A University of Maine initiative to create a first-ever bilingual portal to Franco American heritage records from archives in the United States and Canada has received a nearly $60,000 US grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The online, bilingual Franco American Portal will make Franco American records more visible, searchable, and accessible to researchers, educators, students, genealogists, and the general public.
The University of Southern Maine Franco-American Collection, University of Maine at Fort Kent Acadian Archives, Assumption College’s French Institute, and Saint Anselm College Msgr. Wilfrid H. Paradis Archives and Special Collections have joined UMaine’s Franco American Programs to develop the online gateway.
Searchable by family name
The website will provide access to books, letters and other correspondence, scrapbooks, family and business records, photographs and other media depicting Franco American history, culture and people.
Portal users will be able to browse and search through the catalogue of records featured on the website, which the portal will categorize by indicators like place, family name, or subject. Once a user selects an item to view, the portal will connect them to that item at its original source in a digital format or at a physical archive.
In addition to connecting users with records from their own universities’ collections, the team behind developing the portal will seek to partner with other institutions across the United States and Canada, including the Library of Congress, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, and Harvard University so the portal could provide access to their archives.
The group will also digitize physical records highlighting the Franco American experience.
A beta version of the Franco American Portal is available for trial.
Where Were You
Franco American Programs at UMaine, which is spearheading the Franco American Portal, was also awarded $10,000 from the Maine Bicentennial Commission for a similar project titled “Where Were You.” That effort involves developing an online public history, genealogy, and map of Franco American populations in Maine.
Susan Pinette, director of UMaine’s Franco American Programs, said the “Where Were You” online resource will include a customizable map linking specific contemporary surnames from Franco American towns in Maine to their 1820 parish in French-speaking Canada, written entries detailing local, regional, and parish histories in Francophone Canada in 1820. It will also provide the social, cultural, and economic conditions of that time.
UMaine has been active in Franco American studies for more than 50 years. The university established the Franco American Centre in 1972, then created a Franco American Studies Program, still the only one of its kind in the US, in the 1990s.
Thanx
My advice is to get all the info you can when it is all complete.
The University of Caen did something similar with french people going to Quebec, which for many years was fabulous! It was like a background check on many immigrants! I found a friend’s ancestor’s baptism, plus his parents marriage, his siblings, and that his father was born 1612 in a Fontenay-le-Compte, a master tailor, how much he paid for his stall in the Halle, things about their home and land… fab!
Then one day it just got taken down. Grants ran out? University bandwidth needed for something the next generation wanted? I wrote and asked if they could put it on the wayback machine… no reply.
Tells us nothing is around forever, so get all the info you need while it lasts!
This is such awonderful project. Bravo, mamy familles will benefit and discover wonders from their part!