The American-French Genealogical Society is located in Rhode Island.
The American-French Genealogical Society (AFGS) is growing, with ambitions to renovate, expand, and utilize all 19,000 square feet of its headquarters in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Normand Deragon, AFGS president, said, “We have the largest collection of French Canadian genealogical research outside of Canada.”
According to the Valley Breeze newspaper, AFGS “is home to a priceless collection of tens of thousands of historical records, and staffed by a few unpresuming volunteers who have evolved into genealogy experts. It has attracted the attention of, and funding from, individuals and organizations from across the country and even beyond U.S. borders.”
In 2007, AFGS bought a former church to house their collection. With grants and funds raised through members, they removated the building, adding new handicap-accessible washrooms and a new boiler. They use the building to house their collection of more than 10,000 books, hold events and lectures, and run a museum.
Today, the society has more than 1,100 members.
AFGS gained the rights to Gabriel Drouin’s book collections, microfilm and microfiche more than 30 years ago.
In the 1940s, Gabriel Drouin and his business, Institut Drouin, visited some 1,700 Quebec parishes to document their registers and preserve the information.
For the Drouin family, genealogy was a business, and the immense resource Gabriel Drouin created in the form of book collections, 2,300 rolls of microfilm, and microfiche gave them a virtual monopoly. But after his death in 1980, his heirs found they could not run the company and began selling off the assets.
That is when AFGS stepped in and gained the rights to the valuable collection, including the books and microfilm.
You can read more about AFGS and the research the journalist did in the Valley Breeze article, Genealogical Society continues growth, expansion.
Thanks to Kathryn Lake Hogan for posting this article on Facebook.
