Today - F is for Francophones in BC
Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources
Maurice Guibord, Director of The Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, presents a history of Francophones in British Columbia from the 1700s when French Canadians first accompanied fur trade explorers to what is now British Columbia.
Whether you have found French speaking family in British Columbia already or not, you will enjoy his video talk.
A French Edition of the talk is on the Canadian Parents for French website.
SELECTED RESEARCH WEBSITES
The Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique offers a wealth of information free on or via its website - history articles, documents and images from the Society's own archives, and interviews and images from the Société francophone de Maillardville, the digitized Soleil de Vancouver newspaper (at SFU), interviews and even quizzes. And my favourite, postcards of places and people relating to Francophone history in BC: http://www.shfcb.ca
https://coquitlampubliclibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/history/maillardville/maillardville-landmarks
Coquitlam Archives, documents and images relating to Fraser Mills and to Maillardville: http://searcharchives.coquitlam.ca/index.php/fraser-mills
Mackin House Museum, Coquitlam, set in a 1909 house, once the home of a General Manager of Fraser Mills: https://www.coquitlamheritage.ca /
BC Archives, aural history interviews - Reynoldston Research and Studies oral history collection PR-1993, created 1972-1974 - 23 relating to Maillardville, BC. Other sound recordings for teaching, Provincial Educational Media Centre: school broadcasts GR-3378, file list online, e.g. French language Ecoutez" Une soiree a Maillardville en 1910; created 1958.
SELECTED READING
French Canadian Settlement in British Columbia, John Ray Stewart, UBC, M.A. Thesis, 1956. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses
Gender and mission: the founding generations of the Sisters of Saint Ann and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in British Columbia, 1858-1914. Jacqueline Gresko, UBC, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1999. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses
From the mill to the hill: race, gender, and nation in the making of a French-Canadian community in Maillardville, BC, 1909-1939. Geneviève Lapointe, UBC, M. A. Thesis, 2007. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses
French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest by Jean Barman, (UBC Press, 2014).
See also "Some Reflections on Jean Barman's French Canadians, Furs and Indigenous Women" by Bruce McIntyre Watson, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, Volume 27, Number 2, 2016, p. 153–157. Online at:https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/jcha/2016-v27-n2-jcha03136/1040570ar/
Le Calendrier francophone de la Colombie-Britannique / Francophone Calendar of British Columbia, Founder & Co-ordinator, Ashton Ramsay: https://www.calendriercb.com/
SELECTED GENEALOGY RESOURCES
Book Indexes - Maurice Guibord has published a number of his name indexes to books about Francophones in BC on the SHFCB website: http://www.shfcb.ca/collections/documents-ressources
Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858, by Bruce McIntyre Watson, 3 volumes. (Kelowna: Center for Social, Spatial, and Economic Justice, University of British Columbia. (Free with 30 day Scribd trial offer)
CANADIAN CENSUS - The 1901 Canadian census was the first to ask questions about 'mother tongues'. Once you find a family member, you should see if they said they spoke French, or both French and English, or other languages. See the reference notes below for more information. But note that some French speakers in BC, particularly those in First Nations or Metis families or communities, may have been missed. See the Library and Archives Canada's guides to Indigenous genealogy.
REFERENCES
Re the census language questions, 1901 Canadian census. From the 1901 Census Report, 1902.
"Under the head of education and language, persons were asked in 1891 if they could read and write; in 1901 there are additional questions as to time at school in the year and the language spoken. English and French being official languages of the country, a special record has been taken to show if the person speaks one or both of these, and also his mother tongue if spoken. In a country peopled with so many foreign elements as Canada, it is desirable to know if they are being absorbed and unified, as may appear by their acquirement of one or other of the official languages. And as English is now in a very large degree the language of commerce throughout the world, it is also desirable to ascertain to what extent citizens of French origin are able to speak it in addition to their own."
Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population. (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
1902), Introduction, page viii.
French Canadian Settlement in British Columbia, John Ray Stewart, UBC, M.A. Thesis, 1956. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses
Gender and mission: the founding generations of the Sisters of Saint Ann and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in British Columbia, 1858-1914. Jacqueline Gresko, UBC, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1999. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses
From the mill to the hill: race, gender, and nation in the making of a French-Canadian community in Maillardville, BC, 1909-1939. Geneviève Lapointe, UBC, M. A. Thesis, 2007. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses
French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest by Jean Barman, (UBC Press, 2014).
See also "Some Reflections on Jean Barman's French Canadians, Furs and Indigenous Women" by Bruce McIntyre Watson, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, Volume 27, Number 2, 2016, p. 153–157. Online at:https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/jcha/2016-v27-n2-jcha03136/1040570ar/
SELECTED GENEALOGY RESOURCES
Book Indexes - Maurice Guibord has published a number of his name indexes to books about Francophones in BC on the SHFCB website: http://www.shfcb.ca/collections/documents-ressources
Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858, by Bruce McIntyre Watson, 3 volumes. (Kelowna: Center for Social, Spatial, and Economic Justice, University of British Columbia. (Free with 30 day Scribd trial offer)
CANADIAN CENSUS - The 1901 Canadian census was the first to ask questions about 'mother tongues'. Once you find a family member, you should see if they said they spoke French, or both French and English, or other languages. See the reference notes below for more information. But note that some French speakers in BC, particularly those in First Nations or Metis families or communities, may have been missed. See the Library and Archives Canada's guides to Indigenous genealogy.
REFERENCES
Re the census language questions, 1901 Canadian census. From the 1901 Census Report, 1902.
"Under the head of education and language, persons were asked in 1891 if they could read and write; in 1901 there are additional questions as to time at school in the year and the language spoken. English and French being official languages of the country, a special record has been taken to show if the person speaks one or both of these, and also his mother tongue if spoken. In a country peopled with so many foreign elements as Canada, it is desirable to know if they are being absorbed and unified, as may appear by their acquirement of one or other of the official languages. And as English is now in a very large degree the language of commerce throughout the world, it is also desirable to ascertain to what extent citizens of French origin are able to speak it in addition to their own."
Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population. (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
1902), Introduction, page viii.
For the 1901 census, the enumerator's instructions regarding language were:
65. Columns 28 to 33 relate to the education and language of each person named in the schedule, of the age of five years and over. Column 28 refers of course to persons of school age, being those over five and under twenty-one years. If the person has attended school during the census year the time will be indicated by the number of months, and if he or she has not attended school during the year it will be indicated by a horizontal dash ( —).
66. Columns 29, 30, 31 and 32 will be answered by the figure 1 for "Yes " and by a dash (—) for "No," as the fact may be ; and account is not to be taken of the degree of proficiency as regards any one of the questions. English and French were made official languages by section 133 of the British North America Act, 1867, and therefore special provision is made in the schedule for a record of all persons five years of age and over who speak one or other of these languages. But the same person may speak both languages, and in every such case the answer (1) " Yes " should be entered in both columns.
67. Mother tongue is one's native language, the language of his race; but not necessarily the language in which he thinks, or which he speaks most fluently, or uses chiefly in conversation. Whatever it may be, whether English, French, Gaelic, Irish, German, Swedish, Russian or any other, it should be entered by name in column 33 if the person speaks the language, but not otherwise.
Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
1902). Introduction, Instructions to Officers, page xx.
In addition,
The 1901 Census report shows that of the persons reported as born in France, now living in British Columbia, 255 were reported naturalized; 178 were listed as aliens.
Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population. (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1902). Table XV, Birthplace and Citizenship of Immigrants by Provinces, page 448.
1902). Introduction, Instructions to Officers, page xx.
In addition,
The 1901 Census report shows that of the persons reported as born in France, now living in British Columbia, 255 were reported naturalized; 178 were listed as aliens.
Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population. (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1902). Table XV, Birthplace and Citizenship of Immigrants by Provinces, page 448.
Quesnel, BC - Arrival of Cariboo Stage March 1910, Al. D. Young Driver.
The postcard is unused. AGFA-ANSCO stamp box [1930s-1940s]. I: Image MSC130-4250-01 courtesy of the British Columbia Postcards Collection, a digital initiative of Simon Fraser University Library.
Quesnel, British Columbia was named for the fur trader Jules-Maurice Quesnel.
3 comments:
I was surprised when I moved to Nanaimo that there were a lot of francophones there. After living in Calgary for a few years it was odd to hear snippets of French in the grocery stores and around town.I think it’s so cool that the L’Association des francophones de Nanaimo puts on a sugar festival every year, just like in Quebec.
One thing I find funny, even though I come from an anglophone family, when I say I’m from Quebec I’m told my English is very good! Haha!
My French-Canadian ancestors were centered around Montreal, so it never occurred to me that there would be a concentration of Francophones in British Columbia. Excellent set of resources for this doing this type of research.
Originally I was going to mention upcoming events as there are usually a good number, like your Sugar Festival and here the Festival du Bois, one of my faves. Not right now! But I'll do an update later.
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