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Following are miscellaneous items concerning my ongoing genealogy research:
NEW DOCUMENTS
I have obtained copies of church register recordings of selected family births, marriages and deaths for the Bessette Houle lineage. These are copies of the actual records of these events as recorded in the the applicable parish church registers. The records also include signatures of those witnessing the event. They have been posted to bessettefamilies.com and can be viewed by clicking DOCUMENTS from the menu list and selecting QUEBEC CHURCH REGISTRY EXTRACTS which will bring you to a listing of the links to the various records. I have made my best effort to translate the records for those that are french language impaired. I will be adding additional Houle family records as they are received.
USEFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
There are two useful sites for those of you interested in researching French Canadian ancestral lines other than those that I have focused on.The premier site for researching the older generations (prior to 1799) is that known as PRDH. It is a data base created through the University of Montreal which includes birth/baptism, marriage and burial information extracted from the Quebec Church registries. The site can be accessed at the the URL listed below:
http://www.genealogy.umontreal.ca/
I have used this extensively for the early generations. There is a cost associated with using the research capabilities but it is reasonable and not difficult to work with. There is an english version of the site for those that desire that feature.
The other source from which I recently obtained the church registry extracts that are posted to bessettefamilies.com is Centre d’Histoire de St Hyacinthe. They have access to extensive church records including those after 1799 (i.e. the family records from the 1800's). You may request a "fiche familialle" which will contain all the available info on the requested family. For example, I requested they research my great grandfather Olivier and his wife Adeleide Gevery and they produced a listing of birth marriage and death info on them and their children. They also provided copies of the actual registry for each event (baptism, marriage & death).
The contact is Ghislaine Letarte and her email address is: genalog@chsth.com
There is also a web site which is only in french:
OTHER TIDBITS
Some interesting recent findings include the following:
1.In researching the Jutras family (that of my grandmother Eliana Houle), I discovered that Eliana and Onesime were second cousins. Eliana’s grandmother, Louise St. Germain (family name Houle) and Onesime’s grandfather, Jean Baptiste, were brother and sister.
2. I have obtained a copy of the ships registry that carried my wife Doris’s grandmother to the new country. Mary Moran who married John Mclean (Doris’s grandfather) arrived in New York with her family aboard the Parthia on November 27, 1874.
Regards
Raoul Bessette