Using The Database Search Engine Effectively

          If you'd like an idea of how many people by a given surname I have in my database (say you want to know how many Browns I have) just type Brown into the surname category of the search screen, leave the first name section blank, choose how many records per page you wish to see, and start the search.

          With a database this huge, there are ALOT of Browns.  If you don't want to scroll through thousands of entries, you can always go to the bottom of the first screen of Browns and start the search again, refine it more. 

          Say your ancestor was George Graham Brown.  Sometimes he went by George Brown, sometimes Graham, sometimes G.G. Brown.  A quick way to find every possible match is to type Brown in the surname category of the search form, and just the letter G in the first name category of the search field.  You'll get every entry in my database for the surname Brown and a first name that starts with the letter G.

          Now in a perfect world, the various people who collected records about our ancestors would have been able to spell.  But they couldn't and I've got a little article on name quirks to help you figure out possibilities. I have indexed names as ministers spelled them which means you'll see McCartney and McArtney for the same name or McWhinney, McWhinnie and McQuinney. However, if the minister made a blatant error, such as writing "Dodge" when the family signed "Hodge" then I have made a second entry in my databases. 

         If your ancestors were Millers, the surname could have easily been spelled Miller or Millar.  One way to catch both variations, is to type the wildcard character (%) into your surname field like this:  Mill%r.  That will return both Miller and Millar.

         Another way to catch spelling variations is to choose the Soundex option with your search.   Soundex is basically a "soundalike" search, but every database program has slightly different ideas of what soundalike means.  If you type Brown into the surname category, choose soundex, and launch a search, you'll see about 6,000 entries, and some of them will not be close to Brown at all.  But it will also return some Browne entries, which is another way to spell that surname.

         Unfortunately, soundex does not catch all the possible variations.  For instance, if your ancestors were Lampmans, the soundex search will not find Land(e)man(n) or Lant(e)man(n) which were all spelling variations for that surname. 

          This database gives you a broad overview of the type of information I hold--church, census, cemetery, newspaper, etc.  One source is not self-evident, and that's the one entitled Sutton Twp.  That was information I collected years ago when I was thinking about writing a genealogy of the township.  Mostly, it's a collation of information from sources in my database (church, census, cemetery, etc.) but occasionally there is anecdotal family information.  I have not had time to verify that other information.

          My web page spells out in great detail every source I have indexed.   Folks, Quebec is a huge place and while I have done a massive amount of indexing, much remains to be done.  I am continually adding new records to my databases, the What's New section of my site lets you follow my progress.  If you don't find your ancestor first round, but you know I'm indexing records from the region where he/she lived, check back periodically.

          Anyone who has tried tracing female lines knows how difficult this can be.  Wherever possible, I have filed women by their maiden names and cross-referenced them to husbands.  For instance, if a death record identifies a woman as Christiana McKinnon, widow of William Patterson, there will be an entry for her under her name, and one for him linking him back to this woman's death.  When I have a second marriage for a widowed woman, I will make a reference back to her first husband. 

          You will have to do some sifting to see if I have indexed records covering your ancestors--records from the place where they lived, the time they lived there and their religion.  All pre-1993 vital records in Quebec are stored by religious faith.

          My specialty is the English speaking Protestants of Quebec, I'm not as strong for French-Canadian records.  Those French-Canadian records which I do have are largely concentrated in the counties of Brome, Missisquoi and Shefford.

          I charge $6 to transcrible a record from my databases.  If you'd like to know exactly how a transcription is done, please visit the fees section of my home page.