Our ancestors are more than names, dates, and places. They have personal stories. Those stories were influenced by what was going on around them at local, regional, national, and world levels. Ancestry’s book collection includes those with information about Quebec Province. There are books about the history of various...
Books
MSS-095-Finding Photos of Your French-Canadian Ancestors
The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” couldn’t be truer than when we see our ancestor’s face for the first time. We can’t help but look for a resemblance to the features looking back at us. Who in the family has those eyes, that nose? But finding...
New Book!
Just wanted to update everyone. My project is done, and I’m working on the next episode of MSS which should be out August 1 (if my computer doesn’t crash, which it is showing signs of). The project I was working on during the COVID-19 isolation was the completion of...
MSS-090-The Story behind Our French-Canadian Ancestors
Thomas LaForest published a 30-volume set of books called Our French-Canadian Ancestors. Many genealogists, especially those who can’t read French, enjoyed reading their ancestors’ stories in English. But after LaForest’s death, these volumes became more difficult to find. That is, until Norm Hebert decided to do something about it. In...
MSS-087-The Story of Guillaume Couture
CHECK YOUR DATABASES! Is Guillaume Couture one of your ancestors? If so, enjoy this compelling story of a man who used his natural gifts to survive and create understanding between two diverse groups of people. This is an ancestor your family can be proud of. If Guillaume is not in...
MSS-080-Felix Gatineau and the Francos of Southbridge, Massachusetts
What was life like in a Little Canada? Thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Blood’s translation of Félix Gatineau’s 1919 Histoire des Franco-Américains de Southbridge, Massachusetts, we now have an in-depth look at the social, business, military and religious experiences of our ancestors. This translation, History of the Franco-Americans of Southbridge, Massachusetts, is...
MSS-076-A Distinct Alien Race
A Boston newspaper in 1889 described French-Canadian immigrants in this way: “They are kept a distinct alien race, subject to the Pope in matters of religion and of politics. Soon…they will govern you, Americans.” They spoke a foreign language. They followed the Popish religion. They were mysterious and threatening...
MSS-069-Filles à Marier
We introduced a brave group of women known as the Filles du Roi in episodes 7 and 44. They journeyed from France to the New World in an organized governmental program. But for the three previous decades, other (arguably braver) women also made the journey. Known today as the...
MSS-068-Holiday Gifts for the Genealogist
Do you need that special gift for a fellow genealogist? Or is your family looking for ideas of what to get you? Today we look at a collection of works by author Timothy J. Kent. His books cover life as a voyageur, the social history of forts located in...
MSS-064-Settling Detroit
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...