Quebec Historical Geography: Difference between revisions

Nevertheless, in Québec, the ''Two Solitudes'' of Genealogy are not Language but Religion. Official vital records are either '''Roman Catholic''' or '''Non-Catholic'''.  

The process of finding '''Roman Catholic ancestors''' in Québec, whether they spoke French, English, German, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Creole or Vietnamese, is essentially the same. Finding English-speaking Irish Catholics is the same as finding Francophone ancestors. Records and sources are covered elsewhere and will be noted here briefly, or when there are exceptions or special situations in society that warrant consideration. Finding the “Others” is similar, but with certain differences. Books on the methodology of genealogical research in Québec rarely cover both segments of the population, though they often divide by language rather than religion. Local histories tend to cover a single county, city, or region of the Province and if you read one by an English writer and another by a French Canadian, you may wonder if they are writing about the same place. And speaking of place, Québec refers to the whole province, Québec City to the city.  

“English” Québec has always been a mobile society. Moreover, it is very important to understand that at the time of Confederation (1867), the '''racial balance''' in Canada East (as the province of Québec was then called) was very different from what it is today:  

The late Senator Eugene Forsey wrote these words in a letter to the Toronto ''Globe and Mail'' of 10 February, 1986. Memorize them! By “English”, he meant English-speaking peoples, both from the British Isles and the United States. He tells you where, even today, you will find most of the English-speaking peoples of Québec. If this material seems to stress geography as much as records and documents, that is because to find the latter, you will have to pay attention to the former. The hunt for '''Non-Roman Catholics''' in Québec, whatever their origins, will be treated in part, geographically.  

Look at a good relief map of the north-eastern part of the continent and you will see the water routes used by invading armies, refugee Loyalists, and New England settlers:  

<br>In 1775, Benedict Arnold led his expedition against Québec using the Kennebec route, which took the army to Lake Megantic and down the Chaudiere River to Point Levis opposite Québec<ref>Wallace, Willard M. ''Traitorous Hero:  The Life and Fortunes of Benedict Arnold'' (New York:  Harper and Brothers, 1954) gives a vivid account of this wilderness expedition.</ref>. These water routes all run north-south, and  

====Roads Across the Townships====

In the 1830s east-west travel was overland and far more difficult.  

<br>{{Note | Most early place name references to townships, such as these are to townships; not the towns that today bear the same names. It is very easy to fall into the same-name town and Township trap in both Québec and Ontario<ref>Douglas, Althea, "The Township Trap", ''Here Be Dragons!:  Navigating the hazards fround in Canadian family research, A guide for genealogists'' (Toronto:  OGS, 1996).</ref>.}}  

Remember the words of Senator Forsey who told us where to find the “English”:  

====From “the Beginning”====

Among the early non-French arrivals in the French colony of Canada were Irish and Scottish mercenaries in the French Army. Those who married local women were absorbed into French society and their children grew up part of it. You may have trouble recognizing the surnames; Riley became Riel, O’Brien became Aubry and O’Connor produced even more creative phonetic spelling<ref>O'Farrell, John, ''Annual concert and ball of the St. Patrick Society, Montréal, 15th of January, 1872:  address delivered on invitation of the society by John O'Farrell.'' Cover title: ''Irish Families in the ancient Quebec Records: With some account of Soldiers from the Irish Brigade Regiments of France serving with the Army of Montcalm'', (Montreal: J. Lovell, 1872; reprints - Montreal: St. Lawrence Press, 1908; Ottawa: Dominion Loose Leaf, 1924; Mayo, Quebec: Our Lady of Knock Shrine, St. Malachy's Church, 1967).</ref>  

Those excerpts of entries are from René Jetté’s ''Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec<ref>Jette, Rene, ''Dictionnaire genealogique des familles du Quebec'' (Montreal:  Les Presses de 1'Universite de Montreal, 1983).</ref>'' Dr. Jetté, among the best and most knowledgeable of Québec’s genealogists and demographers, has become a byword: “Have you looked in Jetté?” His ''Dictionnaire'' covers all the families who settled in the colony from the beginning to c. 1730, listed by surname, with all known facts. This widely available single volume is based on the early volumes of the computerized database of the ''P.R.D.H.''  

The English began to arrive after 1760 and trickled into Québec for almost 200 years but in the early years, the English population in Québec grew very gradually:  

<br>By the mid-1760s there were not more than 500 English-speaking residents of Canada.<ref>R. Cole Harris and John Warkentin, ''Canada Before Confederation:  A study in historical geography'' (New York, London, Toronto:  Oxford University Press, 1974) page 66.</ref>  

As Senator Forsey pointed out, there are pockets of English-speaking Québecers in outlying regions: in the east of Québec, the Gaspé Peninsula and North Shore of the Gulf are home to the descendants of fishermen from France, the Basque country, the West of England and the Channel Islands<ref>Turk, Marion G., ''The Quiet Adventurers in Canada'' (Detroit:  Harlo, 1979) is an excellent source of information on Channel Islanders.  Her other books on these migrants include: ''The Quiet Adventurers'' (1971) ''The Quiet Adventurers in America'' (1975) with Supplements in preparation.</ref> who made seasonal visits to the coast from earliest times. Some small year-round settlements followed. When the British captured Québec:  

<br>  

Eventually, however, the south shore of the Gaspé peninsula with the fine harbour at the town of Gaspé, attracted railroad entrepreneurs.  

<br> Between them, the two lines covered only 202 miles, but remained separate companies until absorbed into the CNR (Canadian National Railway) system in 1929. However, do not overlook their existence, and the effect train service may have had on the movement of people living along the south coast of the peninsula. From Matapedia Junction a passenger could catch daily express trains to Montréal or Halifax.  

Québec City still has a small “English” community, but as journalist George Boulanger pointed out in the ''Globe and Mail'', Québec City’s English-speaking Jewish and Irish ethnic communities:  

This is even more true of the other smaller urban centres in Québec. The Francophone population has grown, but as the English leave they are not replaced, their institutions decline and may eventually disappear. The “English” population is also ageing, so the volunteers who run the historical society museums, the libraries, the churches and who maintain the graveyards, may be slow to respond to your enquiries.

These were once “English” enclaves,  

The TMR (Town of Mount Royal, established 1912) was created directly out of farmland by a subsidiary of the Canadian Northern Railway Co., which was blasting a tunnel through the mountain to gain access to the harbour. It hoped to recoup part of the huge cost by developing a prestigious planned suburb linked to downtown by commuter trains through the tunnel. Hampstead, created 1914, to the west was also a “corporate suburb” laid out by town planners.  

“Gigantism in Downtown Montréal”, by Isabelle Gournay, pages 153-182, includes discussion and plans, of several of the prestigious early apartment buildings:  

There was another building boom of luxury apartments in the Square Mile in the 1960s, and many brick mansions and grey stone town houses were destroyed. All but a handful of the mansions along Dorchester Street have vanished, but between Dorchester and Sherbrooke Streets, the rows of grey stone town houses survive; many have become boutiques, restaurants, and there are still many residential units on upper floors. Photographs and other records of most mansions and many town houses exist in the Notman Collection and Archives of the McCord Museum. Check their website.  

====Moving Day in Montréal====

Montréal is a city of tenants. In 1994, 53% of households rented, the average rent being $542 per month, and families ''may'' have moved every year, though most did not. Nevertheless, in June 1995 some 175,000 households notified the telephone company of an impending move.  

“Guy—''la rue Guy''—Guy” used to be the call of the streetcar driver at Sherbrooke Street, where Côte-des-Neiges turned into Guy Street. In Montréal, '''Public Transportation''' will often determine where a family lived. As Stephen Leacock explained it:  

The telephone came to Montréal in 1880 with four hundred subscribers. The Montréal Passenger Railway Company had put their horsecar on Notre Dame Street in 1861, and when Montréal shops moved up the steep hill to St. Catherine Street they instituted the first electric car. The ''Rocket'' began experimental runs along St. Catherine Street on 1 September 1892. It met with such success that:  

By the 1920s city maps show a complex network of streetcar lines leading off to Cartierville and other island suburbs. Instead of living within walking distance of the factory or shop where they worked, a family could move to a pleasanter part of town and take jobs at places along different streetcar routes. Maps for visitors often give this information, for example''Map of the City of Montréal with Index of Streets and Numbered Charts of the Tramway Routes'' (Revised to March, 1925), published by A.T. Chapman of Montréal. ''Lovell’s Montréal Street Guide'' a booklet published annually, also contained lists of Bus and Tramway Routes. John Lovell and Sons, Ltd., a firm that started publishing in 1835, still publishes Directories, maps and Street Guides for Montréal and its suburbs.  

===British Garrisons===

The invasions of 1775-76 and 1812-14 convinced Britain that the United States was a potential aggressor and so the British Army built fortifications at strategic points along the border and vital waterways. Along the Richelieu we find Fort Chambly, Fort Saint-Jean, Ile-aux-Noix, and there were countless smaller outposts between the major forts. Here the British maintained large, or small, '''Garrisons''' of their regular Army, but relied on local Militia to assist.  

===Colonial Militia===

In Canada, where our '''Militia''' has a long and honourable history, this is what is meant. Do not confuse Canadian Militia (now the Reserve Army) with modern American groups calling themselves ''Militia ''(American part-time soldiers are the National Guard). The publicity the American groups received means there is always a danger that the term will be misused and misunderstood. There is more danger that a client will tell you an ancestor “served in the British Army - I have his Commission as a Major”. Almost always, this Commission is in the local Militia, indicating a certain social status, but you will not be able to find him in the British ''Army Lists''.  

When fighting ended with the Treaty of Paris (Treaty of Separation) signed 3 September 1783, the arrival of several thousand English-speaking Loyalists changed the population balance in the Province of Québec.  

As a result, on 26 December 1791, the ''Canada'' or ''Constitutional Act'' (passed 10 June) came into force, dividing Lower Canada and Upper Canada. In Lower Canada, this did not change much of the Québec Act, except that land tenure in the new Townships was to be English, i.e. free and common soccage, and there would be a democratically elected Assembly.  

The Loyalists entered Canada principally by way of Lake Champlain where “the existence of a seigneury (St. Armand) gave assurance that they were within British territory”<ref>Dresser, ''op.cit.'' page 93.</ref> They then travelled north up the Richelieu River, coming to refugee camps at St. Johns (St-Jean), Three Rivers and Sorel; three towns that were once far more English than they are today. Sorel’s story is curious:  

===Loyalists and Land===

“Ethnics” is what Jacques Parizeau called them after his referendum failed. The journalist George Boulanger also betrayed certain bias when he referred to Québec City’s English-speaking Jewish and Irish “ethnic communities”:  

The Irish, at least the Roman Catholics, sort of fitted in, though they are probably included in Parizeau’s accusations. As has been said, their records are the same as Francophone Catholics, but there is quite a lot of literature on “The Irish in Québec” and their sufferings during the Famine and on Grosse Isle, and their impact on Montréal, some of it quite recent.<ref>Burns, Patricia, ''The Shamrock and the Shield:  An Oral History of the Irish in Montréal'' (Montréal, Vehicule Press, 1998).  Hustake, Alan, ''Saint Patrick's of Montréal:  The Biography of a Basilic'' (Montréal, Vehicule Press, 1998).</ref> Sister Marianna O’Gallagher is the expert and you should consult her books and articles<ref>O'Gallagher, Marianna, ''Grosse Ile:  Gateway to Canada 1832-1937'' (Ste. Foy:  Carraig Books, 1984).</ref> . In the ''Canadian Geographic'' (July-August 1999) there is an article by Pierre de Billy describing the English-speaking Irish village of Shannon, 25 kilometres northwest of Québec City which so far has resisted francization.  

Jews were barred from New France, so the origins of the Jewish community in Québec can be stated with some precision.  

<br>  

Aaron Hart was not the only Jew to arrive under British auspices. When some of these soldiers and civilians decided to remain permanently in Québec, the “history of Canadian Jewry commenced”.  

<br>  

The arrival of Jews from central and eastern Europe, Yiddish-speaking for the most part, began in the 1840s, a trickle at first, but swelling after 1880 to reach a peak just before World War I. Records of the German Polish Synagogue begin in 1858 and those of the Avatah Shalom Hebrew in 1882. In 1881 the Jewish population of Montréal numbered 814, in 1911 it was 27,948. Kathleen Jenkins devotes several pages of her history of ''Montréal'' to the political accomplishments of the early Jewish settlers and to the growth of congregations and divisions in the community.  

<br> ''City Unique'' chronicles the importance, and then the decline in the use of Yiddish in Montréal, indeed there was a lively and important Yiddish theatrical tradition well into the 1950s. For educational purposes Jewish Montréalers fell under the Protestant School Board, though there were some parochial schools. For many years McGill University accepted a limited number of Jewish students, which, of course meant the brightest and best. This quota came to an end after World War II. For almost a century, starting in the 1880s the Jewish community developed its own social and cultural institutions, the Jewish Public Library, the Jewish General Hospital, a wide range of social welfare organizations, many of which remain though now most are government funded and so government controlled. Several organizations are making a concerted effort to record and preserve the oral history and traditional culture of the men and women who arrived in Canada early in the 20th century. The Jewish Public Library (see Addresses, under Archives) would be the place to start asking about such material. Also check the [http://www.jgs-montreal.org Jewish Genealogical Society] website or e-mail [mailto:Info@jgs-montreal.org Info@jgs-montreal.org]