These records can be browsed in the LAFRANCE, which also contains ALL of Quebec’s Catholic marriages from 1621 to 1918, ALL of Quebec’s Catholic baptisms and burials from 1621 to 1861 as well as ALL of Quebec’s Protestant marriages from 1760 to 1849. You will find more information about the LAFRANCE on the Drouin Institute’s blog.
Last Tuesday, the Drouin Institute was featured on Salut Bonjour, the most popular morning show in Quebec. If you missed it, you can view the segment by clicking on the image below (please note that it is in French).
26 392 parish register images have been added to the Drouin Collection Records, one of the 15 tools available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.
Notre-Dame de Montréal (Parish registers 1621-1876)
4173 images from the register of Notre-Dame de Montréal dated between 1705 and 1792 were added to the Registre paroissiaux 1621-1876 collection, which contains the religious copy of Quebec’s parish registers for the period in question. The civil copy of these same registers is also available on Genealogy Quebec.
You may browse them with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec in the Drouin Collection Records under the Québec/Registres non-catholiques 1760-1885/ folder.
Quebec parish registers available in the Drouin Collection
The Drouin Collection Records is a collection of images of parish registers (baptisms, burials and marriages) as well as other documents of historical and genealogical significance. It covers all of Quebec and French Acadia as well as parts of Ontario, New Brunswick and the Northeastern United States.
This massive collection contains the entirety of Quebec’s civil registry from 1621 to the 1940s, which encompasses the vast majority of individuals who lived in the province during that period, making it an invaluable tool for genealogical research.
The parish registers of Quebec available in this collection are organized under different subsections.
Fonds Drouin
The Fonds Drouin folder contains all of Quebec’s parish registers, from their inception in 1621 all the way to the 1940s and even sometimes 1967, depending on the parish.
It is on this collection that the LAFRANCEindex, another one of the multiple tools available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers, is based. The LAFRANCE index contains all of Quebec’s Catholic baptisms and burials between 1621 and 1861, all of Quebec’s Catholic marriages between 1621 and 1919, and all of Quebec’s Protestant marriages between 1760 and 1849.
The Registres paroissiaux 1621-1876 (Parish registers 1621-1876) folder contains the parish registers of Quebec from 1621 to 1876. However, these are not the same images as those available under the Fonds Drouin folder.
Historically, a parish priest in charge of recording baptisms, marriages and burials had to produce two copies of his register. One copy was kept at the church, and the other was sent to the court office, the so-called civil copy. The copy in the Fonds Drouin folder of the Drouin Collection Records is this civil copy, while the one in the Registres paroissiaux 1621-1876 (Parish registers 1621-1876) folder is the religious copy kept in the church.
The Registres non-catholiques 1760-1885 folder contains the registers of various Quebec non-Catholic parishes from 1760 to 1885.
Most of these registers are also available in the Fonds Drouin folder, but the version available in Registres non-catholiques 1760-1885 was photographed more recently and may prove useful if the Fonds Drouin copy is of poor quality.
The Registres québécois, Actes découpés folder contains cropped records taken from various parish registers in Abitibi-Témiscamingue as well as the Gaspé Peninsula. What differentiates these records is that they are individually cropped from the parish register, often making them easier to browse and read.
Registres québécois, Série 4000 (1801-2008) (Série 4000 Quebec registers (1801-2008))
The Série 4000 contains parish registers from various regions in Quebec, mainly the Gaspé Peninsula, Mauricie, the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships and Outaouais. These registers cover from the beginning of the 19th century up to 2008.
You may browse all of these parish registers and much more by subscribing to Genealogy Quebec today!
5600 wedding photos as well as the Chesterville Record, a newspaper from Ontario, were recently added to Genealogy Quebec.
The Chesterville Record
The Chersterville Record is an English-language newspaper from Ontario digitized with the collaboration of Généalogie et archives Saint-Laurent inc., a genealogical society located in Cornwall, Ontario. This collection spans from 1894 to 1939 and also includes the year 1978.
These 11 893 new images can be browsed in the Drouin Institute’s Miscellaneous Collections, one of 15 tools available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers, under the “23 – Journaux Anciens” folder. This new publication adds to the many newspapers already available in the section:
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)
L’Action Canadienne
L’Avant-Garde
L’Avenir de Quebec
Le Canada-Français
Le Carillon (Québec)
Le Castor (Québec)
Le Charivari (Québec)
Le National (Montréal)
Le Progrès du Golfe
Le Semeur Canadien (Montréal)
Le Trésor des Familles (Québec)
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
Écho d’Iberville
La Voix du Peuple
L’Alliance
L’Essor
Le Protectionniste
Le Courrier de St-Jean
Wedding photos
5600 wedding photos, mainly from Ontario and Quebec, have been added to the Drouin Miscellaneous Collections under the folder “26 – Généalogie Saint-Laurent – Cornwall, Ontario“. These photos are indexed under the surname and the first name of the groom.
The Drouin Miscellaneous Collections are also home to a variety of historical documents and archives such as letters, parish archives, postcards, biographies, judicial and municipal archives, and much more!
It is a must-see section of the website for those with a passion for history. You may browse it with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.
Some 56 376 headstone pictures were added to the Obituary section, one of the 15 tools available to Genealogy Quebec subscribers.
These new images bring the total number of tombstones available on the website to over 668 000. Here are the cemeteries that were added or completed in this update:
Every headstone available on Genealogy Quebec has been indexed and can be consulted in the Obituary section. The collection can be searched by last name and by the text written on the stone.
Click on the result you are interested in to view a picture of the stone.
The Obituary section also contains 3 other collections:
Internet obituaries, which contains obituaries published online from 1999 to today.
Newspaper obituaries, which contains obituaries from newspapers published between 1860 and today.
Memorial cards, which contains tens of thousands of memorial cards published between 1860 and today.
All of these collections are indexed and can be explored using a search engine.
The Obituary section may be browsed with a subscription to Genealogy Quebec at this address.
What is Genealogy Quebec?
Genealogy Quebec is a subscription based research website regrouping all of the collections and tools developed by the Drouin Institute over the course of its existence.
The website’s 15 tools and collections total for over 45 million images and files covering all of Quebec as well as part of the United States, Ontario and Acadia from 1621 to this day. Genealogy Quebec is by far the largest collection of Quebec genealogical and historical documents on the Web.
Around 35 000 family files were added to the tool through this update.
What is the Acadia – Families tool?
The Acadia – Families tool contains 130 342 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, 30 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 an individual. They generally 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 239 517 dates), as well as the parish. The files usually provide links to the original documents of the baptisms, marriages and burials mentioned.
Family file from the Acadia – Families tool. Click on the blue links to view the original documents.
Do you have questions about GenealogyQuebec.com, PRDH-IGD.com or genealogy in general? Do you want to share your research findings with other genealogy enthusiasts?
Look no further! Subscribe to the brand new Genealogy Quebec forum today. It is free and open to all!
Smallpox was a highly contagious and often fatal disease which was a real plague in several regions of the world until its eradication in 1979. Its impact on Quebec during its colonial period was discussed in the first part of this article.
An 1802 cartoon of the early controversy surrounding Edward Jenner’s vaccination theory, showing using his cowpox-derived smallpox vaccine causing cattle to emerge from patients. Wikimedia Commons.
Smallpox struck Quebec for the last time in 1885. Almost a century had passed since the conception of the smallpox vaccine, yet vaccination was not widespread among French Canadians despite efforts by governments to encourage or even impose it.
In March 1885, a conductor of the Grand Trunk Railway brought smallpox to Montreal. His bedsheets then infected Pélagie Robichaud, a worker in the laundry room of the hospital where the man was receiving treatment. She was the first to victim of the 1885 smallpox epidemic. Her burial indicates that she passed away in Montreal on April 2nd.
Following the contagion of Pélagie Robichaud, the disease killed several thousand people in 1885 and 1886, with Montreal at the center of the epidemic. Vaccination was imposed on Montrealers, not without resistance: several anti-vaccination riots broke out among the suspicious population.
The anti-vaccine movement had influential figures on its side. Joseph Émery-Coderre, an eminent doctor campaigning against compulsory vaccination, is a notable example. The Catholic Church was called in to convince the reluctant population. Édouard-Charles Fabre, Bishop of Montreal at the time, played a decisive role in garnering public support for the vaccination campaign; he would order the priests of his diocese to do the same.
This crisis arose in a complex political context: it broke out at the same time as the North West rebellion, during which the Métis of the Prairies revolted against the Canadian government. The Métis of Western Canada, who are primarily descended from French Canadians and First Nations, were mostly French-speaking and Catholic, and their rebellion enjoyed considerable support in Quebec.
Its failure, which notably resulted in the hanging of Louis Riel, considerably exacerbated tensions between Francophones and Anglophones in Quebec as well as the distrust of French Canadians towards government directives. John A. Macdonald, then Prime Minister of Canada, is credited with the phrase “[Riel] shall hang though every dog in Quebec bark in his favour.”
Louis Riel and the Métis provisional government. Wikimedia Commons.
French and English-language newspapers were passing the buck, on the one hand evoking the hysteria of English Canadians and on the other hand the uncleanliness of French Canadians. On September 12th, 1885, L’Union des Cantons-de-l’Est, based in Victoriaville, published an article on the alleged ravages of smallpox. Here is the introduction:
” If we were to believe the American newspapers published in English, we would think that smallpox is decimating the good city of Montreal. Practically speaking, our commercial metropolis is currently in quarantine at this time!Many people are suffering, and many more will suffer from this state of affairs. And whose fault is it? It is your city’s press, good people of Montreal. It spread everywhere that smallpox was eating away at you, that the plague was taking on horrible proportions, that the whole city was going to have to go through it. “
Thus, this article accuses English-language newspapers of greatly exaggerating the proportions of the smallpox epidemic, especially since English Canadians seemed to attribute the gravity of the situation to French Canadians:
” Now, as there needs to be a bête noire everywhere, it was imagined that French Canadians must be the originators and propagators of the epidemic. The Montreal Herald accused our conationals of being ignorant, dirty, filthy, etc. This is a big slander! Our French Canadian women are generally clean, industrious, spending three quarters of their time washing and cleaning in their homes. “
However, this article does not reject science and recognizes the shortcomings of the French-Canadian population when it comes to hygiene.
” The ravages of indifference to reading and science are infinitely more to be feared than those of smallpox in Montreal, whose victims do not exceed a few dozen. “
Also in September 1885, however, remedies and recipes for smallpox were published in L’Union des Cantons-de-l’Est, perpetuating the idea that vaccination was superfluous at best, if not dangerous.
” I remember reading in the (Journal de l’Instruction publique) that the Sarracenia root was an antidote against this disease. Quickly I set to work, I sent my altar boy, a young Montagnais, to fetch me the plant in question, we infused the root, scarcely had they taken two or three potions that they felt sensibly better, the fever disappeared, the pustules dried out, they were out of danger, they did not even bear the marks of smallpox. ”
” When Jenner discovered the cowpox vaccine in England, the world of science wanted to strike lightning upon his head; but when the most learned medical school in the universe, that of Paris, published this recipe for smallpox, it passed without a hitch. It is as infallible as fate and wins in all cases. Zinc sulphate, 1 grain ; digitalis, 1 grain ; 1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Mix with two tablespoons of water. When the mixture is perfect add four ounces of water. Take a teaspoonful every hour. The disease will go away within twelve hours. “
The 1885 epidemic was the last major health crisis related to smallpox in the Western world, just under a century before the complete eradication of the sickness thanks to vaccination. 1979 marked the end of the virus responsible for one of the deadliest contagious diseases in human history, of which only a few samples remain to this day for research purposes.
Marielle Côté-Gendreau Student and Université de Montréal’s Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) collaborator.
Smallpox is a highly contagious and often fatal disease which was a real plague in several regions of the world until its eradication in 1979. It has invaded the French Canadian population on numerous occasions since the start of the colony, wreaking havoc in parishes.
It is under the names of petite vérole or picot(t)e that smallpox is most often designated in Quebec registers. This name of picote originates from the blisters which covered the bodies of the victims.
Illumination presenting a disease which seems to be smallpox, Toggenburg Bible (Switzerland), 1411. Wikimedia Commons.
The parish priest of L’Islet, a village in the historic region of Côte-du-Sud on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River southwest of Quebec City, highlighted the usage of these two terms in a rare note in the margin of a burial record. He registered on August 24th, 1792 the death of Marie Louise Bernier, 19th and “last dead of this disease, that is to say of the petite vérole or picote in Canadian or French terms since October 23rd, 1791”.
Smallpox is the disease involved in the voluntary contamination of enemy First Nations with infected blankets during Pontiac’s War, an initiative reportedly approved by British officer Jeffrey Amherst. This event has been on the news in the past few years as the City of Montreal decided to rename Amherst street to “Atateken”. As smallpox was not present in America before the arrival of the Europeans, it was especially deadly among the Natives, who had no prior immunity.
On May 4th, 1709, Louis Miskouabemich, a man of the Nepissing First Nation, was baptized in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. The record says he was 110 years old, which is unlikely but certainly indicates an advanced age. The elder had previously received the ondoiement, a quick ceremony that takes the place of baptism if death is likely to occur before a proper baptism can be organized.
Indeed, Louis “[was] dangerously sick of small pox”. His age and possibly his social position gave him a very advantageous sponsorship: his godfather was none other than Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, who was then Governor of New France. His wife Élisabeth de Joybert held the role of godmother. The couple were absent and represented at the ceremony by a couple of local notables.
Louis Miskouabemich died on June 27th of the same year.
Smallpox was known to cause miscarriages and premature deliveries, and increase infant mortality rates. Many of these instances can be found in Quebec registers.
Marie Huguet dit Latour, from L’Ancienne-Lorette, near Quebec City, experienced a tragic end in 1755: “the first picotée who brought it from Quebec City died pregnant her child baptized by the midwife in its mother’s womb”. Her death occurred only 6 months after her marriage. The child, therefore assumed to be highly premature, clearly did not survive as it was ondoyé while still in the womb.
Other traces of premature births due to smallpox can be uncovered in the Lachine registers. For example, in 1702, the burial of a child “born last night aged seven months his mother being sick of smallpox and in case of danger he was ondoyé by Jeanne Malteau the midwife”.
However, the family reconstructions available on PRDH-IGD tell us that the mother, Barbe Brunet, overcame the disease and died in Châteauguay at the respectable age of 74.
A few months after this child’s burial, a woman named Marie Fortin “died last night of smallpox while giving birth to a girl aged six and a half months who was immediately ondoyé by the midwife and then died and was buried in the same grave as her mother”.
Smallpox also took an active part in a historic drama, the Expulsion of the Acadians by Great Britain and its American colonies in 1755, during which over 12,000 of them were torn away from their lands. Smallpox developed in certain groups, adding to the scourges of hunger, thirst, cold and other diseases that were already decimating the Acadians.
From the hundreds that reached Quebec, many were severely weakened by smallpox. The numerous burial records marked with “acc” or “acad” in the Quebec City registers, identifying Acadian deaths, are testimonies to this tragedy. The winter of 1757-1758 was particularly deadly.
December 26th to 28th, 1757, Notre-Dame-de-Québec. Note the numerous “Acad” margin notes on these pages of the Québec register. Source: Image d1p_31431309.jpg, Drouin Collection Records (Québec/Fonds Drouin/QC/Catholique/Québec (Notre-Dame)/1750/1757/), GenealogyQuebec.com
The wandering of Acadians in exile would sometimes last several years, as illustrated by the burial in the cemetery of Saint-Cuthbert of Catherine, “Cadienne [Acadian woman] who died of smallpox after receiving all her sacraments as soon as she arrived in the said parish”, on November 6th, 1769.
It appears that smallpox also affected the British army garrisoned in Quebec City. In the registers of Berthierville, formerly called Berthier-en-Haut, we can find this curious record, written in English:
We the undernamed persons do hereby certify that John Mackffee, soldier in the 28th Regiment and in Captain Darlis (?) Company and Jennet Forah were married and lawfully entered the bond of Matrimony, and that some time after, said Macfee was, by the Providence of God seized with the Small Pox and dyed at Quebec in June 1766 dated at Quebec the 10th day of September 1766
This is followed by a paragraph written in French, which deems this strange act appropriate and authorizes the widow to contract a new marriage if she wishes.
This mortuary record appears to be in a suitable form according to the customs of the troops of this province; even though I do not know the signatures; if the person whose death is attested is the same person with whom the person who presents herself for a new marriage was married, you can regard her as a widow and carry on. Only take care to verify her name as much as you can in Montreal on May 6th, 1768
Source: Image d1p_1161b0055.jpg, Drouin Collection Records (Québec/Fonds Drouin/B/Berthierville/1760/1766/), GenealogyQuebec.com
10 years later, smallpox played an important role in the failure of the invasion of British Quebec by the American revolutionaries in 1775-1776. An epidemic in the rebel ranks considerably reduced the troops available and forced the abandonment of the project of conquest.
Thus, smallpox periodically affected the inhabitants of Quebec for two centuries with epidemics of varying severity. It struck Quebec for the last time in 1885. Montreal then became the epicenter of a severe epidemic. This crisis and its repercussions, both sanitary and political, will be discussed in the second part of this article.
Marielle Côté-Gendreau Student and Université de Montréal’s Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) collaborator.
The indexing of parish registers from Ontario and Acadia continues on Genealogy Quebec, with some 6071 baptism and burial records added to the LAFRANCE this month.
Marriage record as presented on GenealogyQuebec.com’s LAFRANCE
The two main parishes included in this update are Tracadie, New Brunswick, and Arichat, Nova Scotia. The added records span from 1798 to 1861 for Tracadie, and 1839 to 1861 for Arichat.
These records can be browsed in the LAFRANCE, which also contains ALL of Quebec’s Catholic marriages from 1621 to 1918, ALL of Quebec’s Catholic baptisms and burials from 1621 to 1861 as well as ALL of Quebec’s Protestant marriages from 1760 to 1849. You will find more information about the LAFRANCE on the Drouin Institute’s blog.
The Drouin Genealogical Institute is happy to announce the opening of its official forum! Come share your passion for genealogy and history with members of our team and our community!
This forum is accessible to everyone, whether you are a member of Genealogy Quebec and PRDH-IGD or not.
The sections
The forum is divided into 3 sections: “Help and technical support”, “Genealogy questions” and “Share your research and discoveries”.
Help and technical support
This section is used to submit any question or problem related to the use of PRDH-IGD.com and GenealogyQuebec.com. You may ask questions about the subscription process, the content of the databases, research tips, or anything else related to the sites. Refer to the “Genealogy questions” section for questions that are not directly related to the websites.
Genealogy questions
This section is dedicated to any question related to genealogy and history research. Refer to the “Help and technical support” section for questions specific to PRDH-IGD and Genealogy Quebec.
Share your research and discoveries
As the name suggests, this section is used to share the results of your research as well as your most interesting genealogical and historical findings. Share your successes and failures, your most complex cases and your most unusual stories!
Join the discussion
Please note that your PRDH-IGD.com and GenealogyQuebec.com login information cannot be used on the forum. To participate, you will need to register a new account on the forum.
The forum is in constant development! Please feel free to share your suggestions and comments with us, so that we can provide you with the best possible discussion platform.
25 000 newspaper obituaries were added to Genealogy Quebec‘s Obituary section in May, bringing the collection to a total of over 700 000 death notices.
These new obituaries come from across Quebec and are dated, for the most part, from the 21st century.
Newspaper obituaries can be browsed in the Obituary section on GenealogyQuebec.com, which contains most of the obituaries, memorial cards and headstones available on the website. It is divided in 4 sub-sections:
Internet obituaries, which contains obituaries published online from 1999 to today.
Newspaper obituaries, which contains obituaries from newspapers published between 1860 and today.
Tombstones, which contains pictures of headstones from hundreds of cemeteries in Quebec and Ontario.
Memorial cards, which contains tens of thousands of memorial cards published between 1860 and today.
These subsections are indexed and can be browsed using a search engine. You will find more information about the Obituary section on the Drouin Institute blog.
