Hello Lucie,

I'm not sure what thread you were talking about (Paris or Research advice) but thank you anyway. :)

In case you haven't already found it, I copy you here my reply from last month about French Canadian roots:

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One of the best points of having French Canadian ancestors is that there is a lot of genealogy research already done about them so you more than likely will be able to go back far and fast! ;)

French records are kept locally, either at town or departement level, so first you need to try to pinpoint the origin area in France of your ancestors. For this, here are some good websites:

- Fichier Origine: http://www.fichierorigine.com/index.htm
Try all surnames variants. It generally gives the link between France and Canada (birth place, parents names, date of arrival, etc.) of the pioneers! Very very handy.

- Genealogical dictionary of priest Cyprien Tanguay: http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/dicoGenealogie/
Another incredible resource which lists the pioneers as well as several generations of descendants! First publication in 1871, completed by later volumes (so check them all!) between 1886 and 1890.

- Canada's Genealogy website: http://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/genealogie.aspx?lng=en

- Francogene association index: http://www.francogene.com/genealogie--quebec/999/index.php

- Research Program in Historical Demography of Montreal University: http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/en/

- Mes Aïeux/ My folks website: http://www.mesaieux.com/defaultAn.asp
They have very good data for recent periods but you'll need to buy some vouchers to see complete informations. Research is free though! ;)


Once you've exhausted all available resources in Canada and you're ready to take the fight back to France, you'll have to follow the same process as fellow French researchers: identify the town/location, search for available archives (sometimes 16th or 17th century are beyond still existing records) and browse them to find baptism, marriage and burial certificates.

In this endeavour, I really urge you to read this little guide first: http://genealogy.about.com/od/france/a/french_ancestry.htm

And you'll find many French/Canadian cousins on http://www.geneanet.org/?lang=en (probably the most popular French website with over 400 millions data).

Finally here a list of websites/links I compiled that you may also find useful (you may have to scroll down to find it): http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.weurope.france.general...

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If you look for 'Gervaise' on the Fichier Origine website, you get this detailed result: http://www.fichierorigine.com/detail.php?numero=241761

It seems you misspelled the town name, that's why you couldn't find it. He was was born and christened on March 24, 1616 in the parish St Michel from the town of Souvigné, in the departement of Indre-et-Loire (zip code: 37330): Souvigné: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvign%C3%A9_%28Indre-et-Loire...

And here's the story of his coming to Canada: http://www.mesancetres.ca/pages.php?section=6&lang=fr&am...# (here's a translation: http://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=... but be aware it mangles names)

There are several researchers already studying this family on Geneanet, but they generally don't go further than his parents. For example: http://gw0.geneanet.org/babeux?lang=en;pz=marion;nz=loiselle...

According to the LDS (http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermain...), Souvigné archives go back to 1566 but there are many gaps in the parish registers (click on the 'View film notes' button on the top right to see details):

FHL INTL Film 451666 :
. Baptêmes 1566-1586, 1589-1597, 1600-1638
. Mariages 1625-1627, 1633-1642
. Sépultures 1625-1627, 1672, 1676
. Baptêmes, mariages 1672-1676 (Les registres ne sont pas en ordre chronologique)

As you can see, the earliest marriages records are from 1625 and he had siblings born in 1613 and 1615, so you probably won't be able to find his parents marriage. Perhaps their births and deaths if they didn't occurred during the "gaps".

Indre-et-Loire parish registers (= registres paroissiaux) are available on-line at http://archives.cg37.fr/Chercher/REGISTRES_PAROISSIAUX-ABCN.... (the access link is at the bottom) but for now, Souvigné archives are only available from 1728. This will probably be completed in the next months/years as they're still digitalizing. In the meanwhile, you can try to order the corresponding microfilms at your nearest LDS center: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

However I should warn you that the writing from this period is often very challenging to decipher, even for French speakers like myself. Take a look at this page about old handwriting: http://genealogy.about.com/lr/old_handwriting/634345/1/

About the BRISSON's, I can't say very much without further details, sorry, but may be the links I gave you will give you more leads.

Good luck & bonnes recherches !
Amandine