On Thursday, Ancestry updated their index of the Drouin Collection of baptisms, marriages and burials in Quebec, from 1621 to 1941.
With more than 41 million records, this is an essential collection to research if your relatives lived in Quebec.
In this latest update, Ancestry focused on adding names of the parents and spouse, which increased the record count. They’ve expanded relationship information, dates, and first names where before there may have only been initials.
To me, this updates meant that a search for someone should show their vital records in the results, as well as those of their children’s records, provided their name is indicated on the original record.
I tested my theory by searching for my great-grandfather in the updated index, using his first and last name. I thought doing so would pull up all of his many children’s baptisms and marriages. Unfortunately, it only pulled up one child’s record, along with my great-grandfather’s own marriage record.
So, perhaps I’ve misunderstood how the update will improve my searches or there may still be more updating to do.
News about Ancestry’s plan to update the collection was first shared at Ontario Ancestors’ conference in June 2024. Jared Akenhead, Ancestry’s Senior Manager of content acquisition, said that plans were underway to partially re-index the Drouin Collection to “contemporary standards.”
In reply to my email, Mr. Akenhead explained the need for an update. He wrote, “Yes, we are working to expand our indexing of the Drouin Collection. Our initial pass was done many years ago and didn’t capture everything we would have liked.”
Until the late 1900s, church registers in Quebec served as civil and vital records. In other words, unlike in other provinces, you won’t find a civil registration of a birth, marriage or death in Quebec until about 1994.
Throughout the years, a second copy of church records, from all denominations, was sent annually to the appropriate courthouse. During the 1940s, the vital record collections in courthouses throughout Quebec were filmed by the Institut Généalogique Drouin, and family historians have been grateful ever since.
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