1861	1319
Cocagne	s	1800	1861	110
Bouctouche	b	1800	1861	2208
Bouctouche	m	1800	1861	333
Bouctouche	s	1800	1861	309
Shemogue	s	1813	1854	167
Shemogue	b	1813	1857	1081
Bathurst-Ouest	b	1798	1861	2899
Bathurst-Ouest	m	1798	1861	526
Bathurst-Ouest	s	1798	1860	198
Nelson	b	1826	1853	2923
Nelson	m	1826	1845	659
Nelson	s	1826	1833	47

m = marriage, b = baptism, s = burial

In addition to these new records, the LAFRANCE contains:

ALL of Quebec’s Catholic marriages from 1621 to 1918
ALL of Quebec’s Catholic baptisms from 1621 to 1861
ALL of Quebec’s Catholic burials from 1621 to 1861
ALL of Quebec’s Protestant marriages from 1760 to 1849
1,450,000 Quebec Catholic marriages from 1919 to today
80,000 Quebec civil marriages from 1969 to today
140,000 Ontario marriages from 1850 to today
38,000 marriages from the United States
3,000 Quebec Protestant marriages from 1850 to 1941
17,000 miscellaneous Quebec marriages from 2018 and 2019
68,000 miscellaneous baptisms and burials from 1862 to 2019

More information regarding the LAFRANCE can be found on the Drouin Institute’s blog.

You may browse these documents, and millions more, by subscribing to Genealogy Quebec today!

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

7 April 202110 March 2022

Connolly File update: 74,789 new baptism, marriage and burial records on Genealogy Quebec!

An update has been applied to the Connolly File, one of 15 tools available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.

19,219 baptisms, 13,249 marriages and 42,321 burials were added through this update.

What is the Connolly File?

The Connolly File is an index of births, marriages and deaths from Quebec and parts of the United States and Canada covering a period spanning from 1621 to 2020. It is developed and maintained by the Société de généalogie des Cantons-de-l’Est.
The tool contains over 6,750,000 birth, marriage and death records.

You may browse the Connolly File with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

You will find more information about this collection as well as research tips and best practices in this article on the Drouin Institute blog.

Update details

Here is a more detailed overview of the update.

Quebec

Cimetière St-Charles ville de QC
Bur.1914-1940: 38,899 records

N-D-de-la-Providence, N-D-des-Pins Beauce
Bap. 1926-1940: 225 records
Mar. 1926-1940: 55 records
Bur. 1926-1940: 63 records

État Civil du Québec
Filiations: 104 records
Mar. 7913 records

Odanak (Yamaska), St-François-de-Sales
Bap. 1848-1942: 871 records
Mar. 1848-1942: 167 records
Bur. 1848-1941: 820 records

Robertsonville
Deaths 1926-1976: 364 records

St-Fulgence, comté Chicoutimi
Bap. 1871-1940: 3132 records
Mar. 1871-1940: 536 records
Bur. 1871-1940: 1185 records

St-Aimé, Kingsey Falls comté Drummond
Bap. 1842-1940: 1795 records
Mar. 1842-1940: 388 records
Bur. 1842-1940: 740 records

United States

St. Michael de Swansea MA, US
Bap. 1879-1996: 9877 records

Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes de Fall River MA, US
Mar. 1962-1999: 834 records

Sanford ME, US St. Ignatius
Mar. 1893-1908: 248 records

Stanford ME, US Holy Family
Mar. 1923-1991: 1520 records

St-Joseph de Fitchburg, MA, US
Mar. 1890-1995: 2724 records

St. Anthony, Jackman, ME, US
Bap. 1794-1998: 1666 records
Mar. 1892-1980: 771 records

St. Sebastian, Madison, ME, US
Mar. 1900-1980: 998 records

Additionally, some 484 corrections suggested by our users were applied.

Subscribe to Genealogy Quebec and start browsing the Connolly File today!

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team

31 March 202110 March 2023

Quebec birth, marriage and death records

The keeping of Quebec birth, marriage and death records dates back to the very beginnings of the French colony in North America.

In 1621, the first Catholic parish register opens, recording the births, marriages and burials of the population of the young colony.

Guillaume Couillard and Guillemette Hebert’s marriage in 1621, from the Notre-Dame-de-Québec register. Samuel De Champlain, friend of Guillaume, serves as witness.
Source: Record 66317, LAFRANCE, GenealogyQuebec.com

In the 1760s, following the conquest of New France by the British Empire, and the arrival of many individuals of Protestant faith in the province, the Catholic Church looses its monopoly in the documentation of birth, marriages and deaths in Quebec.

John Cativin and Isabella Donaldson’s marriage in 1766, from Montreal’s Anglican register.
Source: Record 4777972, LAFRANCE, GenealogyQuebec.com

In 1926, the State establishes the Registre de référence à l’état civil, which didn’t replace but rather complemented the practice of recording birth, marriage and death records in churches. This register includes a majority of the marriages and deaths recorded in the province between 1926 and 1997. It can be consulted with a subscription on Genealogy Quebec at this address.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s marriage in Montreal in 1964.
Source: Marriages and Deaths 1926-1997, GenealogyQuebec.com

In 1994, Quebec centralizes the registration of its population’s vital events with the creation of the Direction de l’état civil. The vast majority of these documents are not publicly available.

How Quebec birth, marriage and death records are used in genealogy

Thanks to the recording of Quebec’s birth, marriage and death records, initially by the church and then by the government, the descendants of Quebecers can easily trace the history of their families. But in concrete terms, how are birth, marriage and death records used to trace a family’s history?

Quebec marriages

The key to tracing a genealogical lineage is found in marriage records. The reason is simple: historically, the marriage official was required to include the names of the parents of the spouses in the marriage record.
This information allows us to go back a generation and find the marriage record of the parents of the spouses.
A complete lineage can thus be traced through the chain of marriages of the individuals forming it.

Several databases containing Quebec birth, marriage and death records exist on the Web, but the most complete is the LAFRANCE, available on Genealogy Quebec. We will use it here to illustrate the principle explained above.

To begin our research, we need a starting point, a marriage from the desired lineage. For demonstration purposes, we will be using the marriage of the great-grandparents of the author of this article, François Eugène Desjardins and Anna Jacques.

We begin with a search for the spouses in the LAFRANCE.

This allows us to find their marriage record, in 1907.

The marriage record contains the groom’s parents’ names, Charles Eugène Desjardins and Marie Malvina Fortin.

We will now search for their marriage.

Again, this search leads us to their marriage record, in 1864

This process is repeated for each generation, until we arrive at the first immigrant of the Desjardins line in Quebec, Antoine Roy dit Desjardins, who’s marriage record can be seen below.

Quebec birth and death records

Births and deaths, on the other hand, can be used to paint a more complete picture of the lives of one’s ancestors.

For example, PRDH-IGD‘s “family files” group together all the vital events (baptisms, marriages and burials) related to a family unit.

Family file of Pierre Roy Desjardins and Marie Anne Martin, with their children listed as well as links to the baptisms, marriages and burials of every individual mentioned.
Source: Family File 6710, PRDH-IGD.com

This global portrait, drawn from the baptism, marriage and burial records of the Catholic Church, gives us a unique insight into the lives of our ancestors and their migratory movements over the years.

Whether consulting a marriage, a birth or a death record, one can hope to learn the names of the involved parties and their parents, the date and place of the event being recorded, various additional information such as the place of residence or origin of the individuals mentioned, their marital status, age, and more. That’s a lot to learn about our ancestors!

The best sources of Quebec birth, marriage and death records online

Quebec is recognized worldwide for the comprehensiveness of its genealogical collections, and there are many sites offering access to Quebec birth, marriage and death records on the Internet.

Genealogy Quebec

Genealogy Quebec subscribers have access to the largest collection of Quebec records available on the internet. These can be found in various formats on the site: church parish records, civil government records, baptism, marriage and burial records, vital event register indexes, and more. The majority of these documents can be found in the LAFRANCE tool, a detailed index with a link to the original document of over 10 million civil and religious records from Quebec. The tool is equipped with a search engine allowing you to browse the following documents:

Every Catholic marriage from Quebec between 1621 and 1918
Every Protestant marriage from Quebec between 1760 and 1849
Every marriage recorded by the Quebec government between 1926 and 1997
Every Catholic baptism and burial from Quebec between 1621 and 1861
Every death recorded by the Quebec government between 1926 and 1997
1.7 million additional marriages from various sources in Quebec, Ontario, and the USA between 1919 and today
Tens of thousands of additional records from Quebec, Ontario and Acadia

Church record as presented on Genealogy Quebec’s LAFRANCE

A subscription is necessary in order to access the collections available on Genealogy Quebec. You can subscribe at this address.

PRDH-IGD

PRDH-IGD is a directory of ALL vital events (baptisms, marriages and burials) recorded by the Catholic church in Quebec and French Canada from 1621 to 1849, as well as a genealogical dictionary of families commonly referred to as “Family Reconstructions”. The PRDH-IGD database contains over 2,500,000 records.

What makes PRDH-IGD a unique resource is the structure of its database. In addition to baptism, marriage and burial records, PRDH-IGD contains what are called individual and family files.

Every individual mentioned in a record in the database receives their own “individual file” in which all the information available on the individual is centralized.

Similarly, every married couple is assigned a “family file” which fulfills a similar role as the individual file, but in relation to a family unit.

The family file lists all of the couple’s children and provides a link to the events where these children are mentioned.

Ultimately, the PRDH-IGD database can be described as a massive family tree encompassing every Catholic individual who lived in Quebec between 1621 and 1849, or in other words, almost every single ancestor of the French Canadian population of America.

A subscription is necessary in order to use the PRDH-IGD database. You can subscribe at this address.

Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (Quebec National Archives)

BAnQ’s website offers access to a digitized version of the parish registers of Quebec up to 1916, which can be consulted free of charge at this address.

Unlike the copy of this collection available on Genealogy Quebec, BAnQ’s version is not indexed. This means that you have to navigate through the church register manually, one page at a time, in order to find the desired record. Therefore, it is necessary to know the year and the parish in which the event was recorded in order to find it.

Genealogical societies

Joining a genealogical society can be a great way to access numerous collections of birth, marriage and death records, as they specialize in the preservation of genealogical and historical archives from their region. In addition, the volunteers and employees of the societies can guide you in your research and help you find the documents you are looking for.

You will find a list of genealogical societies in Quebec sorted by region at this address.

22 March 2021

The Acadia – Families tool had been updated on Genealogy Quebec

An update has been applied to the Acadia – Families tool, one of the 15 collections available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.

Some 11,453 family files were added through this update.

What is the Acadia – Families tool?

The Acadia – Families tool contains 141,795 family files based on original Acadian records.

Currently, these records span from the beginning of the Acadian colony to the end of 1849. In addition, 33 locations covering from 1850 to the end of the available registers are included. A list of these locations as well as a more detailed overview of the collection are available on the Drouin Institute’s blog.

The files compile the information available about a family unit. They usually contain the names and first names of the parents, the first name of the child, the dates of birth and/or baptism, death and/or burial, and marriage (a total of 263,905 events), as well as the parish. Links to the original church documents pertaining to the baptisms, marriages and burials mentioned in the file are also often available.

Family file from the Acadia – Families tool. The blue links lead to the original documents.

Original document from an Acadia – Families file

The Acadia – Families tool can be browsed with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.

Genealogically yours,

The Drouin team