New on BAnQ website — War of 1812 militiamen’s land requests

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) added the an online index to its website in November.

War of 1812 militiamen’s land requests in Lower Canada
The new online database is an index of the requests for land made by 14,554 men from Lower Canada who served in the militia during the War of 1812.

You can search the database, called Demandes de terres des miliciens de la Guerre de 1812, by last name, first name, profession, and residence. The profession field doesn’t seem overly helpful to narrow down the results, largely because a number of the men were cultivateurs (farmers) or the field is blank.

The files held at BAnQ can contain several documents, including a certificate of demobilization that provides a physical description of the militiaman, such as height and colour of hair and eyes. 

A search will result in information like this example.

If you find a militiaman and his details that interest you, contact BAnQ, citing the Source, File (dossier) number, and BAnQ number (Numéro banq), along with the man’s name and residence to find out if more information is available about him. (Click on English in the top-right corner of the Contact/Ask a question page.) BAnQ will reply in English or French, depending on the language of the inquiry.

You can read about this database in French. To read an English translation, right click your mouse on the database page to produce a pop-up, and then scroll down to Translate to English if you use Chrome as your web browser. Or simply copy and paste the URL of the web page on Google Translate. Then click on the translated hyperlink.


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