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Episode 090-January 1, 2020
In today’s episode, Norm Hebert explains the story behind the books, CD-ROMs, and digital copies from the series Our French-Canadian Ancestors.
The Story behind Our French-Canadian Ancestors
Norm and I discussed the following:
Our French-Canadian Ancestors is a 30-volume set of books highlighting stories of the original settlers in New France.
Each volume contains between fifteen to eighteen biographies with sources.
Earlier volumes have articles describing the life of our ancestors.
Father Gérard Lebel devoted his life to researching Quebec documents and writing the stories of the original Quebec settlers. Historian Jacques Saintonge and Father Lebel produced the material in French. They were originally published as individual biographies.
In 1983, Thomas LaForest translated the biographies and put them into the thirty volumes along with some of his own materials such as maps and historical articles.
The images in the book are not actual likenesses of our ancestors. They are a representation of the person and his occupation.
After Thomas LaForest passed away, his books were no longer available except as second-hand copies. Norm Hebert contacted his widow and worked a deal giving him permission to digitize each volume and sell them on a CD. He also came into possession of about 800 copies of the books left at a printer’s storage unit. What is left of these books and the discs are available on Ebay. All volumes are available on discs, but the only books remaining are volumes 2, 4, 8-9, 11, and 17-30.
After our interview, Norm revamped his Facebook page and group. The descriptions of the material found on Facebook are the same; but the locations may have changed. Below is a correct assessment of what is located where at the time of the publishing of this page.
Our French-Canadian Ancestors Facebook page
Photos section
Maps
Norm’s pedigree charts
Quebec City and area city directory for 1822
Groups section
Link to Our Free French-Canadian Ancestors Facebook group
Our Free French-Canadian Ancestors Facebook group
Photos section – Photos tab
Old photos
Contrecoeur pioneer monument
Norm Hebert’s pedigree charts and ancestor information
Richer family info
The Cadillac Convoy monument in Detroit
Reader-contributed material
Photos section- Albums tab
All 30 complete volumes of Our French-Canadian Ancestors
Individual pioneer biographies in .jpg format
Files section
Individual pioneer biographies in downloadable .pdf format (can do a name search)
Kaskaskia Records, 1778-1790
Stanley Leon Chatelain and Lucy Ann Dozier of Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana: A Family History from the 16th to 21st Century
Origine des Cormier (in French)
Baillon (Descendants of Jacques Miville, Sieur des Chenes)
Catherine de Baillon Geneology [sic]
Charlemagne pedigree (From Catherine Baillon to Charlemagne from American-Canadian Genealogist, vol 25, # 4)
Direct Line Ancestry to Charlemagne (from Bergeron/Blanchette)
French Canada Ancestors TOCs (start here to find which volume your ancestor appears in)
french_index (or begin here for alphabetical list of ancestors with volume #)
Dupont-xainte-plaque_large
Du Pont Family
Charlemagne, King of France, Holy Roman Emperor
A Genealogy of the Bonhomme Family
List of [Carignan-Salières] Regiment Soldiers [married to Filles du Roy]
Carignan-Salières Regiment 1665 and 1668
Abraham Martin’s Farm
Abraham Martin dit l’Écossais (known as the Scotsman)
Old Manors, Old Houses
dictionary genealogy of Charlesbourg (Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles de Charlesbourg)
1681_household_census_Quebec_New France_Part 1
Montreal_City_Directory_1887-88
Montreal_City_Directory_1845-46
Quebec_City_Directory_1848-49
Montreal_City_Directory_1853
Montreal_City_Directory_1854
Trois-Rivieres_Directory_1867-68
Montreal_City_Directory_1873-74
1681_household_census_Quebec_New France_Part 4
Montreal_City_Directory_1862-63
Montreal_City_Directory_1879-80
1681_household_census_Quebec_New France_Reference
Montreal_City_Directory_1865-66
Quebec_City_Directory_1885
Quebec_City_Directory_1877
Montreal_City_Directory_1872-73
Quebec_City_Directory_1879
Quebec_City_Directory_1888-89
Quebec_City_Directory_1874
Montreal_City_Directory_1848
Montreal_City_Directory_1885-86
Quebec_City_Directory_1886-87
Montreal_City_Directory_1878-79
Quebec_City_Directory_1880
Montreal_City_Directory_1868-69
Quebec_City_Directory_1860-61
Quebec_City_Directory_1861-62
Quebec_City_Directory_1878
Montreal_City_Directory_1864-65
Montreal_City_Directory_1847
Montreal_City_Directory_1866-67
Montreal_City_Directory_1882-83
Montreal_City_Directory_1852
Montreal_City_Directory_1884-85
Quebec_City_Directory_1855
Quebec_City_Directory_1850
Montreal_City_Directory_1842-43
Quebec_City_Directory_1869-70
Montreal_City_Directory_1849
Quebec_City_Directory_1863-64
Quebec_City_Directory_1870-71
Quebec_City_Directory_1862-63
Quebec_City_Directory_1857
Quebec_City_Directory_1890-91
Montreal_City_Directory_1856-57
Montreal_City_Directory_1880-81
Quebec_City_Directory_1871-72
Quebec_City_Directory_1884
Montreal_City_Directory_1843-44
Montreal_City_Directory_1859-60
Montreal_City_Directory_1855
Montreal_City_Directory_1850
Montreal_City_Directory_1877-78
Montreal_City_Directory_1869-70
Montreal_City_Directory_1844-45
Quebec_City_Directory_1873-74
Quebec_City_Directory_1864-65
Quebec_City_Directory_1883
Montreal_City_Directory_1861-62
Montreal_City_Directory_1871-72
Quebec_City_Directory_1872-73
Montreal_City_Directory_1863-64
Quebec_City_Directory_1791
Quebec_City_Directory_1858
Quebec_City_Directory_1790
1681_household_census_Quebec_New France_Part 2
1681_household_census_Quebec_New France_Part 3
Judith Rigaud: Has This Interesting New France Woman Been Treated Fairly in Published Articles?
French_Name_Origins
For indexes to all names in the books and for the extra articles, be sure to go to the complete thirty volumes located in the Albums section on the Photos tab in the Facebook group.
Current project
Norm is currently working on a project involving the records of Rhode Island World War I soldiers. Norm discovered that the federal government lost almost all of the WWI federal records, so he was not able to research his grandfather’s war service. Later, he found that in the early 1900s, the government sent service cards for all military personnel to the states. His state of Rhode Island had 26,000 of these service cards at the state archives. He and his wife photographed all of these cards and will soon be selling this information. Eventually they will go online.
Contact Norm Hebert
Through the Facebook page
Email: abear12241995 [at] aol [dot] com
Announcements
Journal Rundown
From the French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan’s Michigan’s Habitant Heritage, the October 2019 issue, volume 40, #4:
The genealogy of the Peltier, or Pelletier, family
The Beaudin family DNA success story
1696 Quebec confirmations
Engagé contracts from 1731-1732 and in 1752.
An article called Christmas in New France
Podcasts
French Canadian Legacy Podcast: I appeared on episode 21 of Jesse Martineau’s French Canadian Legacy Podcast. We discussed genealogy, of course! Go here to listen. And thanks, Jesse, for the invitation. It was lots of fun.
The North American Francophone Podcast: Claire Marie Brisson also has a new podcast of interest to anyone with Franco ancestry. I find this podcast to be especially rich with social history, background information that really helps us understand what life was like for our ancestors. She has discussed the foods they ate, the music they listened to, how they stayed warm in such a harsh climate, and their holiday traditions. Search for “The North American Francophone Podcast” in your favorite podcatcher, and go to her Facebook page at facebook.com/thefrancophone.
Trois-Rivières/Montreal Tour 2020
Our summer 2020 trip to Trois-Rivières and Montreal is now posted. The trip is from Sunday, August 16, 2020, through Saturday, August 22. You don’t have to live in New England to participate. Fred Clark from And Away We Go Travel will help you with your travel plans to a pickup spot, and he will work on group rates at hotels for those coming from a distance. We always have people from all around the country on these trips. We meet new cousins from near and far.
Here are the sites we will visit:
Guided tours of Trois-Rivières, Old Verchères, and Montreal
Village québécois d’antan
The Old Prison of Trois-Rivières
The Musée des Abénakis
The Pointe-a-Calliere Museum
Maison Saint-Gabriel
Musée Marguerite-Bourgeois
Chateau Ramezay
The Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site
Fort Chambly, originally built by the Carignan-Salières Regiment
Saint Joseph’s Oratory
The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel
Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal (We will tour it in the morning and then return in the evening for the spectacular light show, Aura.)
Dining experiences:
A couple of authentic Quebecois meals
A boat ride to an island where we will have dinner at a vineyard, complete with samples
A dinner/show combo where we will dine with the governor of Ville-Marie, Lady Jeanne Mance, a local military Captain and a Fur trader.
And for the genealogists, we’ll spend an evening at the National Archives doing a bit of research.
Go to http://maplestarsandstripes.com/trm2020. Here you’ll find links to the itinerary, the sign-up page, FAQs, and our private TRM2020 Facebook group. Shortly, only those who have signed up for the trip will be allowed in the Facebook group for privacy reasons.
Hope you can join us!
French-Canadian News
The French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan
January 11, 11 AM, at the Mount Clemens Public Library: Barbara Fried will speak on French-Canadian Food.
Podcast Support
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I am looking specifically for Ebenezer Abraham Ward and Mary Gray. Do I have to buy all the disks to look through them for that name? Do I have to join face book to find an index?
The surnames Ward and Gray are probably English. These volumes contain bios for the original French settlers of New France.
Here’s a link to an alphabetical list of the ancestors listed in the volumes: https://monroe.lib.mi.us/sites/default/files/attachments/french_index.pdf
You can also go to the Family History Library catalog. Their listing has the contents of each book listed by scrolling down beyond the books description and the links to access the digitized books. There is a listing of the contents from each volume. However, if you want to download each individual entry, you will need to go to FaceBook, Our Free French Canadian Ancestors.
Here’s the link to the FHL listing for Our French Canadian books: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/235556?availability=Family%20History%20Library
BTW, you have to have a Facebook account in order to access other FB pages. But, you do not have to add any info to your FB page to access the other pages. There’s tons of information on FB that you can read for free, just don’t comment and you won’t show up on any FB page. You may have to “join” a FB page to read the content but again, you don’t have to comment although posts from FB pages you have joined will show up on your page.