Quebec Cultural Groups

Library and Archives Canada
First of all, realize that members of different ethnicities, nationalities, and cultures are recorded in all the major record groups used for genealogy in Quebec. For some groups additional specific records were created by the government and churches. For many groups works have been published by interested authors detailing their histories and identities. For each group below, in addition to a brief history, there is a link to an article prepared by the Library and Archives Canada detailing available records and publications.
 * Ethno-Cultural Groups

Acadians

 * Acadian Genealogy Resources Library and Archives Canada.
 * Généalogie Acadienne Database--Search Engine The biggest Acadian genealogy database. More than 800,000 individuals are available.
 * 1757-1946 - Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1757-1946], index and images, ($). List of Acadian parish registers in the Drouin collection
 * GenealogyQuebec.com, the Drouin Instiute’s genealogical research website, offers two research tools dedicated to Acadian genealogy. ($)
 * The Drouin Collection Database, a collection of parish registers (baptisms, marriages and burials) from Quebec, Acadia, as well as parts of Ontario, New Brunswick and the United States. The collection also contains Acadian censuses from 1673 to 1784. ($)
 * The Acadia Families Tool This tool contains family files based on the Acadian parish records mentioned above. In total, the tool contains 96,000 family files from 1621 to 1849 and is equipped with a search engine which allows searches by last name, first name, date and parish. In addition, the original records are attached to the family files, allowing the information contained in them to be viewed and verified.($)

The term "Acadians" refers to immigrants from France in the early 1600s who settled in the colony of Acadia, in what are now the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

The colonization of Acadia by the French started in 1604 at Port-Royal. In the 1630s, about 20 families came from the Loudunais area. Steadily, the population grew and the territory expanded to include Nova Scotia, Cape-Breton Island, New-Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. With the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Acadia was given away to Great Britain.

Due to the threat of a new war in America, about 10,000 Acadians were made prisoners and were deported to the American colonies, Great Britain and France. By 1764, the Acadians were allowed to return on condition of dispersing themselves over the territory and swearing their loyalty to the British Crown. Some returned to the province of Quebec, particularly in the area of Yamachiche and L'Acadie.

Black History

 * Black History in Canada Genealogy Resources
 * Wikipedia: Black Canadians
 * Immigrants to Canada, Porters and Domestics, 1899-1949 Database

In 1793, the Upper Canada legislature passed an act that granted gradual abolition and any slave arriving in the province was automatically declared free. Fearing for their safety in the United States after the passage of the first Fugitive Slave Law in 1793, over 30,000 slaves came to Canada via the Underground Railroad until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. They settled mostly in southern Ontario, but some also settled in Quebec and Nova Scotia. Many returned to the United States to fight in the Civil War and rejoin their families after its end. Many Black people migrated to Canada in search of work and became porters with the railroad companies in Ontario, Quebec, and the Western provinces.

British

 * British Genealogy Sources
 * Hudson's Bay Company Archives
 * Resources
 * Name Indexes


 * In 1758, the British mounted an attack on New France by sea and took the French fort at Louisbourg. The capture of the fortress of Louisbourg, followed by Quebec City in 1759, led to the end of the French government presence in New France and Acadia, which further solidified the British presence on the continent.
 * The Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years' War.
 * From 1775 to 1783, during the American Revolution, an influx of English Loyalist settlers migrated to Nova Scotia, Lower Canada (Quebec), New Brunswick and Upper Canada (Ontario). The arrival of 10,000 Loyalists at Quebec in 1784, and the swelling numbers of English, encouraged the British to make greater demands for recognition with the colonial government.
 * The creation of Upper and Lower Canada 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. Loyalists were drawn away from Quebec City and Montreal by offering free land on the northern shore of Lake Ontario to anyone willing to swear allegiance to George III. The Loyalists were thus given land grants of 200 acres per person. Basically, this approach was designed with the intent of keeping French and English as far apart as possible.

French

 * The French began to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the mid-16th century to explore the New World and settle there. They arrived in 1604 at Port Royal and colonized Acadia first. The French also settled further west in the St. Lawrence Valley when they founded Quebec in 1608. By 1660, only about 3,000 inhabitants called the St. Lawrence Valley home.
 * In 1665, the régiment de Carignan-Salières arrived on the shores of Canada to fight the Iroquois Nation. As motivation, a married soldier who settled in the colony would receive a sum of 12,000 pounds. It was this colonial policy that prompted 400 soldiers and officers to put down roots in New France.
 * However, to maintain a permanent settlement, these men had to marry and have families. Hence, groups of women started to arrive in New France during two distinct periods: 1634 to 1662 and 1663 to 1673. The first group of women came under the auspices of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés; the second under the authority of the King—where the term filles du roi [Daughters of the King] derives.
 * In the early 17th century, a lucrative fur trade business emerged in New France. To meet the demand, trappers and travellers gradually extended their hunting grounds beyond the St. Lawrence Valley to the interior of the continent.
 * Between 1820 and 1910, a decrease in the availability of tillable land in Canada drove close to 470,000 French settlers to the United States. They settled chiefly in New England and in Michigan.
 * It is estimated that nearly 40,000 French settlers lived in New France during the French Regime and 10,000 of those stayed in New France and became the ancestors of nearly 6 million French Canadians.