LIFE AFTER THE NFB Interview with genealogy experts Laure Gauthier and Claude Pelletier

Interview conducted in two parts by
Marie-Pierre Tremblay and J.-Olivier Foug�res

"You start to realize that you're descended from a long line of ancestors, from generations who came before you. Then you start to wonder about them. Where did they come from ? What did they do ? But you dont feel like doing the research at that point, and you keep putting it off... and off... and off.

At least give your children the names of their grandparents and great grandparents, otherwise they'll never be able to establish their family history. Some things have changed now : there are new laws to protect the privacy of Canadians, so people can no longer go to the Palais de Justice or to the National Archives and look up essential genealogical records - like baptismal, marriage and death certificates - that are dated later than one hundred years ago. So if your children were to begin doing some research right now, they wouldn't be permitted to look up anything dated after 1905. The only way they'd be able to track down any information would be if they had those few names you'd given them."

Astonishing but true, as Laure Gauthier and Claude Pelletier* recently explained. Both are ma�tres g�n�alogistes agr��s, or certified genealogists, an honour shared by only fifteen or so other Canadians, even though an increasing number of people are interested in discovering their origins.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Laure : "Genealogy is something I became deeply interested in over forty years ago. On our tenth wedding anniversary, my mother gave us the Dictionnaire Tanguay, which has seven volumes. She knew that Claude had started doing genealogical research, and she was sure we would appreciate the gift. Genealogy ended up becoming our lifelong hobby. When our children became older, I decided to continue my studies. I did evening courses to finish grades 10, 11 and 12. Then Claude suggested : "Why not carry on ?" So I went to the Lionel Groulx CEGEP. In the mornings, I'd get on the bus at 6:00 a.m., and I wouldn't get home until 6:00 p.m. For three years, I studied Library Science. At some point along the way I acquired a car, so things got easier. While I was at Lionel Groulx, a new course in Archive Administration become available at the Maisonneuve CEGEP, and I took that every Saturday morning. During all this time, Claude would go to the Montreal public library to do research. He'd come have lunch with me, then go back to the library in the afternoon. Later, again it was Claude who encouraged me to become a certified genealogist. I said, `But you're the one who's well known...' In any case, you had to have prepared and given courses, you had to have been published, and l'd done all that. So I applied, and I was accepted."

Claude : "During that time, I was carrying on my research on the Pelletier family. Sometimes, when we were shooting somewhere, l'd go to the local church and get chummy with the parish priest. He'd invite me over for a meal and l'd ask him to show me his archives. Many priests showed an interest in genealogy. I always had a bunch of index cards with me - those 3.5 x 5-inch cards - and l'd put down the name of the person I was interested in, along with the names of his or her parents, spouse, spouse's parents, and the date and place of marriage. I assigned each of them a number. Over the years, I must have collected almost 90,000 names. To help me keep them in some kind of order, George Barnhill - who was with Sound at the time - gave me a load of drawers he was no longer using. Eventually, I put all the data on computer - it took long enough - and gave the files to the Association des familles Pelletier. This year, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Association des familles Pelletier Inc., giving the Association all rights to and profits from the publication of books and CDs."

THE SOURCES
Claude : "When you're trying to compile the fullest possible history of a family, you need to consult notarial records and you can easily end up with over 120 pages of text. Notarial records are extremely valuable because they enable us to track the purchase and sale of property, the professions and trades of contractors, amounts that were lent and owed (notaries often acted as bankers), conditions for leasing land and hiring services, marriage contracts, dowries, estate inventories, and so on. As for baptismal, marriage and death certificates, those were entered in church and civil status registers. The kinds of data we need can also be obtained in libraries, at the Maison de la g�n�alogie run by the Soci�t� g�n�alogique canadienne-fran�aise, at the National Archives, from the genealogical societies of provincial municipalities and parishes, and in documents published by other committed genealogists like agronomist Beno�t Pontbriand, who left a marvellous directory covering at least one hundred Quebec parishes. We were fortunate in that we could start our own research before access to the Palais de Justice was prohibited and when more and more directories were being generated. We acquired over 1,800 directories. That's not much, considering there were probably about 10,000 parishes in Quebec, but it's enough to enable us to do most of our work at home. Nowadays, because of the access restrictions that we mentioned earlier, no one is publishing directories anymore, and research on the last century has become very difficult."

HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
Laure : "We had been members of the Soci�t� d'histoire de l'�le J�sus since 1974, and we were involved in the effort to preserve and restore the historical residence of Andr�-Benjamin Papineau, built between 1818 and 1832. The house was going to be moved - all 350 tonnes of stone - because it lay on the route along which Highway 13 would be built. During the seven or eight years that followed, the Soci�t� used the house to present exhibits of historical interest, such as old dolls and stoves, and artists' exhibits. This went on until 1982. I had organized a group of volunteers - there were about ten of us - and we would visit establishments like schools and retirement homes. In 1989, the Ville de Laval even gave me a "Volunteer of the Year" award. Throughout that time, of course, we looked at the genealogy of the four pioneer families who settled on �le J�sus: Charbonneau (from whom Claude is descended through his mother), Labelle, Sire and �thier."

Claude : "Right alter I retired, I was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Soci�t� d'histoire de l'�le J�sus. Three years later, the Association des familles Pelletier was founded. I was unable to attend the founding meeting, but at the next meeting, held in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, I brought a 22-page notebook containing data on Pelletiers from the Lower St. Lawrence. We spent the weekend sitting at the corner of a table compiling genealogies. By the time we got home, we realized the book was going to get thicker. From that point on, we decided to focus on the Pelletiers alone."

PATIENCE, PATIENCE AND MORE PATIENCE
Laure : "Three days a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Claude would take me to the National Archives, and I would do genealogical research all day. I did this for six months, recording all the data I could find on the Pelletiers. Then, I went to the Palais de Justice in Montreal. I obtained microfilms from the Mormons - among others - and the Soci�t� d'histoire lent me a reader. I read the reels at home, and printed anything of interest at the library. Eighty percent of my research on the Pelletiers was completed during the few years before and after Claude retired. I became completely obsessed. Nowadays, all we do is add some data. But the work we did back then is what enabled us to build up the biggest file on the Pelletiers in North America. For the Pelletier branch from which Claude is descended, we recorded 27,000 marriages since the beginnings of the colony, as well as some 15,000 other marriages for the Pelletier families of Poitou and French Beauce. Before that, we'd do research for everyone. Now, we just do it for our friends and acquaintances. We've done the Foug�res, Champoux, Lafortune, Koenig and Tremblay' families, as well as others."

Claude : "I bought a drafting table and started compiling my first genealogical charts. Those family trees are enormous. With the Stradonitz method, ascendants are shown fanning out around the principal character. In the second generation, there are two names; in the third, there are four; in the fourth, there are eight; and by the eleventh, there are 1,024. And accuracy is crucial, because errors are repeated to infinity. It's a job that requires incredible dedication."

ON THE TRAIL OF OUR ANCESTORS
Claude : "We went to France, of course, and for six weeks were on what I can only call a pilgrimage. We went to see La Cristerie, the Pelletier ancestral home in Bresolette, in the Perche region. That's where my ancestor Guillaume Pelletier was born in 1598. Now, there's a woman from Quebec living in the house, a Pelletier born in La Pocati�re. Going back in time this way was tremendously moving."

PUBLICATIONS
Laure : "We have also written and published a number of books on the Pelletier families. The first contained data on 10,000 marriages, and the second - as I already said - contained data on 27,000. But we had already decided to transfer our rights to the Association des familles Pelletier, which now sells the books. Really, all the work we've done was absolutely for our own enjoyment."

TODAY
Claude : "We sold our house last fall, and gave boxes and boxes of documents to a variety of genealogical and historical societies. We also gave the Cin�math�que qu�b�coise a number of old projectors we'd bought from the NFB as they became obsolete - we got rid of a lot of stuff. But there's still a lot there, and we have to rent a second locker in the basement to store it all."

Laure : "About two years ago, Claude resigned as official genealogist for the Association des familles Pelletier. He is now 76, and doesn't want any official commitments. But lots of people continue to call him, and he is still an honorary member of several genealogical associations. This residence here has a 62-seat film theatre. He was asked to do the screenings, but he refused. We have a beautiful apartment, with hotel service, and we've decided to think about ourselves now. We still have the genealogy bug, though, and we're eager to visit the Grande Biblioth�que. We've been told that, under a single roof, we'll be able to access all the documents we used to have to run all over the city for (2).

This summer, there was a huge reunion of Pelletiers in Amqui. We were there with our children, and took the ferry over to Matane so that we could continue the trip on to Mingan. It was incredible."

Both Laure and Claude love to talk about their children - about Johanne, their eldest, who died in an accident, in Paris, in August 1983; about Luce, Chief of Laboratory Services in a hospital in Suro�t; about their son Claude, editor of Protoculture Addicts, a magazine circulated primarily in the US; and about their daughter Francine, a well-known novelist. In fact, l've read one of Francine's books. It's called Cher anc�tre (Dear Ancestor), and it tells the story of Culd�ric LaMarche; Culd�ric died in 1857, and his ghost haunts libraries because he is looking for his ancestors...

Alter all, genealogy does run in the family.

1. That's right ! I got mine too - thank you very much !

2. During our second meeting, Laure and Claude admitted they were very disapointed because their dream dit not, after all, come true: the Grande Biblioth�que was already too small to accomodate the National Archives' genealogical records section.

*Claude Pelletier joined the National Film Board on January 5, 1950 as an apprentice sound recordist, after working at the NFB on contract for one year at the Renaissance Film studio in Montreal. He then became a sound recordist and operations supervisor in Technical Servives, and retired in December 1983.