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Family and History

Language: English
Description: The desire to access the interior of the North American continent with ocean-going vessels pre-dates European settlement. In 1689 François Dollier de Casson, a Sulpician priest, was the first to start digging to circumvent the Lachine Rapids. Inter-governmental discussions for the "St. Lawrence Waterway Project" dated back as far as the 1890s. Efforts culminated with the 1959 opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway as "the world's longest inland deep draft marine highway", forever changing Quebec's geographic, economic, and political landscapes.

With a focus on both geography and biography, this tale will be told through the diverse and driven personalities who worked to reshape the rivers and lakes of Quebec and beyond for navigation.
Presenter: Mark Gallop
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Language: English
Description: Who were the Loyalists? Where did the Loyalists settle? Most settled in Ontario (Upper Canada). Did any Loyalists settle in Quebec (Lower Canada)? Where did they settle in Lower Canada? (Sorel, Gaspe, Eastern Townships). What is the most difficult generation to research when applying for your UEL certificate?
Presenter: Elizabeth "Holly" Haimerl
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Language: English
Description: Discover if your ancestors fought with the Americans during their fight for Independence. There are a surprising number of people that can trace their heritage to these amazing French-Canadian fighters. Join us as we explore the world of 1776 and how French Canada, and the Patriots of the Revolutions crossed paths!
Presenter: Lisa Elvin-Staltari
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Language: English
Description: For beginners and intermediate researchers. This presentation can only cover a miniscule sampling of the difficult roadblocks you can encounter in researching in New England. With experience you will learn to spot the likely culprits but if you are just beginning your genealogical foray into New England this presentation will help you. The focus will be on the myriad name changes that occurred as your ancestors left Quebec and entered the U.S. - how and why the names got so corrupted.
Presenter: Pauline Cusson
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Language: English
Description: In 1630 New France was populated mainly by men. France recognized that there were threats to its economy from the British in the south, and set out to grow the colony by encouraging young women to immigrate, marry and populate the young colony.

Between 1634 and 1663 the Company of 100 Associates sponsored young women immigrating to Canada. These 260 young women were known as Les Filles à Marier. The Company of 100 Associates was disbanded in 1663 and the government of France took over the governing of the colony. At that time King Louis XIV established a program to bring young female immigrants to New France. These 768 women were known as Les Filles du Roi.

Who were these women? Contrary to popular belief, these women were not prostitutes. Many were from poor families looking for a way out of their predicament. These young women were given a choice in marriage, and because men far outnumbered them, they had plenty of choice. They have fascinating stories—including stories of bigamy, incest, witchcraft and murder!

Dawn and Carol will tell some of their stories and along the way show some of the resources they used to trace their family lines.
Presenters: Dawn Kelly and Carol Ufford
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Language: English
Description: Of all the groups to come to Canada, the English are by far the least studied, or recognized. In terms of number, immigrants from England were the largest British group to settle in Quebec. The 1991 census found that 1/3 of all Canadians claimed English ancestry.

This presentation will explore the history of the English in Quebec. Where did they settle? How did they settle? I will also discuss the ways in which you can research your English ancestors in Quebec.
Presenter: Dr. Gillian Leitch
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Language: English
Description:The French-Canadian population has been distinguished from its beginnings by a particular phenomenon called the nom-dit, a designation which in many cases has established itself as the alternative, main or even unique name of families in the St. Lawrence Valley. The pioneer brought with him a family name but also a profession that traditionally bestowed an oral nickname to its practitioners. Without being specific to New France, this anthroponymic trait carried over from Europe found in the Laurentian colony conditions favorable to a new pattern of inheritance that became extensive: until the 20th century, the designations of a large number of families maintained in unpredictable alternation both the civil name and the dit name.

The military constituted about half of Old Canada’s French settlers and the nom de guerre, one dominant type of dit name, consequently weighed on the rooting of this tradition. The preservation of service names by the demobilized soldiers, and soon-to-be inhabitants, found in this prolonged neighborhood a reinforcing factor. The military’s cultural influence on the new society can be seen in the family-name extension of this professional use in other trades such as among masons or carpenters. Like the soldier, the Ancien Régime’s craftsmen used to adopt within their profession a nom de compagnon whose shedding occurred when they returned to civilian life. New France’s newly-formed population fostered instead the coexistence of both surnames as well as their preservation. A naming duality thus took hold until modern requirements of vital records pressured families to side with one or the other. Only a handful of compounded surnames escaped this fate, such as Gérin-Lajoie or Canac-Marquis.

Pierre Gendreau-Hétu studied linguistics at the Université de Montréal. His graduate research focused on writing systems and their historical typologies. Questions of onomastics subsequently caught the attention of this independent researcher, notably the origin and evolution of surnames in French Canada.
Presenter: Mr. Pierre Gendreau-Hétu
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Language: English
Description: Many of us have found some of our first ancestors to have settled on the Island of Orléans. Nothing surprising when we know that the cradle of New-France welcomed over 300 founding families! Many adventures and pitfalls are awaiting our ancestors in the New World. In this presentation, Sabrina will give you a glimpse of the lives of the settlers of the Island of Orléans from the beginning of the colony all the way to 1759. A century of learning, adaptation and discoveries, that's what our ancestors did with resilience!

Passionate about travel, history and genealogy, Sabrina Gamache-Mercurio has been a Chartered Genealogy Genealogist since 2017 and graduated from Laval University in Ethnology. Since 2012, she has been working at the Maison de nos Aïeux, a history and genealogy center on the island of Orléans!
Presenter: Sabrina Gamache-Mercurio
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Language: English
Description: A family historian attempts to examine some of her ancestor's remarkable actions through social history.
Presenter: Debbie Dee
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Language: English
Description: Judy Gauthier has been researching the origins of her father for several years, in particular her great-grandfather Alfred Lalonde. Judy will talk about the history of the Lalondes, the sources she used, how to find them and the process she used to compile the information.
Presenter: Judy Gauthier
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Language: English
Description: The Scots have played an important role in the development and history of Quebec since the advent of British control of the region after 1759. This presentation will provide an overview of the settlement of the Scots in the province (with an emphasis on Montreal), the development of their own cultural institutions such as the Presbyterian Church, voluntary associations such as St. Andrew’s Societies, the Sons of Scotland, and sports clubs organizing curling, golf and shinty. There are a number of resources available to the family researcher, looking for information on their Scottish-Quebec ancestors. These will be discussed, including the use of private or associational archives such as the St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal.
Presenter: Dr. Gillian Leitch
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Language: English
Description: Missisquoi Museum curator and a projects director for the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network, Heather Darch will discuss the community of Missisquoi County that lived close to the border during the Fenian Raids of 1866. While attention has been given to the Fenian soldiers, the Canadian and British militia units as well as the home guards during the Fenian Raids conflict, the citizens of the border region were also involved and directly affected by the military action that took place in what was a relatively quiet region in Quebec. From court documents, letters and diaries, the voices of those who lived along the border add another element to a fascinating local story and an important part of Canadian history.
Presenter: Heather Darch
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Language: English
Description: This webinar will discuss the variations in Anglicized French family names in counties of Northern and Northeastern NY State
(such as St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Franklin, as well as Washington counties).
We will look at migration patterns during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how to trace and track families in some of the original records
using online sites and databases such as Ancestry.com/.ca, PRDH, and BMS2000.
Presenter: Pamela Vittorio
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Language: English
Description: The Continental Army marched northward in the early days of the revolution with the mistaken expectation that the local populace could be won over to the rebel cause. Montrealers were not so easily convinced. Mark Gallop looks at some of the places and fascinating people involved in the conflict, including Canadians who supported the American side and therefore had to take refuge and eventually settle in New York State after the war.
Presenter: Mark Gallop
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Language: English
Description: The Irish Palatines are one of Canada’s invisible ethnic groups: separated by language, religion and ethnic background in Ireland, they found a hospitable environment when they immigrated to Ontario in the 18th and 19th centuries. Québec was a key destination, too. Many Irish Palatines who had first settled in New York arrived in Québec as Loyalists during the American Revolution. At the end of the war, most were settled on land in Ontario, but a few rogue Palatine Loyalists set up home in Québec's Missisquoi Bay. After the War of 1812, Irish Palatines emigrated directly from Ireland, some settling in southwestern Québec. Yet while they thrived in Ontario, their experience in Québec was quite different. Carolyn talks about the Irish Palatines’ challenges and hardships as Irish Protestants in Québec as well as their migration to Ontario.
Presenter: Carolyn Heald
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