Immigration Stories
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- Manuel Mendes and Selene Machado: a Portuguese Story
- Siberia: My Missing Ancestor
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Family History/Genealogy Methods
Archive for the ‘Quebec Stories’ Category
My Lemieux Ancestors
In Quebec Stories on April 11, 2009 at 2:17 pmI looked up my ancestors on the BMS2000 site. The BMS is a site where we can get marriage, birth and death records so we can find out, for instance, the year when people got married and who they got married with. It also tells the father’s and mother’s name. We can also find out where they got married and probably also lived. I knew my grandparents’ names (Andre Lemieux and Yolande Lefrancois) and from that I found my great grandparents names, their parents names etc.
Mortuary Cards
These are the mortuary cards of my great-grandparents Adelard Lemieux and Juliette Lapointe.
Mortuary cards are given to people who come to the funeral. They are used as something to remember a loving family member.
On mortuary cards we can find out when the person died, at what age they died and who they were married with. Some mortuary cards also have little messages to comfort the sad family members. Sometimes there are even appealing pictures, again to comfort the family members.
Artefacts: Mortuary Cards
Author: Jaques
GEN TIP: Mortuary cards are not official documents but they’re a great place to start when looking for death dates and approximate birth dates.
Related Link:
The de LaRochelles of St-Victoire, Quebec
In Census, Quebec Stories on April 11, 2009 at 2:39 amI chose to do my project on the Larochelles because my dad once told me that we originally came from France and had been in Canada for more than 100 years, so this interested me. I was also interested to find out how my ancestors made a living in the 1800s and the early 1900s. I found out this information in the 1881 and 1901 census and in the BMS2000 database.
1881 Census
In 1881 the French origin family of the Larochelles was living in Quebec as a household of 9 people. The family lived on a farm with four children. One of the children (Victor) was already working with his dad on the farm. According to the census, Israel was “en voyage”. I think maybe he was on vacation or maybe he was a merchant who was travelling. The children’s mom – Victoire Larochelle – didn’t have an official job. Maybe she stayed home to take care of six year old Jean Baptiste.
1901 Census
During the 1901 census the Larochelle family had grown even more than in 1881. The family still lived in the rural area of St-Victoire. In 1901 the Larochelles were still a farming family. I used to think that the head of the household, Victor, came from Europe but I later on found out on the 1901 census that he was born in Quebec.
1901 Canada Census, Ste-Victoire, Richelieu, Quebec
BMS2000 Database
I also now know from the BMS2000 database that Victor Larochelle and Victoria Peloquin got married on February 11th, 1890 in Ste. Victoire. Victoria’s name on the census is Larochelle because it was the custom for a wife to use her husband’s surname. Six years later Elise Larochelle was born. Elise was Victor and Victoria’s first child and then in 1901 Victoria gave birth to Charles.
The de LaRochelle Name
I was very surprised when I was finding information because my surname (de la Rochelle) has changed many times. For instance, I found it listed as: Larochel, Larochelle and De Larochelle!
Sources: Coming Later This Week (post under construction)
Author: Eric
GEN TIP: Here are some reasons why surname spellings change. 1.Your ancestor – or the person filling out the document – was uneducated or unfamiliar with the name and made a mistake. 2. The name was changed so it would be easier to pronounce. 3. The name was translated. For instance, Meunier = Miller 4. Sometimes Quebec priests deliberately changed spellings to differentiate between two families.
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My Tremblay Ancestors
In Census, Quebec Stories on April 10, 2009 at 4:30 pmMy project is about my Tremblay ancestors. Marie-Blanche Dutil, my great-grandma on my mother’s side, was married to Rodolphe Tremblay. I know this thanks to my mother.
Then I went to the BMS2000 and I saw their marriage records.
Now I know that Marie-Blanche’s mother was Aimee Fournier and her father was Adonias Dutil. Marie-Blanche was married to Rodolphe on July 14th, 1920 in St.Michel church in Sherbrooke, Quebec. They were Catholics.
Canada Census 1901
Rodolphe was living in Chicoutimi. Chicoutimi is in Quebec in the Chicoutimi & Saguenay region. Rodolphe was born on December 11th, 1897. In 1901 Rodolphe turned 3 years old. Rodolphe’s father was Henry Tremblay and his mother was Clara Sweeney. Rodolphe was single (of course). Henry Tremblay was the head of the family. That means he was the boss of the house. Nowadays we don’t put that in family records because mothers have the same level of work to do. Rodolphe also had a little sister named Ceva. In that year Ceva turned 7. She was born on July 3rd, 1893.
Canada Census 1911
Now, ten years later when they did the census again, Henry (my great grandfather) would celebrate his 58th birthday. Read the rest of this entry »
