Thank you for that Doug, I’m 77 and have been hearing about family history all my life, I have never heard of that program before, we have a large family who are very interested in our past, we were called LaMontagne until the late 1800’s. My grandparents born in the 1890’s spoke French as well as English. It wouldn’t surprise me at all …
Thank you for that Doug, I’m 77 and have been hearing about family history all my life, I have never heard of that program before, we have a large family who are very interested in our past, we were called LaMontagne until the late 1800’s. My grandparents born in the 1890’s spoke French as well as English. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had been part of a program like that, what an opportunity that must have been, that’s a lot of land and on the water, I’d be sorely tempted by an offer like that today.
Dick, one resource I found to be very helpful to get information about family history (which wouldn't be helpful to your family) was compiled by a Catholic priest who shares my last name. He has done a lot of research into the family history, going back to France. I used his work to visit locations in Canada and France. Similarly, my mother's uncle was a priest and commissioned someone in Montreal in the 1930s to compile a family history on her side. The work was extensive, and typewritten pages and photos were bound into a thick book which is now on my possession. Unfortunately, it's written in French, and while I can discern much of what is on the pages, Google translate is often of little help, as there are some corrected typos which mess with character reading software.
My point is, you may find research that a priest did on your family's history. I can also recommend a book -- A People's History of Quebec by J. Lacoursiere and R. Philpot which covers French colonization of the province and extends into the 20th century -- I found it very interesting. Another book which I own but haven't yet read is 'Jeanne Chevalier, Fille du Roi' by L. Levesque. Filles du Roi were women sent to New France by King Louis XIV to help populate their territory.
I suspect that France stopped its homesteading program by 1763, when they lost Canada to Great Britain in the French and Indian War ;-) Such colonization was inherently dangerous -- my ancestors on my dad's side who I mentioned before was killed by Iroquois, as was one on my mom's side. The Indians didn't take too kindly to French settlers exploiting their resources and stealing their land.
Thank you for that Doug, I’m 77 and have been hearing about family history all my life, I have never heard of that program before, we have a large family who are very interested in our past, we were called LaMontagne until the late 1800’s. My grandparents born in the 1890’s spoke French as well as English. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had been part of a program like that, what an opportunity that must have been, that’s a lot of land and on the water, I’d be sorely tempted by an offer like that today.
Dick, one resource I found to be very helpful to get information about family history (which wouldn't be helpful to your family) was compiled by a Catholic priest who shares my last name. He has done a lot of research into the family history, going back to France. I used his work to visit locations in Canada and France. Similarly, my mother's uncle was a priest and commissioned someone in Montreal in the 1930s to compile a family history on her side. The work was extensive, and typewritten pages and photos were bound into a thick book which is now on my possession. Unfortunately, it's written in French, and while I can discern much of what is on the pages, Google translate is often of little help, as there are some corrected typos which mess with character reading software.
My point is, you may find research that a priest did on your family's history. I can also recommend a book -- A People's History of Quebec by J. Lacoursiere and R. Philpot which covers French colonization of the province and extends into the 20th century -- I found it very interesting. Another book which I own but haven't yet read is 'Jeanne Chevalier, Fille du Roi' by L. Levesque. Filles du Roi were women sent to New France by King Louis XIV to help populate their territory.
I suspect that France stopped its homesteading program by 1763, when they lost Canada to Great Britain in the French and Indian War ;-) Such colonization was inherently dangerous -- my ancestors on my dad's side who I mentioned before was killed by Iroquois, as was one on my mom's side. The Indians didn't take too kindly to French settlers exploiting their resources and stealing their land.