French Canadian records are a dream come true for anyone researching family history. Even if your French language skills are non-existent, extracting information is easy once you learn the pattern used in records. In Part 1 of Tracing your French Canadian Ancestry, I provided tips on how to track your US immigrant ancestors back to French Canada and sources for French Canadian and Acadian records. Once you have tracked down your ancestor in birth, marriage and death records the following tips will help you extract the important data.
record data
French Canadian/Acadian records have a pattern that makes it easy to pull out the information you need. I suggest looking for key pieces of data rather than trying to translate the entire document. Use the translation assistant (below) to decode the most commonly used words in French Canadian records. If your ancestor was not a common cultivateur (farmer) or jounalier (day laborer) a longer list of French occupation translations can be found here.
Below are four key pieces of data to look for in French Canadian vital records (typically listed in the following order):
- Date and location: The first portion of the record provides the event date written in longhand (day, month, year). It may also provide the name of the priest and location where the event takes place.
- Name and occupation of the individual of record.
- Parents names and occupation.
- Godparents and/or witnesses who are often other family members.
Example 1: Baptism Record of Victor Lalouette (from Sault)
- Baptism Date/Location: 8 September 1830 (huit Septembre mil huit cent trente) at the Saint Joseph Riviere Des Prairies
2. Name: Victor, born yesterday
3. Parents: Paschal Lalouette and Julie Corbielle, farmers from Sault-au-Récollet.
4. Godparents: Victor Boudrau and Josephte Corbeille, maternal aunt of the child.
Example 2: Marriage of Siste Lavoie and Marguerite Mailloux
1. Marriage Date/Location: 20 Jan 1829 (vingt Janvier mil huit cent vingt neuf) at Saint Cyprien parish
2: Husband and wife: Siste Lavoie, farmer, and Marguerite Mailloux
3. Parents: Husband – son of Joseph Lavoie, farmer, and Monique Hedouin; Wife – daughter of Joseph Mailloux, farmer, and Magdeline Gamache
4. Witnesses: Joseph Lavoie, Francois Gamache, Nicolas Gamache, and Paul Guerin.
*If you encounter a record where the old-style handwriting is an obstacle, this handwriting/spelling guide may be useful.
additional resources
Hopefully, this quick tutorial gets you up and running with decoding French Canadian records. For further study you may like some of the following resources:
FamilySearch Quebec Language Guide
