52 Ancestors: Week 38 - French Canadian and Acadian Research on migrations.fr

The 52 Ancestors prompt for week 38 is "cousins". My French Canadian/Acadian roots have given me a ridiculously large amount of cousins. So what better group to focus on when I'm trying to appeal to a wide audience.

http://www.migrations.fr/page%20d'accueil.htm

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a website called Migrations. This website has some great information on the early settlers of New France and Acadie. The website is in French but Chrome will translate it for you if your French isn't that great. Now there are lots of different sites out there for early research. The problem with most French Canadian and Acadian research is that once you hit that immigrant ancestor back in the 1600's and 1700's, you're at a bit of a dead end. Unless you're lucky enough to make a trip to France to do some research, the trail tends to end there.What makes this site stand out is that thanks to the France connections of the owners, you can get information that goes back to France.

Here's a sampling of some of their sections:

Soldiers of the Carignan Saliere Regiment

http://www.migrations.fr/regimentcarignancomplet.htm

• History of the regiment
• Biographies
• Index of soldiers
• Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials relating to the soldiers. 
• Details of the soldiers' lives and battles

The church records are accompanied by images of the original record.

Filles de roi and Filles des marier

• History of the girls and women sent to France for the specific purpose of marrying and growing the population of New France
• Baptism, Marriage and Death records. 
• Indexes of names

Original images of the church records are also included.

Acadians

http://www.migrations.fr/acadiens.htm

This section focuses on those Acadians that ended up back in France after the Deportation. Here you can find:

• Ship's lists
• Pension records
• Marriage and Death Records

Fishermen and Sailors
This section focuses on the genealogies of several families of the Gaspesie region. You can also find:

• contracts
• an index of names of  Navigators and Fishermen in New France and Mont-Louis 1753 to 1756 by Mario Mimeault
• a dictionary of French Naval terms
• photographs

I don't usually highlight websites that show non Canadian based records, but I was very excited to find information on the Maillet family. In fact there is a whole page devoted to some fascinating research done in France. It was a Google search result that this page came up and then I found all the other information available.

My maternal grandmother was Marie Anne Mallais from the Shippegan area of New Brunswick.  Through her is my 5x great grandfather Jean Baptiste Mallet. Here is my connection to him:

• Me
• Mary Jane Govereau
• Marie Ann Mallais
• Patrice Mallais
• Jean Julian Mallais
• Joseph Jules Mallais
• Joseph Julian Mallais
• Jean Baptiste Maillet

Jean, along with his wife Marie Josephet Dugay and her two brothers, were the first settlers of Shippegan. Jean was born in 1742 in the Gaspesie region, and was the son of Francois Mallet and Madeleine Larocque. Francois was born about 1700 in Normandy,France. For many years not much was known about him except an approximate birth year and the fact that he was born in France. The only reason why even this was known was because by some miracle his burial record is one of the few church records that survive from the Gaspesie region. But thanks to the diligent research of several people in France, those of us descended from Francois Maillet have been able to find out more about Francois. We know know he was from Bouillon France, and was a member of the French Navy.

A baptism was found for Francois. Not only have they provided an image of the record itself, but a transcription as well.

http://www.migrations.fr/francoismallet.htm

Using the baptism researchers were then able to go a further 3 generations back using church records,dispensations and notarial acts:

• Francois Mallet
• Jean Maillet and Jeanne LeGros
• Gilles Maillet and Michelle Hamelin/ Nicolas LeGros and Catherine Linois
• Jean Mallet, father of Giles, and Pancrasse Hamelin, father of Michelle Hamelin

The site also details Francois and his father Jean's career in the Navy. Through research they were also able to find siblings and half siblings of Francois. Each record regarding bsptism, marriage and death has images of the original record, as well as a transcription. If your grasp of French is shaky, the Chrome browser translation to English is quite good, as you can see from the screen shot above. The documents provided take the Maillet line back to a land transaction in 1671.

If your family is from the Gaspesie region, you'll definitely want to look at the other biographies listed.

Quebec Ancestors: La Societe des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, Inc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Quebec

Those of us with French Canadian heritage most likely descend from either a Filles du Roi and/or a Soldat du Carignan. Even more likely is that you will descend from more than one of them.

The Filles du Roi, or King's daughters, were women of marriageable age that were sent from France to help colonize and grow the population of New France. Almost 800 women were sent between 1663 and 1673, with their passage paid for by King Louis XIV of France. A dowry of 50 livres was given to many upon their marriage to one of the unmarried male colonists.

The Soldats du Carignan were of the Carignan-Salieres Regiment. The Regiment were the first regular troops from France, arriving in the summer of 1665. Their presence in the colony was to mainly counter the Iroquois and Mohawk. The second part of the plan was to have the soldiers and officers settle in New France. Of the around 1200 soldiers and officers that came, over 450 decided to stay and make New France their home. Many of the married Filles du Roi.

http://www.fillesduroi.org/NewIndex.htm

If you think you have a Filles du Roi or a Soldat du Carignan, a good place to start your research is La Societe du Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, Inc. You can become a member of the Society, but it is not necessary to view some of their online resources. If you are not a fluent French speaker, don't worry. As you can see in the screenshot above, there is an English version and a French version of the site.

Filles du Roi (King's Daughters)

Clicking under this tab gives you a brief history of of the Filles du Roi. At the bottom are two databases.

The first is an alphabetical listing of the Filles du Roi. Beside each name is their husband(s) and marriage date. The information was obtained through Yves Landry's  Les Filles du roi au xvii'eme siecle, and Rene Jette's Dictionnaires geneologiques des Familles du Quebec.

The second is an alphabetical listing of the Soldats du Carignan who married a Fille du Roi. Set up the same way as the first database, it lists the bride and marriage date. it also lists in brackets alternate spellings of the soldier's surname.


Regiment

This section also has a brief history of the soldiers and officers of the Regiment. It also clarifies that this database concerns the military men who settled in the St' Lawrence region of New France. It does not include those who settled in Acadia. Among the quick links at the top of the page is a link to the database listing soldiers who married Filles du Roi.

Another quick link takes you to a page that gives information on the ships that brought the soldiers and officers. Set up in chart form, you get the following information on the ships:

• Ship's Name
• Tonnage
• Captain's Name
• Origin Port
• Arrival date
• Company

There is another quick link that takes to a page listing soldiers who married, but did not marry one of the Filles. It is set up the same as the two above, with bride's name and marriage date.

The first database is those who are confirmed soldiers and officers of the regiment. It is set up alphabetically in chart form. The headings are:

• First name
• Surname
• Dit/ De Name
• Surname variations
• Rank
• What Company they belonged to

At the end of the confirmed soldiers is the list of unconfirmed soldiers. These are ones that no definitive proof has been found so far to confirm the fact they were part of the Carignan Regiment.

The chart has the same headings as for the confirmed soldiers.

The last database is an alphabetical listing of those soldiers and officers who never married. Besde each name is a description of any information found on the soldier. Here are a couple of examples:

1. Flotard, unknown, dit de Lescure, lieutenant-unknown, Witnessed 7 baptisms, 3 marriages in Montreal in 1669-70, probably returned to France after August 1670
2. Ménard, Gilles, soldier-Saint-Ours, listed as servant to Jesuits in 1667 and 1681 censuses, d. 2 April 1690-occupation frère donné (monk)
3. Vincent, Jean, soldier-Monteil, confirmed 8 April 1670, contract of marriage on 31 Aug 1670 w/ Anne Riviere but they never married

Resources

This section is filled with links to Societies, web pages, and web sites to help you further your research. Please note though that not all the links are active. At the bottom of the page is a listing of books and book stores.

Membership

There are two types of membership in the Society. The first is a direct descendant's membership. It costs a one time fee of $20US for verification of your lineage, and then a $15US annual fee, for a total of $35US. Membership includes access to data and records, voting rights, and a certificate honoring your ancestry.  You also get their biannual newsletter.

The second is an associate membership, for those who do not have an ancestor who was either a Fille or Soldat, but have an interest in them. It is also good for those who are researching, but not have yet confirmed their lineage. Cost is $15US annually. An associate membership includes the biannual newsletter and the ability to exchange information with other members.

If you would like more information on the Filles du Roi check out these sites:

• Canadian Encyclopedia entry
• Wikipedia entry
• CBC Canada

You can find more information on the Soldats du Carignan-Salieres here:

• Canadian Encyclopedia entry
• Wikipedia entry
• CBC Canada