Google Books

Have you ever wanted to know more about the history surrounding your early French-Canadian ancestors? Try going to "Google Books" for more information. Many early history books have been scanned and you can find them in the original French, many with English translations and also in English.

To get to "Google Books" go to Google and look for "More" at the top of the screen. Click on "More" and choose "Books" from the drop-down menu. You can do your keyword searches from there. Once you are in a book, you can search in it for other keywords.

.

You'll find books such as, Francoix Xavier's Garneau's "History of Canada - From the Time of Its Discovery Till the Union Year (1840-1)" translated into English at http://books.google.com/books?id=ZyS9g_mTN-oC&pg=PR3&dq=%22histoire+du+canada%22+garneau+translation&ie=ISO-8859-1; Champlain's Voyages by Samuel de Champlain at http://books.google.com/books?id=7u0ErQ0xWDEC&pg=PA3&dq=champlain&ie=ISO-8859-1; and William Charles Colby's book on personalities in early Quebec, "Canadian Types of the Old Regime: 1608-1698" at http://books.google.com/books?id=I48dAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=william+charles+colby&ie=ISO-8859-1. Just click on the underlined URL to take you to the site.

-

Explore Google Books - you'll enjoy the experience.

Getting Ready for 2009

NNYACGS is excited about the up-coming celebrations for the Quadricentennial of Champlain's entrance into Lake Champlain in 1609.

There have been many meeting of the Quadricentennial Commitee and activities have been suggested to the Clinton County, NY Coordinator, Celine Paquette.

Our Society is partnering with the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society in our project - They Walked With Champlain. We are going to research our family histories to discover which of our ancestors actually did walk with Samuel de Champlain in Acadia and Quebec. We will publish pdf versions of the trees on our website. For a list of original settlers go to our website at http://www.nnyacgs.com/quebecwalk.html. Each line contains the correct page from Tanguay showing the couple's marriage.

Our Society is also thinking about a heritage walk from church to church from Montreal down the Richilieu - the route of many of our ancestors.

So many ideas and so little time - only two years to go!

Opening of the Library for the 2007 Season

The last couple of weeks have been very busy at the library getting ready for the new season. We received a major bequest of over 200 books from the family of Betty Bellinger Bateman who was a life-long genealogist.

Betty had family connections in Pennsylvania and New York including Palatine ancestors. She had ancestors from Union County and the Susquehanna and Buffalo Valleys in Pennsylvania. In New York her ancestors were from the Mohawk Valley and Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties. You can view her gift at http://www.nnyacgs.com/files/BATEMAN2.pdf . Betty's research will be available in our Family Section.

The library bought or had donated to us many books this year. We bought protestant church records from southern Quebec. Donations included Vermont military records of those who fought in various wars, Chazy, NY church records and several Acadian descendant books. View the list at http://www.nnyacgs.com/newmaterial.html . The new books will be on display in Room 2 until November. We are going to need a lot of new shelving for our new aquisitions and so are saving money toward that end. It should be a great year.

Thanks, Jim

Today I had a lovely visit with a long-time member of our Society at our library in Keeseville. He is "downsizing" at home and looking for a place to put his valuable research material so that others can use it - he naturally thought of us.

Jim Hays brought in 20 years worth of the Highlander Magazine and various other publications that we will add to our stacks. For those with Scottish ancestry it will be a great treasure. Presently he is researching Elkanah Watson (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/w/elkwatson.html), a man of Scottish descent, who settled in locally Port Kent, NY. One of Mr. Watson's claims to fame was that he worked with Benjamin Franklin in France in 1779.

For many years our library had a heavily French-Canadian focus but now it is becoming more "cosmopolitan". More nationalities, especially Irish and English are being researched here.

So - if you're thinking of downsizing or looking for a home for genealogical research material you or your family can no longer use - we're here to give it a good home.

Thanks again for your donation, Jim, we really appreciate it.

Referring Links

Today I got an email from a friend, Marie Gennett, recommending some links for our site. I've added those that we didn't have, among them - Northeastern Ontario Gravemarkers/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~murrayp/ and a Perpetual Calendar in which you can find the day of the week your ancestors were born by birthdate/http://www.wiskit.com/calendar.html . It's nice to know that members are always contributing. Enoy the sites.

The picture shows Marie and Leon Gennett - valued long-time members of our Society at our conference last spring.

The Society's Links Page is at http://www.nnyacgs.com/links.html .

Old Photos

Looking for something that will please your whole family? Scan the family photos to disc.

This season I chose to start with my two children's childhood. As soon as I scanned the photos, they were put in separate boxes for each daughter. The rule was this - if only one child was in the photo it was given to that child. If both were in the picture, I kept it. If there were doubles, they each got one. Group scenes were divided equally.

One of my daughters is scanning a friend's childhood slides. Great memories. I hope I get a copy of them too. She also did all her paternal grandparents' photos and we got copies.

The next group I'm going to do are my parents' childhoods.

It's nice to know the photos are going to go to good homes and they're stored in several places for posterity.

There's still time left before the holidays - but you can do it at any time. They'll love it.

Genealogy Buffs

Christmas is coming - we have lots of suggestions for family and friends.

Calvin Castine of Champlain has DVDs and videos of all kinds of local events - games, memorials, openings, races - view relatives past and present. Calvin also has a great book on Champlain with lots of local family histories. Reach him at hometowncable@yahoo.com.

Larry Gooley has many books on local history - Out of the Darkness - Lyon Mountain~The Trajedy of a Mining Town - Altona~A History of the Flat Rock - to name a few. His research, especially interviews with local people are extraordinary. His website - www.bloatedtoe.com.

Clyde Rabideau has done the community a great service by continuing the legacy of Mr. and Mrs. Charles McClellan in recording the cemetery and other vital records of Clinton County, NY. He has also done extensive research on the Rabideau family that he has documented in several books. He can be reached at http://www.clyderabideau.com/.

Celine Paquette and Kimberly Lemay have recently published a picture book on Champlain, New York. See Champlain in the "old days". You can get it in local stores and at www.amazon.com.

Our publications are also for sale on our website at http://www.nnyacgs.com/publications.html. Our latest book on the births, marriages and deaths of Churubusco, NY came out this year. We also have the History of the Town of Chazy by local authors David Martin and Nell Sullivan. There are only about a hundred left with no plans for future republication.

Make a family history enthusiast happy this Christmas. Contact Gloria Pratt at grcp@charter.net or at 518-561-5728 for more information.

Happy Holidays ~

Generosity

Recently I went to the house of one of my son-in-law's relatives who has become the family historian for her branch of the family. She shared many photos and stories about the people in them. We scanned and talked for most of the day and I left with over 100 images with the promise of more to come. Now Scott has pictures of all his grandmothers in that line back to, Sophia Mousseau, who was born in 1828. How many of us have that six-generation treasure?

Our family really appreciates the great generosity of Kristina Parker Wingler and her family who made these images available. What an example to the rest of us. Thank you.

Memorials

At the library yesterday, one of our regular researchers, John, told me that he got hooked on family history and genealogy in third grade. He said he still had the chart he did then and has enough information now for a large book. Sadly, he said that no one else in the family is really interested. One son said he would take his father's research as long as it was concentrated onto one disc. I wonder how many of us are in that unfortunate position?

Our library would be glad to receive any genealogical research material your family no longer wants. As John said yesterday, "This is a place to share." We have many local family histories that people have given us and much of our collection has come from donations. Often researchers donate books as they've finished with them so others can use them.

Think of us when you're editing your collections - our members would appreciate it.

Northern New York Library Network

When you see the Northern New York Library Network logo at the right, you'll always be happy with what you'll find located with it - research, newspapers, courses, references, etc....

If you ever get a chance to take courses sponsored by them - jump on it. I've attended several this fall and they were all great.

Another wonderful thing they do is put vintage newspaper from northeastern New York on line. I've found my in-law's wedding announcement, the birth announcement for my son-in-law's mother and countless other articles for members of our Society. I recommend the site to all the people who come to our library or use our website.

See what you can find!

http://www.nnyln.org/

My French Roots Contest

Our Society is one of the sponsors of the "My French Roots" Contest. Genealogies prepared by local students will be judged as part of the celebration of National Foreign Language Week Friday, March 5-11, 2007, in the atrium of Clinton Community College. The date for the award ceremony has tentatively been set for Friday, March 9, 2006, at Clinton.

Students who would like to use the NNYACGS library on Wednesday or Saturday through the winter, may contact me at nnyacgs@aol.com. Anyone with a valid Student ID may use the library at no charge.

French Film Festival at Plattsburgh State

In celebration of National French Week, The Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, in collaboration with the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), presents the Tournees Festival, Monday - Friday, Nov. 6 - 10.
http://web.plattsburgh.edu/news/index.php?wl_mode=more&wl_eid=664&wl_topic=1

Google Maps

Thanks to those who have contacted me in the last few days to add or change things on our site. One person who got in touch was Calvin Castine of Home Town Cable (hometowncable@yahoo.com), in Champlain, who recommended Google Maps. Just go to Google. Choose Maps, then type in an address at the top of the screen. If you've chosen the "Satellite" view, you can see the scene below you. For instance, type in "Washington Monument" and you can almost reach out and touch it.

As a family history enthusiast, you can check out the old homeplace, view a cemetery, or see your own neighborhood. You can understand family dynamics better by seeing where they lived. Did all the kids cluster around grandpa's farm? Did they live on one side of town and work on the other? Did your great grandparents meet because they lived in the same neighborhood? Maps are another way to help you understand your ancestors better.

Local Families

In the last couple of days we've had queries concerning the Frenier, Cady, Patten, Shea, and Dumas families, to name a few. These have come from experienced as well as novice searchers. Today the enthusiastic novices are going to our Library in Keeseville, where veteran librarians, Roland and Betty Tatro, will be waiting to welcome them. It's always fun to help those starting out. We've seen tears of joy when a long-lost relative is found. I think our new friends find some good stuff in our Redford Assumption of Mary book and our Churubusco St. Philomena's book. Gloria Pratt, our President and expert researcher, will help others from her own extensive resources.

Blog beginnings

Our year is drawing to a close - but we still have a few more days to do research. Our last day this year is Wednesday, November 29. Open again on Wednesday, May 2, 2007.

If you're a member (or have a genealogical emergency), just give us a call and make an appointment to come in. I work there one day a week, so don't be shy to ask for a mid-winter session to cure some cabin fever. www.nnyacgs.com