Problem:
Your ancestors were among the first settlers in a region of the
Townships, long before there were churches. How do you find their vital
records?
Suggestion:
Look to water routes. Roads were few and far between in the
early days of settlement in the Townships and people (including clergy)
did alot of their travelling by water.
To give you an example, there were a group of Loyalists who refused to move to Ontario in the 1780's as Governor Haldeman requested and instead settled at Missisquoi Bay in the region of the village of Philipsburg. They were in the Townships long before settlement was made legal in the 1790's.
Because they were Loyalists, I knew there would be little point in looking south of the border for their records--although Vermont was not part of the United States at that time, I was pretty sure these people would be turning towards British institutions.
Older maps of the area showed that the Richelieu River, which drains from Lake Champlain up to the St. Lawrence River, at the time had two major population centres--St. John's (today called St. Jean) and Sorel, site of the British garrison of Fort William Henry.
St. John's didn't have any records from the 1780's, but when I checked the Sorel records, sure enough the Anglican priest had travelled all the way down the Richelieu to the community at Missisquoi Bay (and had actually gone as far south as Schnectady, N.Y.) and I found some (but not all) of the vital records I was missing.
The first legal settlers of the southern portion of the Townships tended to have American roots. There was a shortage of clergy in these regions through the 1830's and these people often used the clergy (or justices of the peace) in Vermont for marriages. For purposes of genealogy, you have to consider northern Vermont and the southern portion of the Eastern Townships as one place.
If your ancestors are among the first French-Canadian settlers of Vermont, you should look in the records of Quebec Catholic churches close to the Vermont border. These priests often acted as missionaries, baptising, marrying and burying the Vermont faithful until their numbers got large enough to support a church in their new Vermont home.
Problem:
I know my ancestor was born outside the Townships, but I
can't find any record of that birth in the area where his/her parents
settled. I know his parents originally came from the Townships. Where
do I go from here?
Suggestion:
If the child's grandparents were alive at the time of the
child's birth, check the church records for the parish where the
grandparents lived. Start with churches near where the maternal
grandparents lived--it's been my experience that alot of these stray
baptisms are found there. Women liked to bring their children home to
show their parents.
Problem:
My ancestor and his wife were born in the Quebec but
settled elsewhere. I know she died at their new home but can't find any
burial record for her. What now?
Suggestion:
Have you checked back in Quebec where the wife's parents lived?
Some people were brought home for burial, especially after the 1860's
when rail travel made the transport of bodies simpler. I saw one record
where a woman died in Michigan, a funeral was held at her parents'
church in the Hemmingford region and the church record noted that her
body would be sent for burial in Maine. (I have no idea why she was
taken back to Maine, the record doesn't say.)
Also, don't ignore cemetery indexes back in Quebec or northern Vermont communites near the border. Family gravestones sometimes mention the death and burial site of immediate family members (ie sons and daughters) who died and are buried elsewhere.
For instance, on their family stone in Hillside Cemetery in Richford, Vt. Herbert H. Barnes and his wife Altha A. Smith (both of whom spent almost all their lives in Sutton Township, Quebec by the way) noted that their son Luther H. Barnes had been born in Abercorn, Que. on Jan. 16, 1880 and died in Los Angeles, California on April 20, 1908.
This tip comes
from Steve Zedney: Some people dismiss census records before 1850/1851
because they only
list the heads of households. But they do indicate the ages &
genders of
household members, and by comparing several successive censuses with
known
family members much useful data can be interpolated.
It's a good idea to follow your ancestors through as many censuses as you can because you never know just what a census taker will throw in. In one census of Glen Sutton, the census taker gave everyone's actual place of birth (ie Clarenceville, Que., Vergennes, Vt.) when all he was supposed to say was the country of birth.
Some French-speaking census takers also enumerated women by their maiden names--if you don't know that name the census from 1851 on may hold a pleasant surprise for you.
This
page will be under construction for some time. Do you have any tips
about researching in the Townships you'd like to share? Please e-mail them to me and as I
have time I'll add them to this page and gladly give you credit for
your contribution.
Address: http://simmons.b2b2c.ca
Email: simmons@endirect.qc.ca