The French- Canadian Drouin Collection Also Contains Records of Irish Immigrants
The Ancestry.com Drouin Collection of Quebec records that spans the years 1621 to 1967 - (yes, 346 years of records) - has over 30 million names taken from baptism, marriage and burial records of Quebec, as well as church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and some of the New England states. Those with French-Canadian ancestry should be very excited.
Surprisingly, many people of Irish descent will also find their ancestors' name in these French-Canadian records because many Irish immigrated to and lived in Quebec before coming to the U.S. My own Irish ancestors lived in Montreal in the 1830's before coming to Pennsylvania and I found the birth records of two of their children in the Drouin Collection. If you have Irish ancestors, it might be worth a look to see if your ancestors came to the United States via Quebec. For example, there are over 20,000 search results for the Irish name Murphy, and over 10,000 for the Irish name Sullivan in the Drouin Collection.
Records in the Drouin Collection can be searched in French or English by name, date, place, church or institution, and religion. You will find some of the records of Irish immigrants are recorded in French. You can use this French Genealogy Glossary to help translate.
This collection is only available online through a subscription to Ancestry.com but you can view them via a Free Trial or at your local Family History Center.
Read more about the Drouin Collection