Alcina Furkey’s birth name and her parents’ identities were unknown in 19C Vermont. Alcina had many forenames: Alcenia, Arsena, Christina, Elcena, Elena, Jane, Josephine, Julia, Lucy, and Reusta, and Rosanna. But none of them was her baptismal name. Reconstructing her birth family, together with a connection found in deeds and the clues in Catholic records, led to her real identity.
Discount code: alcina25 (valid at Familytreewebinars.com)
Valid through: December 22, 2025
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Syllabus
Outstanding presentation detailing correlation and analysis of French Canadian naming patterns and records. Don’t you love a great case study?
Another top notch webinar with an excellent teacher, Margaret Fortier! The devil is in the details and Margaret shows us some of the best research and analytical methodologies. She also reminds us that pronunciation is more important that spelling not only in French but in many languages.
Having amassed, over the last 20 years, around 3,000 relatives, the French Canadian family has been fascinating. This last year, when My Heritage acquired MY Friends, it doubled to over 6000 people. And this study of Alcina today puts insight into the work I still have to complete!
WOW! This was quite the puzzle and Margaret not only showed us how she solved who Alpine was, but she explained a lot of variations of name spellings, their pronunciation, and ways they were changed to sound less French. She shared a lot of great methodology tips.
I have researched my own ancestors who lived in Quebec as well as the ancestors of other people who lived in Quebec (the ancestors, not the descendants), and I have frequently encountered the issue of differences in how names were spelled, including variant spellings, dit/dite names, baptismal names vs names used regularly, and also differences due to first name variations for people of Irish ancestry (e.g. alternations between Owen and Eugene, as well as between Delia and Bridget.
A wonderful presentation. I have a 3 x great grandfather that may ‘give up’ his identity if I follow the steps used by Margaret Fortier, I hope. Thank you from Clara in NE.
I loved the way Margaret when through her findings and loved the way she charted the various documents and differences. Was organized so well–inspiring!
Wow what an amazing puzzler so expertly sifted out by Margaret. So much information and insight. I will definitely have to listen again. Thank you Margaret Fortier.