Quebec, Canada Genealogy

Guide to Quebec ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History

 * At the time of first European contact and later colonization, Algonquian, Iroquois and Inuit nations controlled what is now Quebec.
 * In 1534, Breton explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of France. It was the first province of New France.
 * Initial French attempts at settling the region met with failure. French fishing fleets, however, continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, making alliances with First Nations that would become important once France began to occupy the land.
 * Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City (Habitation de Québec), built as a permanent fur trading outpost, where he would forge a trading, and ultimately a military alliance, with the Algonquin and Huron nations.
 * Coureurs des bois, voyageurs and Catholic missionaries established fur trading forts on the Great Lakes (Étienne Brûlé 1615), Hudson Bay (Radisson and Groseilliers 1659–60), Ohio River and Mississippi River (La Salle 1682), as well as the Saskatchewan River and Missouri River (de la Verendrye 1734–1738).
 * After 1627, King Louis XIII of France allowed the Company of New France to introduced the seigneurial system and forbade settlement in New France by anyone other than Roman Catholics (eventually overturned).
 * New France became a Royal Province in 1663. The population grew slowly under French rule, as growth was largely achieved through natural births, rather than by immigration.
 * To encourage population growth and to redress the severe imbalance between single men and women, King Louis XIV sponsored the passage of approximately 800 young French women (known as les filles du roi) to the colony.
 * At the end of the seven-year in 1763, French and Indian War, France ceded its North American possessions to Great Britain and renamed Canada as the Province of Quebec.
 * At the end of the American Revolution, 10,000 Loyalists arrived at Quebec in 1784. The swelling numbers of English encouraged them to make greater demands for recognition with the colonial government. Loyalists soon petitioned the government to be allowed to use the British legal system they were used to in the American colonies. The creation of Upper (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) in 1791 allowed most Loyalists to live under British laws and institutions, while the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain their familiar French civil law and the Catholic religion.

Historic Counties
Records in the catalog of the Family History Library are filed under these historic counties. Quebec's counties were dissolved in the early 1980s, and Quebec was then divided into regional county municipalities. However, the regional county municipality jurisdiction is not used in the vital records system, and therefore has little meaning for genealogy. Each county page, under "History" lists the modern RCMs associated with that county.


 * Click here for a 1872 postal gazetteer which will tell you the historic county of a location.  For communities settled and created after 1871, enter the locality name without the county in the search field of the Family History Library, to see whether records are available for that locality.

Extinct or Renamed Historic Counties: Jacques Cartier· Laval

The Fur Trade

 * In New France

Migration Routes
Lake Champlain· St. Lawrence River· Chambly Canal· Champlain Canal· Halifax Road or Grand Communication Route · Lake Champlain Trail

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.


 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records - databases and record images on FamilySearch
 * Family History Center locator map