Fichier Origine: To Keep Coming Back Pays Off!

Have French-Canadian Ancestry? If you have climbed up your family tree up to the 17th or early 18th Century in New France, you probably have consulted the Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec – des origines à 1730 by René JETTÉ and found your ancestor with details of where he came from. Others are not so lucky, finding only the name without any clues about his/her parents and place of origin. An example, my 8G great-grandmother, Marguerite Drapeau (abt 1616-1683). Her name is mentioned in the Dictionnaire but the only clue was a marriage contract signed in La Rochelle.

Thanks to the database Fichier Origine, the work initiated by René Jetté was continued by Marcel Fournier, a well-renowned genealogist, as coordinator of the database, who was himself inspired by historian Yves Landry who had the idea in the first place. The project was first proposed to the Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie and later approved by the Fédération française de généalogie.

Who will you find in this database? Your ancestor, if he was born in France and later emigrated to New France. If the baptismal act of your ancestor was not found, you may find the one of a sibling.

Marguerite Drapeau is in the database since November 2013. I have her parents’ names, I have the baptismal date of two of her siblings, I have her mother burial date and place and her village of origin: Mouzeuil-St-Martin, in Vendée.

The database is only in French but this will help you with the search criteria:

Nom de famille = Surname
Localité ou paroisse d'origine = Place or parish of origin
Département, état ou pays = Department, state or country
Lieu du mariage = Place of marriage
Rechercher (button) = Search
Effacer (button) = Reset

If you find your ancestor and there is a big bunch of text in French and you need the translation, just contact me, I will be happy to help! 🙂

As of April 15, 2014, the database had 5,809 entries. Good luck!