Difficulties

In Quebec, it is often difficult to trace our ancestry for several reasons, the main ones being:

For a period of time ranging from the early days of the colony and mid-1750 most new arrivals settled in regions which were far from villages.  Births, marriages and deaths were not reported within a sort period of time.  The birth of a child could have been reported only several months later, whenever the parish priest made his yearly visit.  This is especially true if the birth occurred in the winter months.  The same applied in the event of mortalities.  We can be assured that several births and deaths never were reported.  During this period of history, certain individuals simply appeared out of nowhere and the traces of others were lost.  Individuals could change their name at will and there would be no record of the change. 

Parish priests were mandated, by the government of the time, to maintain local registers.  Each parish had it's own register for births, marriages and deaths.  There was no uniformity.  Each and every parish priest had his own way of recording these events. 

Further to miscellaneous events several registry books were destroyed by floods, fire or simply because they were not stored properly (damp church basements).

Around 1750 standards were imposed to the clergy for the formulation of the wording used in the registers and that a ruling came for the storage of such documents. 

Between 1985 and 1995 the provincial government demanded that all church registers be remitted to Le Archives Nationales du Quebec.  Since this time all births, marriages and deaths must be reported, within a given period of time to Les Archives Nationales du Quebec.

The Jacques, Plante, Bibeau and other families are no exception, several branches of the family tree may have been truncated. 

An added problem was encountered:

The records of the parish of St-Barthélémy only began in 1828, prior to this time this parish was part of the St-Cuthbert parish.  Therefore it is possible that some of our ancestors lived in St-Barthélémy.  Notary public records were verified where available. 

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