In episode 96, we looked at other less used databases at Ancestry.com. Today we look at a portion of their book collection. Directories and gazetteers are great resources for glimpses of the daily lives of the residents. Where did they shop? Who was the girl next door? Which churches...
Many genealogists go straight to online trees when they encounter a new surname in the family tree. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s part of the initial literature search we should all do. We need to see if someone else has already researched that particular line before we spend...
Walk in the footsteps of your ancestors. Find out about their lives, whether they were a soldier, a fille du roi, or a fur trader. This tour was designed for genealogists, by genealogists. We will visit all these wonderful historic sites and museums: A guided tour of Trois-Rivières, Old...
I hope you enjoyed episode #85, part 1 of the Museum of Work & Culture. In part 2, we continue our virtual tour with a look at the mill-sponsored baseball teams, the ubiquitous triple decker (at least in New England cities), a parochial classroom, and a union hall. All...
We all have them. Piles of notarial records that need translating. Among them is arguably the most important notary record of all–the marriage contract. This document gives us an intimate look into the lives of our ancestors. Yet many of us haven’t tackled them yet due to the language...
Moving on…to eleven more record sets from the Drouin Collection records. These records span the United States, Quebec, Ontario, and the Eastern Townships. They cover Catholic as well as Protestant records. They begin with the settlement period, and some go into the 21st century. Bertrand Desjardins joins us again...
HAPPY EASTER! Perhaps after all your guests leave, you’ll settle down for some research time. Today’s records will keep you busy for hours. In episode #65, you voted for the next featured collection from the Genealogy Quebec website. The top vote-getter was the Drouin Collection records. So in both...
In 1759, where were your ancestors living? Were any in Quebec City? Or Beauport? Did they live on the Île d’Orléans? Or on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River? Were they part of the Montreal or Trois-Rivière militia? If so, they had a front row seat during a...
French-Canadian genealogists have an almost unheard of wealth of records with which we can trace our lines back hundreds of years. The Drouin Institute provides us with easy access to these records by publishing the original parish register pages online at a nominal fee. It also publishes the reconstituted...
Who were the early settlers of Fort Ponchartrain/Detroit? What records did they leave behind? Co-authors Suzanne Sommerville, Gail Moreau-DesHarnais, and Diane Wolford Sheppard answer those questions and many more in their award-winning book, Le Détroit du Lac Érié. Cadillac established the fort with about fifty soldiers and a group of...
