Timeline: Understanding My French-Canadian Roots

I’ve been doing a lot of work on my French-Canadian line lately, so I thought it would be beneficial to take advantage of this week’s #52Ancestors theme “Timeline” to create a timeline of Quebec, to help me have a better context for my ancestors in that time and place. 

Map of 1750 New France. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons via Creative Commons License.

The following is the best I can tell so far:

• 1608 Canada colony is founded as part of the vast territory of New France.  The city of Quebec is founded.
• 1634 Trois Rivieres is founded
• 1634-1663 the Filles a Marier arrive
• 1642 Montreal is founded
• 1647 the church Notre Dame de Quebec is founded
• 1653 population is 2,000
• 1663-1673 the Filles du Roi arrive
• 1665 the Carignan Regiment of soldiers arrive
• 1672 the first Notre Dame de Montréal church built
• 1678 the Immaculee Conception Church is built in Trois Rivieres
• 1743 the second Notre Dame de Quebec church built
• 1754-1763 the French & Indian War, which became part of the larger Seven Years War is fought:
  • Sept. 18, 1759 Quebec City surrenders to British 
  • 1760 French try to recapture QC
  • 1760 Trois-Rivières captured
  • Sept. 8,1760 Montreal surrenders
  • 1763 northern portion of New France (what is now Quebec) ceded to British
• 1765 population 69,810
• 1775-1783 American Revolution:
  • Sept.-Dec 1775 Americans try and fail to take the city of Quebec
  • June 8, 1776 Battle of Trois-Rivieres
• 1783 population 113,012
• 1791 divided into Upper Canada (Ontario) & Lower Canada (Quebec)
• 1824-1830 second Notre Dame de Montréal built (not totally finished until decades later)
• 1841 the area that is today’s Quebec was known as Canada East
• June 24, 1843 the first Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
• 1851 population 890,000
• 1867 what we know as today’s Canada is united into one country, of which Quebec is a province
• 1868 or 1869 George and Emma Pleau immigrate from Quebec to Rochester, NY

Service: Military Family

This week’s #52Ancestors prompt is “Service”.  When I hear the word “service” in a genealogical context, I think, “were your ancestors in the military service?”  Why, yes, they were!  In fact, I’ve created a Virtual Cemetery on FindaGrave just for those in my family who served in the military (though there are a couple I’ve forgotten why I put them in there).

Charlestown Navy Yard in 1906, where my great-grandfather later served and great-uncle started his naval service during WWII. Courtesy Library of Congress.

However, not everyone has a known gravesite or even one on FindaGrave; so here are my known military ancestors and collateral family, as best as I can tell (living relatives not included):

Colonial Militia:

• William Bushnell
• Thomas Wallingford 
• John Wallingford
• Isaac Barron
• Stephen Billings
• Thomas Scranton
• William Seward

King Philip’s War:

• Henry Adams
• Samuel Bass
• Thomas Bass
• Roger Billings 
• William Chadbourne
• John Fenno
• Charles Frost
• Israel Hill
• Thomas Holton
• John King 
• John Moss
• Abraham Newell
• Stephen Paine
• Roger Plaisted
  Roger Plaisted, Jr.
• Caleb Pomeroy
• Medad Pomeroy
• John Redman
• Benoni Stebbins
• John Stebbins
• Samuel Stebbins 
• Thomas Stebbins 
• James Travis (or Travers)

Revolutionary War:

• Jedediah Goodwin
• David Scranton
• Abraham Scranton
• Levi Taunt
• Jonathan Hamilton
• Caleb Randall
• Eliakim Strong
• James Bruce (on the British side!)
• Eliezer Evarts
• Amos Wallingford Goodwin
• James Goodwin, Jr.
• Samuel Goodwin

Civil War:

• Seth Aaron Taunt
• William Taunt
• Charles Greene Hendrick
• Thomas Dawson Dunn
• Alexander Patterson
• Orville M. Remington

World War I:

• Thomas F. Atwell I
• Ralph Stanley Lipsett
• William R.C. Burke
• Edgar Douglas White

World War II:

• Thomas F. Atwell I
• Thomas F. Atwell II
• Thomas F. Atwell (son of William Gorton Atwell)
• Richard J.Atwell
• Anton George Valek Jr.
• James Valek
• John Valek
• Jean Jacobs
• James Garfield Dilworth, Jr.
• Richard Christopher Lipsett Jr.
• Ralph Kenneth Lipsett
• George Edmund Pleau Sr.
• Kenneth A. Bergeron
• Les Bogue
• Roy Edwin Colomy, Jr.
• Charles Earnest Hudson
• Charles Ervin White

Korea:

• Donald H. Hudson

Non-combat or unknown conflict military:

• George Albert Pleau
• Antoinette “Nettie” (Larese) Pleau
• George G. Grimes
• William Gorton Atwell (so he claimed)
• Elmer W. Goodwin, Jr.

Looking at this list, I think I need to take a second look at my virtual cemetery!

At the Library: Research Boosters

Have you ever used the library to help with your research?  If you’re super-lucky, there might be a book there that mentions your ancestors.  But your library offers so much more than books!  Below are some ways that libraries have helped me:

When I took my road trip to Guilford, CT in 2016, I used their library’s online collections to discover a colonial-era map, noting where everyone settled.  I was able to find where John Scranton lived, and the next time I go, I’m going to check out a couple more ancestral plots!

When I last attended the Essex Society of Genealogists in person, I visited the nearby Lynnfield, MA Library’s genealogy room.  (Every library should have a genealogy room!)  It was there I discovered my ancestor John McMasters in the 1838 Guysborough (Nova Scotia) Census.  This discovery cracked open a huge brick wall and led me to years and years worth of more research!

I wrote about how, in 2017, I visited the Holyoke Public Library’s history room, where I asked the librarians there if they happened to have anything on the Kosciusko Club.  Lo and behold, they did!  It wasn’t a lot, but it showed me that it’s always worth asking.

I’ve written about Rochester, NY’s Rundel Memorial Library’s awesome genealogy floor.  Even before I was able to visit them, I took advantage of their collection of Rochester city directories, which showed me all the addresses where my Pleau ancestors lived while there.

Rundel Memorial Library, Rochester, NY. Courtesy Wikipedia.

After years of hoping and waiting, the Lynn, MA Public Library finally started putting the local newspaper, the Daily Item, online.  I found out so much about my great-grandmother Bertha Colomy, especially the role that her church played in her young life.

Finally during lockdown, the Ancestry Library Edition was available to me at home through my own Norwalk, CT Library.  I was able to mine the Tanguay Collection to research my French-Canadian lines and give me clues to find more of their records.  Though remote access is no longer available, the library is a short walk from my house, and I can always spend a Saturday afternoon there.

The moral of the story is: dig into your library’s databases, see if they have any special collections, and talk to your librarian.  You never know what you’ll find!

Help: Social Media for Genealogy

This week’s #52Ancestors theme is “Help”.  I would be remiss if I failed to mention how social media can assist your research!  There is no way I could list all the genealogy-related accounts on all the social media channels, but I can talk about the “why”.

I’d say that social media for genealogy all started with message boards.  Various sites (AOL, RootsWeb and others) had message boards where you could post a query to find more information about your ancestors.  Perhaps one of the more active message boards today is Genealogy Stack Exchange.

As social media took off, genealogists started tapping into its power.  If you’re on Facebook, there are thousands of genealogy and family history groups.  Katherine R. Willson started to track them all here, but some further updates might be found on Cyndi’s List.  I’ve found that groups focusing on certain ethnicities and geographical areas have been really helpful, and I’ve discovered a few cousins there, too!

On Twitter, it’s all about #hashtags.  Putting #genealogy or #FamilyHistory in the search bar will bring up tons of tweets about everything genealogy.  It’s also a great place to meet other genealogists.  Twitter recently created the ability to have interest groups, and I belong to a genealogy group started by Daniel Loftus.  It’s not as active as using a hashtag, but I find it to be pretty focused.  

Some Twitter chats you can follow (some may be defunct now). Courtesy Kale Liam Hobbes.

Aside from groups, there are also Twitter chats, such as #genchat, #AncestryHour, #OurAncestors and more.  Some are topical, and some are genealogical get-togethers.  Follow the chat’s hashtag, or use TweetDeck to view the tweets in the chat; and don’t forget the hashtag when participating!

Discord is another place to discuss genealogy.  I’ve created a Discord account, but I’m really not active there.  If you know more, feel free to talk about it in the comments!

Instagram is fun, especially when you have lots of ancestral photos.  Like Twitter, it’s hashtag-driven.  Melissa Dickerson (@GenealogyGirlTalks) instituted a monthly “Genealogy Photo a Day”.

Interactive mainly through the comments section, there are YouTube channels to follow, such as Family History Fanatics, Genealogy TV, and GeneaVlogger.  Search on “genealogy” or “family history”, and you’ll come up with lots of accounts and videos!

TikTok isn’t just crazy videos; it has genealogy accounts as well!  I’m not a TikTok follower, but I recently read in “American Ancestors” magazine about an account that’s all about cemeteries and gravestone cleaning.  Apparently, she has millions of followers, so this is no small thing!

Finally, Pinterest.  In 2018, we had a #genchat about using Pinterest for genealogy with guest expert Lisa Lisson.  You can organize boards by surname, geographical interest, or just about anything!   I created this Twitter Moment that captured the genchatter’s Pinterest boards.  I have a board specifically for this blog, with sections for each surname and/or topic.  Personally, I find it easier to find stuff on my blog this way!

If there are any other platforms I’ve missed, feel free to mention them in the comments.