2nd/3rd Generation American searching for Canadian family information

Question

I am new to genealogy and am looking for information on my Grandmother's side of the family.  My Grandmother Marion Clement was born in 1926 in Ontario Canada.  Her parents Ernest Clement (born about 1899) and Margaret Dagnais/Dagenais/Dashney (born about 1902) moved to America (Michigan) in 1923.  I believe my Great-Grandmother was born in Ontario, and my Great-Grandfather was from "a French-speaking area" - not Ontario.  Does anyone have any information that my help me either in your own family tree/research, or tips on how to go about finding information from Canada?  I don't even know which areas spoke French and which spoke English, so I have no idea where to even begin.  THANKS!

Comments

The immigration year doesn't match the corresponding census data from familysearch - Yvonne and Marion - immigration is noted as 1923 - before they were born.  Unless this is the year Ernest immigrated himself and then someone just used ditto's for the other family members who may have come later?

US Census, 1940 Ward 9, Detroit, Detroit City, Wayne, Michigan

Head  Ernest Clement  M 41 Can

Wife  Margaret Clement F 38 Can

Dau  Yvonne Clement F 15 Can

Dau  Marion Clement F 14 Can

Dau  Rita Clement F 12 Michigan

Dau  Dorothy Clement F 10 Michigan

Son  Ernest Clement M 7 Michigan

 

U S Census, 1930  Hamtramck, Wayne, MI

Head  Ernest Clement  M 31 Can immig 1923

Wife  Margaret Clement F 28 Can immig 1923

Dau  Yvonne Clement F 5 Can immig 1923

Dau  Marian Clement F 4 Can immig 1923

Dau  Rita Clement F 2 MI

Dau  Dorothy Clement F 0 MI

---

Their parents immegrated before they were born in 1923, but went back to Canada for the birth of their first two children.  That is why the dates look hinky.  Thank you.

Answer 1

One of the first things I do is google the wife's name, in this case, Margaret Dagnais Clement. You can find that they were married on Monday July 23, 1923 in Nipissing District, Nipissing, Ontario. You can see her marriage license on Ancestry.ca

Comments

Thank you.  I didn't even know they had a separate website for Canada.  Is there a difference between Ancestory.com & Ancestory.ca?

---

Do you have a world subscription on Ancestry? If so, I think .com and .ca are pretty much the same. The main difference is that Ancestry.ca defaults to searching Canadian collections.

---

I don't have an Ancestry membership right now.  I did go to the second page of google results and found their marriage record on rootsweb.  Here is the link.

 

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maryc/north1923p3.htm

---

No, I don't have a subscription yet.  I have been using my church's Family History Center to access the paid websites.  From home I have been using Family Search & other free websites. Thank you.

Answer 2

There are English and French speakers throughout Canada, but Quebec is the province with the highest concentration of French speakers.

Here are some helpful resources for Canadian genealogy:

http://automatedgenealogy.com/ - Searchable indexes and images of the 1852, 1901, 1906 (prairie provinces only), and 1911 Canadian censuses.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx - Most of the Canadian censuses, most of them searchable.

If you're doing Quebec research, and have access to Canadian records on Ancestry, the Drouin Collection is the thing to search. It has baptism, marriage, and burial records that are a wealth of information. The records are in French, but they're all pretty similar, so you can learn to read them without speaking French.

I hope this helps!

Comments

Thank you!!!  That is very helpful.

Answer 3

majority of french are from Québec, but many of them move in other provinces. You can have information from beginning  on family search.org or rootsweb's connect projet  i have some information that you want i have some certificat for you and the mariage of Ernest and Margaret in chiswick london dedroit in 1923. He is from Nipissing ontario and his father from Ripon in Québec Canada

Comments

Thank you.  Sorry it took so long to reply.  I finished my degree and then moved, so it's been a very crazy busy year.  I haven't had any time to work on my family history since last summer.  How can I get the document from you.  That would be great.  I really appreciate it.

---

Heather, you mentioned your church's family history center, so I ask, are you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? If so, and if you live in the United States, because of a partnership with some other companies, members of this church in the states, are receiving, if they so choose, the use of World wide ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and Find My Past. You have to connect via Family Search site as the directions are there. Just a heads up, if you did not know. Your family history director, should know, however.

Frankie

Tennessee, USA