A new free database about the marriages of early settlers in Quebec has been launched by Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo. It provides the year of the birth and marriage, where the settler/pioneer was born, occupation when s/he arrived in New France/Quebec, spouse’s name, and where s/he married.
Called Les pionniers et pionnières établis par mariage au Canada 1617-1825, which is literally translated as “The Pioneers Established by Marriage in Canada 1617-1825,” the database right contains 14,671 marriages from 1617 to 1825, and it will be updated yearly with new information and corrections.
It includes Catholic marriages from the beginning of New France in 1617 to 1825 and Protestant marriages between 1760 and 1800.
The database is a demographic collection, which is why the year only is given for births and marriages. More complete dates are available on Fichier Origine (free), PRDH (subscription), and GenealogyQuebec (subscription).
To create the database, genealogist and author Marcel Fournier extracted the information from the 13-volume Nos origines en France des débuts à 1825, published by Normand Robert.
Search criteria
You can search by Nom (Surname), Lieu d’origine (City/town of birth), Départment d’origine (Department of birth in France), Pays d’origine (Country of birth), Lieu de mariage (Place of marriage), and Nom du cojoint(e) (Spouse’s name).
Enter only a surname, not a first and last name together. Accents are not required in the search fields.
To activate the search, click on Recherchez (Search) or hit enter.
Search with the French name for the country. Countries of origin include France, Scotland (Écosse), Ireland (Irlande), England (Angleterre), Italy (Italie), Germany (Allemagne), Belgium (Belgique), Switzerland (Suisse), and United States (États-Unis).
This database include filles du roi, Carignan Regiment, Montcalm soldiers, and captives from New England settlements. In the case of the 198 pioneers from the United States, the occupation on arrival for a number of them is captif/captive.
A search of ecosse (without accent) results in 216 pioneers, including James McGill, the founder of McGill University.
Translated from French to English by Google Translate.
The continuation of the information about the McGills. Translated from French to English by Google Translate.
It is important to understand that when looking for ancestors, you will only find the first ancestor who settled in New France or Quebec, not their children who were born in the new country. For example, in the case of my husband’s ancestor, Louis Houde, his children’s marriages are not in the database because they were born in Quebec. If they had been born in France as their father was, they would likely be part of this database.
Google Translate
If you do not understand French, install the free Google Chrome web browser and right-click on your mouse to translate the page to English. You can also translate by copying and pasting the URL of the page into Google Translate.
Comments
I’m still exploring this database and comparing it to Fichier Origine, which is also free, but less than half the size. My husband’s earliest ancestor on his female-to-female-to-female line is Marguerite Thomas from Belgium. She is in the new database, but not in Fichier Origine.
To be honest, I’m still struggling with the top line, Plongez dans l’univers notarial (Dive into the notarial universe) at the top of the web page, in large part because no context is provided about why notaries are mentioned. The Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo’s collection, Parchemin, which I would really like to access online, is a database of notarial records, but it only available at select institutions.
Please share your comments and suggestions below. I’d like to know what you think.
“To be honest, I’m still struggling with the top line, Plongez dans l’univers notarial (Dive into the notarial universe) at the top of the web page, in large part because no context is provided about why notaries are mentioned.” I fully agree and wrote to the data base to protest this “teaser” that gave me the impression that Parchemin would again be available to all on the web instead of in isolated locations. I could not have done as much research in the notarial records as I did back in the dial-up universe of the late 1990s when this index – Parchemin – was available. I then wrote snail mail to purchase hard copies of the documents that served as the basis for so many of my early articles. I miss Parchemin!
You say: “It includes Catholic marriages from the beginning of New France in 1716 to 1825 and Protestant marriages between 1760 and 1800.”
Did you perhaps mean 1616 for the Catholics and 1670 for the Protestants?
Good catch! I’ve now corrected it. Thanks.
It says subscriptions only for institutions. Does that mean there is no access past a basic search for pioneers?
Unfortunately, there is no access beyond the basic search. They are referring to the wonderful Parchemin database of notarial records that is only available through a select number of institutions in Canada and, I believe, the US. A number of us wish they would offer a subscription to the average person. The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is one of those institutions, and visitors there can use Parchemin for free.
Completely useless in English. Not even a search available. I had high hopes but now I know there is no point in trying to find anything there.
Copy the web address of the site and paste into Google Translate. https://translate.google.ca/ It works quite well. I also explain in this blog post how to search. Good luck!