This collection of records, acquired from the Drouin Institute in Canada with cooperation from the University of Montreal, is considered to be the best genealogical resource for French-Canadian research. It contains the names of 37 million people collected on church records in Quebec, Ontario, and other U.S. French regions from the late 1600s to the 1940s.
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Will this be only available to subscribers to the International collection?
Is there a release date for the Drouin ? What addition of Ancestory is needed to access this information ?
I think you might want to add to the Drouin description that it also contains Acadian Parish Registers for New Brunswick. It also contains volumes xxiii and xxiv at the Mass Stat Archives which is a collection of the petitions from the Acadians/French Neutrals while in exile in Massachusetts. The Acadians had been deported from their lands in what we know today as Nova Scotia to all of the colonies, etc.
Lucie
Great! My immigrant McAbee (Macchabé) ancestor came to the French colony of New France in 1755 with the Compagnie Cormier of the Guyenne Regiment of the Royal French Army. When the Treaty of Paris at last brought the Seven Years’ War to a close in 1763, Pierre-François Macchabé dit Lajeunesse Marin was among many French soldiers who chose to remain in Canada. He was subsequently married three times at Longue-Pointe, Québec and is said to have sired 27 children. I hope to find more relatives in the Drouin Collection.
How nice to have Drouin available. How much will it cost?
Will all the information be translated into English?
While the Drouin is in French, it’s not prose. There are crib sheets available that will provide the necessary translation to folks, like me, that speak no French. From the records I’ve seen, the only data that would seem to translate well into English are the dates. The rest, that I’ve seen, is names and places. Names are abbreviated but they are fairly standard and the cribs handle 99%. Biggest issue is spelling – most folks then didn’t know how to spell, so the names are what the scribe at the time thought they should be. Saying all that – it is a fabulous resource!
I am looking forward to review the Drouin Collection. Will it be included in my yearly subscription?
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To set the record straight: what the Drouin contains for the most part is what was recorded in parish registers. Therefore the information interred in those registers where entered by priests who were *very well educated*. The writing is in the writing of the day when looking at the copies of the originals. That is to say the script is old French script just the same as if you were looking at old English records those would be in old English script. The spelling of names has evolved over the years so for the most part the spelling in the parish registers is as it was at the time. Our early ancestors could not, for the most part, read or write so often it is the spelling the priest was familiar with that was written in the parish register.
I hope this explanation helps. I’m certain that Ancestry will make it very user friendly.
This is exciting news about the Drouin Family. My (Doug) grandmother was Ida Drouin LeBlanc. She was born in Quebec. I’ll keep watching for the Drouin publication via ancestry.com and how I might obtain it. Thanks. Doug & Mary
Sounds good, When will this be available? I’m sure the peple I know researching the ir French Canadian Ancestors will be very interested. Thanks
The hard copy Drouin books are also available for consultation at the Public Library in Ottawa Canada, at the National Archives in Ottawa, and can be ordered-in on microfiche to your local LDS Family History Centres. Unfortunately, these are not the best solutions for many genealogists, so online access should help.
My concern is whether this will have an impact on the University of Montreal database that covers the period up to 1800 – I would hate to lose it.
Well – It WOULD be great if the actual Drouin Collection wer ACTUALLY available on ancestry.com!!!! Shame on them. They adevertised it by sending an email to all subscribers last Friday. I accessed in Friday night and since then I cannot get ANY image from ANY prt of it to display. And since it is not indexed by name only by date. That is the only way you can use it.
The infamous ancestry.com “Error Processing Image Request” with the yellow yield sign symbol appears. I have emailed them repeatedly about it and I called them about this. They STILL don’t have it fixed.
I am not pleased with them. They seem to have announced that it was ready before they fully tested it.
I take it all back.
The images ARE available. I added some software onmy machine that was interferring with the image viewer.
I had to remove it.
Now I can access the images again.
Great to see this great resource online, to see the actual church records is amazing, I am doing my french/canadian research from Australia, so to find my ancestors baptism in Ste-Anne-de-la-perade has been wonderful.
How soon is soon? It’s been over a year now, and still waiting.
Does anyone know why certain Drouin records are missing from the Ancestry collection? For example: Chelmsford, Ontario (St-Joseph). According to the Drouin Institute website, baptism records were filmed for the period 1896-1918, marriages 1896-1967, burials from 1896-1967. However on Ancestry.com only EIGHT pages of images are available for the period 1901-1967,