Staff at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal continue to catalogue during the pandemic, but the process appears not to be as fast as 18 months ago and perhaps they haven’t received as many books. Only two family history books were catalogued in April and June 2021.
The Grande Bibliothèque is the flagship library facility of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). All books published in Quebec, including family histories, must be deposited at the Grande Bibliothèque. They form part of the national collection.
Although most of the family histories at the Grande Bibliothèque are written in French, if you find one about your ancestors, you will probably figure out a way to use it in your research.
If interested in learning more about the books listed below, contact BAnQ by completing the online form. (Click on English in the top-right corner of the screen to see the English-language form.) The people at BAnQ will respond in English or French, depending on the language of inquiry, within a couple of days.
Note, however, that you can download one of the new family histories for free.
La famille Darveau du Lac-Saint-Jean, de père en fils (1903-1998) by Aldéi Darveau. Quebec City, Quebec : les Éditions GID, 2021. 461 pages.
About the Darveau family of Lac-Saint-Jean, from father to son, 1903-1998.
The author writes about what he learned from his grandparents, especially from his grandfather — Francis (François-Xavier), a 6th-generation Darveau in Quebec — with whom he shared the same house for 19 years.
He also writes about his father, Jean-Paul Darveau, a prominent businessman in the forestry industry in Saint-Thomas-Didyme, who mysteriously disappeared in 1973. It was not until 25 years later, in 1998, that the wreckage of the plane he had been piloting was found.
The book can be purchased from the Renaud-Bray bookstore.
Généalogie : Arthur Bruyère, Cécile Vincent : ascendance de la famille Bruyère : Roger, Jacqueline, Gérard, Jean-Guy, Jacques, Yvon, André, Denise by André Bruyère. Saint-Constant, Quebec : Éditions Beaudin Doucet, 2021.
About 16 generations of ancestors of the Bruyère family, Arthur Bruyère and Cécile Vincent. Louis Hébert and his wife, Marie Rollet, are among the many ancestors. This book is like a family history report with ascendancy charts, rather than a narrative about the family’s history.
The PDF of this 540-page book can be downloaded for free. There are plenty of names and photos in the book. The index of names starts on page 479.
