Genealogical Publishing Company recently published the laminated research aid: “Genealogy at a Glance: Michigan Genealogy Research,” by Carol McGinnis. Carol is also the author of the comprehensive book, MICHIGAN GENEALOGY, another of our publications. Also in the “Genealogy at a Glance series” are titles for France and French Canada. Below please find a link to the “Genealogy at a Glance” series.

http://www.genealogical.com/products/Genealogy%20at%20a%20Glance%20Michigan%20Genealogy%20Research/3524.html

Former Mid-Michigan Genealogical Society president Kris Rzepczynski (librarian at the LOM) has a blog site which may be of interest - http://genealogykris.com/

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Family History Center seminar in May - http://lansingfhc.org/

Is there a way of searching through all these messages for a particular family name without having to read each one of them to find it?

At the top of the page on the right hand side it says search Genealogy Wise, this will bring up ALL groups where a surname is mentioned. However attachments like the one I have in the Discussion forum  (ie. French-Canadian surnames) will not appear in the search. None of the groups have separate search engines that I know of. Jim.

I am looking for the Surname of Macabee, according to my late father's research one of our ancestors Moses Macabee came from Canada. He was also supposed to be Native as well, anyone know where I should start my search to verify all of this?

Never mind my last question I actually found the information I was looking for. However, I could use some help in tracking down Moses's Parents, I know where he was supposedly born, it was a place called St. Jean Chrysostome, Chateauquay, Quebec, Canada. He was born on 02/21/1860.

Derek, I have posted this before - please read some "how to" F-C research books, this will point you in the direction to research, the main source is the Loiselle marriage index and the Rivest marriage indexes. If you subscribe to Ancestry then you know it has many of the church records available (Family Search also has them and generally better quality), however neither has a comprehensive index, that is where the above two indexes come in handy (they can be ordered in through your local FHC)  The indexes do cover about 70% of Quebec including some adjacent areas in Ontario, Maine & Nova Scotia. So I would look in those indexes first to get leads to which parish to look in.  If you look in the Discussion forum you will see that I have posted a bibliography of books and articles to help you research F-C ancestry.  You may also want to look at the listing of surnames I am working on (again the discussion section) to find websites and books dealing with the surnames you are researching. From Tanguay the MACABEE name is also listed as MACCABEE and a "dit" name of MANABE.  Good luck.

Ah okay, this is the first time I have actually posted anything on this site. But I will check that out

Re Frederick Merriman:  I don't know what province he came from, and have no info other than his date of birth and the fact that by 1920 he was in the U.S.  Jayne, you have found him in the 1920 census, and that is definitely him.  

Re Frederick Merriman: I found the census in Ancestry, and it seemed to correspond to your ancestor (name, birthdate). Unfortunately, the census does not tell us which province he came from, just "English Canada". The names of his family members are also hints to follow. Good luck with your research!

Still looking for ancestors of Frederick Merriman, my mother's mother's father.  My cousin Michelle Thomlinson has identified his father as "Fred Merriiman" from Quebec, and his mother as Ann LeVallee.  Any assistance this triggers will be most welcome!

Janet (and Jayne),

1) "English Canada" refers to Ontario, so you do have a province.

Generally the following which may be found on census records applies with small variations on the borders depending on the time period.

Fr(ench) Can = LC (Lower Canada) = Can(ada) East = Quebec.

Eng(lish) Can = UC (Upper Canada = Caan(ada) West = Ontario

2. Did you contact Brenda Merriman?

3. As far as I am concerned MERRIMAN is not French-Canadian, but you have one marring to a LeVALLEE, which is French-Canadian. If the were not Catholic then it becomes harder to trace the family. If you could find them in the census you could see if the Protestant church records had been filmed.

If they were Catholic then it becomes much easier, then you read some "how to" F-C research books, this will point you in the direction to research, the main source is the Loiselle marriage index and the Rivest marriage indexes (females). If you subscribe to Ancestry then you know it has many of the church records available (Family Search also has them and generally better quality), however neither has a comprehensive index, that is where the above two indexes come in handy (they can be ordered in through your local FHC)  The indexes do cover about 70% of Quebec including some adjacent areas in Ontario, Maine & Nova Scotia. So I would look in those indexes first to get leads to which parish to look in.  If you look in the Discussion forum you will see that I have posted a bibliography of books and articles to help you research F-C ancestry.  You may also want to look at the listing of surnames I am working on (again the discussion section) to find websites and books dealing with the surnames you are researching. Good luck.

Hello to y'all from Mobile, AL sister city to Quebec because all those early Qubeca settlers.

The First French Settlements, 1699–1713

Following the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697), Louis XIV of France moved aggressively to expand French territories, and the French minister of the marine Louis de Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain, secretly made plans to establish French posts in Louisiana. In doing so, Pontchartrain intended to undermine the colonial interests of the English, Dutch, and Spanish along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville et d’Ardillières led the first French expedition to the vicinity of present-day Biloxi in 1699, followed by a year of exploring the Mississippi and Red River Valleys and making contact with the Natchez and other petites nations. In 1702 Iberville moved the colony’s base of operations to Mobile, where roughly 140 French speakers hoped to develop closer trade and military ties with the Choctaw and Chickasaw in order to check British expansion. Before permanently leaving Louisiana, Iberville vested considerable authority in his brother Jean-Baptise Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, and his cousin Pierre Charles Le Sueur.  Bienville moved the colonial capital from Mobile to New Orleans in 1718.

My family:

Alexandre

Baudin

DuFrene

Juchereau

Paillet/Pollet

Checked with Brenda Merriman -- she says there is no sign of my Frederick E in Canadian records she can access.  Guess I'll push my way out another branch until something pops up...

Terri do you read canadian french fluently?  If I dig up some frenceh records would you be willing to translate them for me?  Yes his grandmothers birth name was different.  I will look it up and tell you.

Fluently--no.  Enough to translate a record to the best of my knowledge and then ask for further help--yes.  Quebec records usually follow a format for birth, marriage and death records.  I will try to help.

Thank you.  I don't speak or write any.  So anything you can give will be helpful.

Metis database (Western Canada)

http://metisnationdatabase.ualberta.ca/MNC/

I Mary Helen 

I read write-both French and English--French being my birth language- i just finished transcribing personal French Documents-- I reside here in Canada--it would be a pleasure to help you with your documents if my time permits- access may be difficult as I am in the middle of nowhere--northern Ontario

Thank you. I will let you know when it is ready.  Mary Ellen

I know that Fanchon was purchased from my 6x great grandmother Francoise Paille, but I have no knowledge of her ancestry. From the information I gathered, Fanchon was purchased in Mobile, Al. Anyway Francoise Paille Bodin came to Louisiana to help care for Andre and Marie Anne Josephe Boutte's children. Francoise Paille was the daughter of a Nobleman by the name of Francois Pollet de la Pocatiere. There is a town near Quebec,Canada that he founded. There is quite a bit of information about Pollet on the Wikipedia website. Anyway, Pollet married Marie Anne Juchereau who descended from Nicolas Juchereau Sieur of St. Denis and Marie Therese Giffard. Giffard was the daughter of Robert Giffard de Moncel. Also, her grandparents were nobleman Jean Juchereau du Maur and Marie Langlois. Anyway, these people were of Perche ancestry, and were the first settlers of Quebec. Due to My 3x grandparents being 1st cousins. I am related to these noblemen double time. Francois Paille's uncle Louis Juchereau was the founder of Natchitoches, La. and he was the owner of the famous slave Coin-Coin. She had obtained a massive amount of land along Cane river and was the foremother of the wealthy Metoyer clan. I really don't know how Francois Paille met my forefather Nicolas Baudin/ Bodin. But they really helped populate the Mobile area. Their son Louis married Marie Louise Laurendine. She was the daughter of Pierre Lorandini/Laurendine and Marie Anne Fourchet. I read an article in a local magazine that legend has it that every tenth person you meet on the streets of Mobile is a descended of Pierre. Anyway, you can find out about these prominent people on Wikipedia and Dictionary of Canadian Biography on line.

This information was taken from an article in the Deep South Genealogical Quarterly, February 1968, entitled "Spain and Mobile" by E. Herndon Smith, Mobile Public Library:
"Under Spanish rule much property changed hands. A few of the old French grants remained. Mon Louis Island remained in the possession of the heirs of Nicholas Baudin. He was neither interpreter, pilot or surveyor, but was awarded this estate for other reasons. He had married Francoise Pollet and Iberville had married Marie Pollet. Nicholas Baudin (Beaudoin) and his brother, Michael, the Jesuit who was excommunicated, were the sons of Gervais Beaudoin, a French physician who had settled Quebec.
"The colonists who came from Canada differed in some respects from those gathered from the towns and villages of France by the John Law Company. They loved the woods and the water and built their homes on the bayous or near the bay. Those from France preferred the sights and sounds of the streets of Mobile and New Orleans. They became shrewd in business transactions, more sophisticated in manners. The courier des bois roamed the wild lands, and far from civilization, mingled and mixed with the Indians."

Miles Womack has information (from Joan and Anabell Newman) stating that Gervais Beaudoin was a physician from France who settled in Quebec, Canada, then in Mobile, Ala. He was the father of Nicholas and Michael Beaudoin.

• The term "Creole"

• 1700-1803 , French Louisianna

In the United States, the word "Creole" refers to people of any race or mixture thereof who are descended from settlers in colonial French Louisiana before it became part of the United States in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. Some writers from other parts of the country have mistakenly assumed the term to refer only to people of mixed racial descent, but this is not the traditional Louisiana usage. Originally it referred to people of French and then Spanish descent who were born in Louisiana, to distinguish them from immigrants. Later Creole was sometimes used as well to refer to people of African descent born in Louisiana. Later the terms were differentiated, by French Creole (European ancestry) and Louisiana Creole (meaning someone of mixed racial ancestry).

Name:Nicolas Bodin

Year:1716-1737 Place:Louisiana

Family Members:Wife Bodin, Francoise Paillet; Child Bodin, Marie Anne Josephe; Child Bodin, Marie Louise; Child Bodin, Marthe; Child Bodin, Marie Louise; Child Bodin, Francoise Hyppolite; Child Bodin, Bernard; Child Bodin, Louis Francois

Source Publication Code:1537.10

Primary Immigrant:Bodin, Nicolas

Annotation:Date and place of birth, death, baptism, marriage, or mention in the New World. Place of origin, name of parents, occupation and other genealogical data may also be provided.

Source Bibliography:DE VILLE, WINSTON. Gulf Coast Colonials, A Compendium of French Families in Early Eighteenth Century Louisiana. Baltimore, MD: Clearfield Co., Inc., 1999. 69p. Page:22

Cecelia thanks for the interesting posts. Jim.

Of possible interest:

FRENCH-CANADIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE AMERICAN
UPPER MIDWEST DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
http://www.erudit.org/revue/cgq/1979/v23/n58/021423ar.pdf

More things on F-Cs in US -

http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/frncdns/links.htm

New England Franco-American children's home -

http://www.genealogytoday.com/roots/xweb.mv?xc=RootsDocument&xo...

Interesting blog

http://dayreturn.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/the-tree-growing-up-frenc...

Again, I would like to remind everyone to post your messages on this page as the search engine will bring up the names you are reseasrching so everyone whether a member or not can see who you are researching:

A message from Terri Mercier to all members of French-Canadian Descendants on Genealogy Wise!

I seem to have hit a brick wall of sorts.  Our ancestor Nazaire Mercier married Marie Victorine Bedard on August 14, 1871 in St. Flavien, QC.  She was born February 22, 1848 in St. Croix, Lotbiniere, QC to Edouard Bedard and Sophie Demers.  Nazaire married Georgiana Couture in 1876 in St. Bernard, QC.  But, I can find no death record for Marie Victorine Bedard (I have also check under Victoria Bedard).  I have searched in the years between their marriage in 1871 and Nazaire marriage to Georgiana Couture in 1876.  Any assistance here would be most appreciated.  Thank you.

Sorry--I thought I did post here.  Ooops.

I have an Edouard Bedard as my 2nd great grand uncle--son of Joseph Bedard & Marie Bergevin/langevin.  He was b 1805 as one of 18 children.

Thank you for responding.  My Edouard Bedard was born in 1815 in St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Quebec.

Terri, I have been giving this some thought. If I understand you query you have looked through the St-Flavien church records for Victorine's death record between 1871 and 1876 when her husband Nazaire remarried? There are a couple of things I would do. To narrow down a date of death, look for children being born to this couple (she may have died in childbirth?) And since these are burial records she may have been buried in her home town of St. Croix, so I would check that parish's records also.  Good luck, Jim.

Thank you James for your information.  I have assumed that Victorine Bedard died between 1871 and 1876.  My thought also was that she died in childbirth.  I have not found a child born to them in St. Flavien, St. Croix and Ste. Agathe (Lotbiniere).  I also have checked all the Drouin records for her death in those three towns.  I have also assumed that in Quebec (such a Catholic province) your remained married until death.  Thank you for your input.

Terri, not sure what you mean "I also have checked all the Drouin records". Do you mean actually gone through the records page by page or what? Neither the Family Search nor Ancestry have complete indexes for the Drouin collection, so do not depend on that alone.

Yes I have actually checked the Drouin records, page by page, for those three towns in the years mentioned.  I am now trying to find another town or village where Nazaire and Victorine may have lived.  Quebec recording methods are so detailed and I am certain to find her death or a birth of their child somewhere.  Thanks again.

Glad to be here! is anyone familiar with the Furtaw surname?

Discovery of North America -
http://www.medievalists.net/2012/05/09/research-uncovers-new-detail...

I would like to remind everyone to post your messages on this page as the search engine will bring up the names you are researching so everyone, whether a member of this group or not, can see who you are researching:

A message from Florence Grisham to all members of French-Canadian Descendants on Genealogy Wise!
Looking for parents and children of Toussaint Bobeau dit Fleury and Marie Charbonneau married about 1826.  Some\all of their descendants lived in Shefford County, Quebec.  I've checked Drouin Records on Ancestry but I'm not sure where else to look.

Florence, I use the marriage record as a starting point. I would look at the Loiselle Marriage Index or the Rivest Marriage index (alphabetical by brides) to locate the marriage (you can order these films in through your local Family History Center). Then you can order in the parish film or look at it on Ancestry or on Family Search (usually better quality). You should be able to find baptisms, marriages and burials. Again, check the marriage indexes for the children to see what if any movement patterns emerge. Look at the census records also.

FLEURY can also be spelled FLEURI

Toussaint Baubaud dit Fleury and Marie Charbonneau were married on 1826-04-18 at Saint--Césaire, PQ.  I found this info at BMS2000

Was your ancestor French? There were a number of Indian captives from New England who settled in Canada, see the following for more info;

One of the most popular books on the subject is New England captives carried to Canada: between 1677 and 1760 during the French and Indian Wars, 2 vols., by Emma Lewis Coleman.

Captors And Captives: The 1704 French And Indian Raid on Deerfield, by Evan Haefeli, Kevin Sweeney.

Captive Histories: English, French, And Native Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid, by Evan Haefeli

The Unredeemed Captive: a Family Story from Early America, by John Demos.

An Unredeemed Captive: Being the Story of Eunice Williams, Who at the Age of Seven Years, Was Carried Away from Deerfield by the Indians in the Year 1704, by Clifton Johnson.

Another book which is free from Google books - True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada During the Old French and Indian Wars, by Charlotte Alice Baker

http://books.google.com/books?id=BTUNAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcov...

Some online sites:

"Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704" a historical museum website. http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/people/short_bios.jsp

http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/gen/deerfild.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Deerfield

http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu/classroom/curriculum_6th/less...

http://burnpit.us/2012/02/english-settlement-deerfield-ma-attacked-...

Basic guide to F-C, Acadian, etc books: http://www.genealogical.com/newsletters/genealogy_pointers_6-12-12.pdf

Basic guide to F-C, Acadian, etc books:http://www.genealogical.com/newsletters/genealogy_pointers_6-12-12.pdf

Well the genealogy of when Mobile was capital of French Louisiana is where the French along the Gulf Coast were here in my family. Some came directly from France and some from Canada, but as the posted document states at a time prior to 1803 the French territory went from the Gulf Coast to Canada. 

This information was taken from an article in the Deep South Genealogical Quarterly, February 1968, entitled "Spain and Mobile" by E. Herndon Smith, Mobile Public Library:
"Under Spanish rule much property changed hands. A few of the old French grants remained. Mon Louis Island remained in the possession of the heirs of Nicholas Baudin. He was neither interpreter, pilot or surveyor, but was awarded this estate for other reasons. He had married Francoise Pollet and Iberville had married Marie Pollet. Nicholas Baudin (Beaudoin) and his brother, Michael, the Jesuit who was excommunicated, were the sons of Gervais Beaudoin, a French physician who had settled Quebec.
"The colonists who came from Canada differed in some respects from those gathered from the towns and villages of France by the John Law Company. They loved the woods and the water and built their homes on the bayous or near the bay. Those from France preferred the sights and sounds of the streets of Mobile and New Orleans. They became shrewd in business transactions, more sophisticated in manners. The courier des bois roamed the wild lands, and far from civilization, mingled and mixed with the Indians."

Miles Womack has information (from Joan and Anabell Newman) stating that Gervais Beaudoin was a physician from France who settled in Quebec, Canada, then in Mobile, Ala. He was the father of Nicholas and Michael Beaudoin.

Cecelia, interesting question. To keep it simple I would call them French-Canadian since the first came there, just did not remain. With Louisiana you have French-Canadian settlers, Acadian settlers and French settlers. Since they would all have different historical backgrounds even though originally from France, they eventually become Louisiana French.

Gervias Baudin went to French Canada but Nicholas his son went from France to Mobile where I am an my family has been since the late 1600s early 1700s. The land changed governments from French to Spanish to British to Spanish to USA. We have always claimed French as those who came here stayed here and many came directly from France here. 

French Establish First Settlement

Represented on maps as early as 1507, the Gulf of Mexico inlet now known as Mobile Bay was navigated by European seafarers in 1519 when ships under the command of Spanish Admiral Alonso Alvaraz de Pineda sought a safe harbor in which to undertake repairs. The bay area was not really explored, however, until 1558. It was included in the vast region that was claimed for France's King Louis XIV and was named Louisiana by French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle in 1682. France authorized two brothers, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, to explore territories in Louisiana, and they arrived at the gulf inlet that is now called Mobile Bay in 1699. The area was subsequently considered crucial to establishing French occupation of Louisiana and the brothers were ordered to colonize the region, which was inhabited by the Mobile, or Maubila, tribe. In 1702 Bienville established Fort Louis de la Mobile—named to honor France's king and to acknowledge the native tribe—at Twenty Seven Mile Bluff on the banks of the Mobile River, just north of present-day Mobile. It was the first French town in the gulf region.

The settlement, which consisted of the log fort, Creole houses, a church, a hospital, a marketplace with shops, and a well, served as the capital of the vast Louisiana Territory. Women joined the community in 1704. When river flooding forced the colony to abandon Fort Louis de la Mobile in 1711, the settlement's four hundred inhabitants moved downstream to a new site protected by a wooden fort at the river's mouth on Mobile Bay. During this era, pelts, furs, wax, and tallow were transported down river to where the bay meets the gulf for transfer to ocean-going vessels. This settlement retained the name Mobile and remained the capital of the Louisiana Territory until New Orleans assumed that title in 1720. That same year Mobile renamed its fort Fort Conde. A brick structure later replaced the original fort.

http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-South/Mobile-History.html

Detroit's F-C settlers -

http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/cadillac.htm#a

F-C blog -

http://dailyreturns.wordpress.com/

Maine's F-C -

http://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/2122/page/3514/display?...

Facebook has the following site -

Penetanguishene Genealogy & History Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/95725364826/

Land ownership was under thr seigniorial system in early New France. See the blog on http://frenchnorthamerica.blogspot.com/2012/08/land-tenure-seigneur... , see also the articles in Michigan's Habitant Heritage, vol.5 #2 (Apr 1984), pp. 25, 26 and 38, published by the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan.