You’ve probably heard many times, “Parish registers are easy to read. Once you know how to read one type of record, you can read them all. They follow a pattern.” “Oh, no! This record is different!” And that’s true – for the most part. But what happens when you...
When entering data into your genealogy database, have you ever asked yourself: Do I enter Nouvelle France or Canada? Is St-Charles the parish or the village? Where is the Pays d’en Haut? With the help of our guest Suzanne Boivin Sommerville, we will attempt to answer some of your...
What would we as genealogists do without genealogy societies and their libraries? They are critical in compiling, preserving and disseminating the information we need to prove our family lines. In our first Spotlight on a Society segment, Loraine DiCerbo, president of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan (FCHSM), tells...
Imagine being a young lady in your teens or early twenties. You leave everything known to you to travel six to eight weeks across an unforgiving ocean toward a harsh land that requires all your strength and resolve to survive. We of French-Canadian descent are here today because approximately...
In French, searching for a surname beginning with an H or a vowel presents a unique set of problems. Episode 5 presents strategies for success. In the main segment, we acknowledge that it is sometimes difficult to determine a given name in a handwritten record, sometimes due to difficulty...
There are so many ways to spell certain sounds in French that it sometimes becomes difficult to even recognize a name as the one for which you are searching. In episode 4 of Maple Stars and Stripes (MapleStarsandStripes.com/4), we take a look at the many ways of spelling the...
When our French-Canadian ancestors left Québec and came to America, they began to generate records in an English-speaking system. Many clerks wrote their names phonetically. As a result, the names in American records often don’t come close to the actual spelling and can often be unrecognizable to an inexperienced...
If you’ve come across dit/dite names in your French-Canadian research and wondered what it all meant, then episode 2 of Maple Stars and Stripes is for you! Along with learning how to pronounce it, we’ll also cover its origins and uses. Then you’ll find many print and online resources...
