Introduction to French-Canadian Research

France introduced the feudal system of land tenure in the colonial era. Learn how the system worked and where to find land records for your Quebec ancestors.

Quebec has censuses and census substitutes dating back to the 17th century. Find out what information these records contain and how to access them in this webinar.

Discover who the notaries were, how they worked, and the rich resources available in their records. No matter what ethnic background your ancestors were, if they resided at Quebec, they used notaries.

French-Canadians are lucky to have duplicate copies of records dating back to the earliest settlements. This is why there is little major record loss. Learn how to find records of birth/baptism, marriage, and death/burials.

Did you know FamilySearch has a wealth of Quebec records that are not widely-known? These records have no search index so you would not be able to access them using the Search Records functionality and entering an ancestor’s name. FamilySearch has images of non-indexed Quebec non-Catholic parish registers from 1763 to 1967; images of Quebec non-indexed Catholic and non-Catholic church records from 1642 to 1902; images of Quebec guardianships from 1639 to 1930; images of Quebec notarial records from 1800 to 1920; plus many more hidden Quebec records. This session will show you step-by-step how to access these Quebec records on FamilySearch.

Information on fur trade and Indigenous ancestors can be found in the Hudson Bay Company archives. These records contain information on over 300 years of fur trade employees in Canada. Archivists have indexed, microfilmed, and digitized them. This presentation will cover what records are available, where they are found, how to use them, and what genealogy information may be found in them.

You loved her last webinar on this topic and requested six more! In this webinar, Janice will introduce you to her next favourite online sources for Ontario family history.

This session will show how MyHeritage can help you find your Canadian ancestors through filters while searching through the records. A list of which Canadian records are available will be provided.

With the right tools, searching for your French Canadian ancestors in Quebec has never been easier. French Canadians are passionate about their ancestral lineage, consequently a large number of repositories exist, both public and private, to help trace your French Canadian ancestors. Although the well known Drouin Collection is a wonderful source of genealogical data, many more databases exist on French Canadian ancestry. This presentation will focus on lesser known databases and websites to help you find your elusive French Canadian ancestors or to add valuable information to your ancestors’ lives.