Church Records As A Genealogy Source In Canadina Genealogh Research    The keeping of baptismal, marriage, and burial registers in Quebec is an institution that goes back to the very origins of the colony. This custom, which was brought from France by the missionaries, spread along the St. Lawrence River right from the seventeenth century. Wherever people went, priests followed, opening registers in each new parish and thus recording the progress of populating the territory. Starting in about 1679, registers were kept in duplicate to respond to the requirements of the state, and this practice has been maintained, with priests keeping one copy in the parish archives and submitting the other copy to the civil authorities each year. Only when the Civil Code was reformed in 1994 was this practice abandoned.                      Foremost, these registers have a legal value. Indeed, the certificates that they contain constitute, in the eyes of both the church and the state, proof of the status of individuals. But beyond this function, parish registers have, over time, acquired a value that is scientific, historical, and even sentimental - as many people will attest! Authors of parish monographs have drawn elements of local history from them; demographers have found in them the daily bread that feeds their analyses of births, marriages, fertility and mortality, and genealogists trace marriages and family histories in them.                      Baptismal, marriage, and burial certificates are written according to particular rules. Those of the Church, set by the Rituale Romanum (1614), were adapted to the colonial context by Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier, who prepared a Ritual in 1703. The civil authorities had already manifested their desire to submit the Canadian clergy to the standards prevailing in France in 1678, when the Conseil Souverain de Québec adopted the regulations promulgated in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1667. The Conseil then completely rewrote the regulations in 1727, with a concern for accul, so that the form and contents of the certificates vary somewhat; there is no do Certainly, writers of certificates did not all approach this administrative task with equal attention or skill, so that the form and contents of the certificates vary somewhat; there is no doubt, however, that the general quality of the records in Quebec is excellent.                        From one year to the next, the format of registers could change; small, medium-sized, and large books succeeded each other apparently without logic in a given parish. As well, particularly in the old parishes and, relatively speaking, more in the seventeenth than the eighteenth century, some certificates were written up on loose sheets of paper.                   Priests sometimes took care to transcribe scattered certificates into the parish register or to attach them to it, but many of these loose sheets of paper were no doubt lost or destroyed. The great majority of certificates, however, were consigned to registers for which the church and the state assumed responsibility of storage and preservation, the sets of registers have marked the passage of time incredibly well, thanks in part to their having been kept in duplicate. Nevertheless, documents written centuries ago had to be read, and often deciphered. One can appriate the wrk involved in processing hundreds of thousands of certificates.                     The complete name of a parish includes a patron saint and a place name. Some are quite long, for example: "La-Visitation-de-la-Sainte-Vierge-Marie-de-l'Île-Dupas" or "La-Purification-de-la-Bienheureuse-Vierge-Marie-de-Repentigny". For convenience, many times in the different displays, of a site, user will just use  a short name for the parishes, usually the place name.                                                                                                                                  Abbreviations                               ABI - American Biographical Index AFRA - American Family Records Association AIS - Accelerated Indexing System APG - Association of Professional Genealogists ASG - American Society of Genealogists BK/BroKeep - Brother's Keeper (computer software) CAR - Children of the American Revolution CDA - Colonial Dames of America CFT - Corel Family Tree (computer software) CG - Certified Genealogist CRA - Church Records Archives DAC - Daughters of American Colonists DAR - Daughters of the American Revolution DCW - Daughters of Colonial Wars DFPA - Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America DLP - Descendants of Loyalists and Patriots DSL - Digital Subscriber Line DUV - Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions FARC - Federal Archives and Records Center FEEFHS - Federation of East European Family History Societies FGS - Federation of Genealogical Societies FHC - Family History Center (over 2,500 located in LDS churches) FHL - Family History Library (in Salt Lake City, UT) FreeBMD - Free Birth, Marriages, and Deaths Project FreeREG - Free Registers Project FTM - Family Tree Maker (computer software) GAR - Grand Army of the Republic GEDCOM - Genealogical Data Communications GPAI - Genealogical Periodical Annual Index GSMD - General Society of Mayflower Descendants GSU - Genealogical Society of Utah IGI - International Genealogical Index JGS - Jewish Genealogical Society LDS - Latter Day Saints (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) LOC - Library of Congress NARA - National Archives and Records Administration NEHGR - New England Historical and Genealogical Register NEHGS - New England Historical and Genealogical Society NGS - National Genealogical Society NHS - National Huguenot Society NSCD - National Society, Colonial Dames of America NSCD-17 - National Society, Colonial Dames of the 17th Century OFPA - Order of Founders and Patriots of America PAF - Personal Ancestral File (computer software) PERSI - Periodical Source Index SAR - Sons of the American Revolution SASE - Self-addressed, stamped envelope SCV - Sons of Confederate Veterans SCW - Society of Colonial Wars SSDI - Social Security Death Index TAG - The American Genealogist TMG - The Master Genealogist (computer software) UDC - United Daughters of the Confederacy UG - Users Group UGA - Utah Genealogical Association USCT - United States Colored Troops USD 1812 - Daughters of the War of 1812
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