Quebec Ancestors: Church Indexes on Family Search

Those with Quebec ancestors are lucky in the fact there are a tremendous amount of church records digitized online. This is especially true for Catholic ancestors. But if you're having trouble finding a record, you might want to look at Family Search's browse only collection Quebec Index to Civil Copy of Church Records, 1642-1902.

One of the unique things about the province is that churches supplied the entries for government civil registration. This continued until well past when other Provincial governments had their own forms. This collection contains the indexes to the civil copies of the baptisms, marriages and burials in the province from 1642 to 1902. there are over 1.3 million images in the collection. They are in French, but the Family Search wiki provides some guides:

• French Genealogical Word List
• Quebec Languages
• Handwriting Help Sheet

To navigate the collection, you'll first narrow down by denomination:

• Catholic
• Catholic and Non Catholic
• Non Catholic

You then further your search by:

• County and City or Town
• Record Type - Baptism, Marriage, or Burial
• Name Range, Year Range, Archival Number

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=waypoints

In all three sections, you can find some or all of the following information:

• Date of baptism, marriage, or burial
• Place of baptism, marriage, or burial
• Residence
• Baby's name
• Bride/ Groom names
• Deceased's name
• Parents' names
• Names of witnesses
• Cause of death
• Date of birth or death
• Occupation

Catholic

This section only has one section by location: Ile-de-Montréal, Lapraire, Chambly, Vaudreuil-Soulanges counties. It has the following record types:

• Baptisms Index
• Baptisms Index (Alphabetical)
• Baptisms Index (Chronological)
• Burials Index (Alphabetical)
• Marriages Index (Alphabetical)
• Marriages Index (Females)
• Marriages Index (Males)

Each section is further divided into the name range, year range and reference number. Most of the index cards appear to be hand written, but there are a few typed ones as well. Here's one for a marriage:

They were married at Ste. Brigide on 6 June 1874. This card unfortunately does not have parents' names, but some do.  The Fo. 104 refers to the entry number from the church's registers. 

Keep in mind that the first subsection, Baptisms Index, only gives first names of the child. If your ancestor was born illegitimate, you'll definitely want to look at this one. I found several in there.

Catholic and Non Catholic
This section covers only the Judicial District of Saint-Francois. It is further divided into 3 sections:

• Births Index (Alphabetical)
• Deaths Index (Alphabetical)
• Marriages Index (Alphabetical)

The cards in this section look more like standard forms, where the writer can just fill in the required information. The digitizing for this section isn't the best, but it's still fairly readable. Here's a birth record:

Non Catholic

This section covers three locations:

Ile-de-Montréal, Lapraire, Chambly, Vaudreuil-Soulanges counties

• Baptisms Index (Alphabetical)
• Burials Index (Alphabetical)
• Marriages Index (Females)
• Marriages Index (Males)

Judicial District of Beauharnois

• Baptisms Index (Alphabetical)
• Burials Index (Alphabetical)
• Marriages Index (Alphabetical)

Judicial District of Bedford

• Baptisms Index (Divided alphabetically and by year)

These are either index cards, or alphabetical lists. Here's a list of deaths with A surnames from 1881/1882/ part of 1883 in Bedford.

Next Step

The obvious next step is to find the original record. There will be information not included in these indexes. You can take the information from the indexes and then go to BAnQ's website to find the original.