Many describe family history research in Quebec as easier than most places around the world. While easier may not quite be the right word, genealogists in Quebec do enjoy access to an abundance of records and online databases.
Once you can find an ancestor in the early 1800s in Quebec, you can often trace them back to some of the earliest European settlers in New France.
One of the databases that makes a Quebec genealogist’s research so rich with information is PRDH — the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (Research Program in Historical Demography), created in 1966 by two Université de Montréal professors, Hubert Charbonneau and Jacques Légaré.
They undertook the exhaustive reconstruction of the population of Quebec from the beginning of French colonization in the seventeenth century.
Their objective was to create a computerized population register, composed of biographical files on all individuals of European ancestry who lived in the St. Lawrence Valley. The file for each individual gives the date and place of birth, marriage(s), and death, as well as family and conjugal ties with other individuals.
Genealogists, who have benefitted from PRDH, may think it is long overdue that Prof. Légaré has finally been named to the Order of Canada “for the unique actuarial perspective of his demographic research on population aging and for his writings that have enriched Quebec genealogy,” and that is finally the case.
Governor General Julie Payette’s office announced Friday Prof. Légaré’s appointment, along with the names of 113 other honourees.
Prof. Légaré is professor emeritus of demography at the Université de Montréal and co-researcher at the Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Program. Until recently, he was a consultant to the Population Activities Unit of UNECE, Geneva.
Following his training in actuarial mathematics, he received a scholarship from the Population Council (New York) and the OECD (Paris) for his graduate studies at the Université de Paris where he obtained his doctorate in demography. Most of his academic career was spent at the Université de Montréal, where he was director of the Department of Demography for 16 years.
His numerous publications are found in his main fields of interest, which for several years have been the aging of populations and the historical demography of old Quebec. At the age of 37, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada, where he was later secretary and secretary for International Relations. More recently (2004-2006), he was president of the think tank, Pont entre les Générations.
As for Prof. Charbonneau, it doesn’t appear he has been named to the Order of Canada. But he does have something his colleague doesn’t have, his own Wikipedia page.
Both professors deserve our applause and gratitude.
