While trawling the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec website, I came across a database of 19th-century Quebec City prison registers. Most of the registers were written in English since the clerks were often English-speaking and the majority of prisoners were British, usually immigrants, sailors, soldiers, and people passing through the city.
The database contains 63,591 registers of prison admissions from 13 September 1813 to 7 January 1866 and of all women detained from 13 September 1813 to 27 December 1899.
To use this database, click on the search box, Consultation de l’instrument de recherche, in the top right corner of this page that describes the database. (The description is only available in French, but you can easily run it through Google Translate.)
Clicking on Consultation de l’instrument de recherche will take you to a bilingual search page (sample below). Fill in at least one field and start your search by clicking on the Rechercher box. To start a new search, click on the Nouvelle recherche box.
Search page.
In the online records of the registers, you will see the family and given names, country or ethnic origin, age, date of imprisonment, offence, sentence, grounds for discharge, and the clickable Détails. (In most searches, some of these fields will be blank.)
Click on the Détails to learn, in some cases, height, complexion, name of the person who ordered the incarceration, date of imprisonment and discharge, grounds for discharge, remarks, and reference book.
Note that the information about the prisoners is not always recorded in the same manner and there are frequent omissions of information. The original spelling was maintained as it appears in the register. Family names, in particular those of Francophones, were often misspelt by the English-speaking clerks. For certain periods, the ethnic origin or country is indicated in the register. If looking for someone from Ireland, you would be wise to search for both “Ireland” and “Irish.”
Now, go look for some ancestors. I know you will. I couldn’t prevent myself from doing so either.
Prison Montreal Duncan 1839, by J. Duncan. Grande Bibliothèque, Collection nationale, Québec
The Quebec Archives website contains more information, in French, about 19th-century Quebec prisons and the registers, and can be seen here.
