GENEALOGY INTERNET SITE LINKS
During the past years, while involved in doing family genealogy research, I have come across a number of sites on the internet from which I have derived useful information for completing our families stories. Listed below are a number of sites that may be of interest to some of you. A hyperlink to each site is included for your convenience.
Raoul Bessette
August 27, 2008
1. Quintin Publications and CDs:
I have used Quintin’s services a number of time while working on the research of the Canada records of the Bessette Houle families. They have a large selection of books and data CD’s that can be purchased or rented (e.g. Records of Quebec marriage records) and their fees are reasonable.
Jeff is the son of Tom and Jeannette Wynne (Bessette) and the grandson of Onesime (Sam)and Aurore (Desilet). He has recently updated his family site which has a number of interesting features that are worthwhile perusing,
I have posted the public version of the Bessette, Houle and Mclean-Fleming family trees to this site. They are incorporated within the Word Family Tree Collection. Unlike Ancestry.com there is no fee for accessing their version of the World Family Trees. A good source for conducting family research,
4. Find a grave
This site is already part of the family web site. There are 77 postings of gravesites of our family members. The postings also include a brief narrative of the deceased relative. You can access a listing of all postings at the URL shown above.
5. St Hyacinthe Genealogy Research Services
St Hyacinthe is a good genealogy research center with access to Quebec Church Records and other data bases containing records of Canadian Ancestry. I have been able to obtain a number of vital records (birth, marriage and Interment) of our Canadian Houle and Bessette families. These consist of individual family records (fische familialle) as well as actual extracts of 19th century church records. The lady that directs this research is Ghislaine Letarte and her email is genealog@chsth.com.
St. Germain was the rural farm community where my mother was born and where many of our Houle ancestors resided during the 19th and early 20th century. Maurice Vallee has written some interesting history of the village which can be viewed at the URL presented above. It is in French but those who persevere may find it enjoyable. There is even some reference to our grandfather Onesime and his father Edouard contained in one section. You may also email Maurice with questions and he is very helpful. His email is vallee@cobra.com
A number of the Bessette Houle and Mclean families have ties to Holyoke. They have a fine web site for the City at the URL above.
The remaining URL’s consist of those offering access to various data bases some of which is free and some of which require a fee or a member registration.
This is the premier on line research service with the most broad based offering of genealogy data bases and search engines. There is a subscription fee but for any body getting started in researching their family trees a free trial period is offered which will enable access to a multitude of data bases. It is worth doing to get a feel for researching family information on line.
B. PRDH
Programme Recherche en Demographie Historique. This is a research project conducted by the University of Montreal. It consisted of extracting the vital church extracts for all communities in Quebec. The findings were encoded to a major data base of births, marriages, deaths and other events beginning with the earliest settlements in Canada and continuing through 1799. Another extension of this project is underway covering events in the 19th Century. It is the premier source for information on the early French Canadian settlers of Canada. Users are able to search the data base for their ancestors but a subscription fee is required to access the actual records. It is a modest fee and was the primary source of information on the early Bessette and Houle families.
The grand daddy of genealogy research the Mormon web site and their area locations contain considerable genealogy info and is available at no charge.
D. Global Genealogy-Canada Records
This site contains extensive records for Canada and Quebec in particular. Spend some time at this site and you may find useful information for your family research.
E. Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
A very extensive collection of linkages for all sorts of genealogy data Bases. Definitely worth checking out as part of any research project.
F. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
This is the premier site for official records of the United States. Whatever is released to the public regarding our government can be found here.
An online source for requesting Military Personnel Records