Genealogical SocietySouthern
California Genealogical Society
French Canadian Heritage Society of California
Welcome to the homepage of the French Canadian Heritage Society of California, affilated with the Southern California Genealogical Society. First, let me tell you more about our Society. The following are the topics that will be of interest to you.
The French-Canadian Heritage Society of California (FCHSC) is affiliated with the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS). It is one of several groups operating at the SCGS. The primary purpose of the FCHSC is to foster an interest in our common French-Canadian heritage by researching our own French-Canadian ancestors as well as helping others research theirs and by supporting and making available to the public one of the largest collections of French-Canadian genealogical material in the country. We meet 4-5 times a year at the library of the SCGS in Burbank. In addition to helping others with their research, we sometimes have programs of interest. Some of our members bring their own personal research material to share with the rest of us. You do not have to belong to SCGS to attend our meetings although we encourage it
All meetings are held on Sundays, from 10:00 to 4:00. Programs, if any, usually begin at 1:00
Reminder:
We now have a laptop computer and are adding your F-C trees to our
database. We hope to be able to connect everyone of you. Bring your database in GEDCOM
format if you are interested in helping to create one of the largest FC databases in the
USA. (We have over 20,000 entries thus far.) We call it La Famille de FCHSC. For additional information
regarding this project please contact Joan Phillips.
Meetings in the year 2007 will be March 18,and November 18th
Please mark your calendars now so you won't forget. Reminders of the meeting will only be found in the award-winning journal of the Southern California Genealogical Society - The Searcher or the newsletter, SCGS News and Notes - both published quarterly and only available to dues paying members.
Please join us at our next meeting for a day of fact-finding, fun, and fellowship. You can either brown-bag it or we order pizza for lunch. Coffee and other refreshments are usually available throughout the day. Come on down and meet your cousins and cousines.
If you can't make it on Sundays, several members of our group volunteer to staff the library on Wednesdays, so help is usually available during the week.
Laissez le bon temps rouler!...Let The Good Times Roll!
Other activities that we have been involved in include
Through our fund-raising efforts we have increased the French-Canadian research holdings at the SCGS library by almost 100 fold. It is now the largest collection in the Western United States except for the Family History Library at Salt Lake City. It is probably the 3rd largest in all of the United States. All members are asked to support our acquisition program.
We gratefully acknowledge the substantial contributions and other support made by the Office of the Quebec Delegation in Los Angeles headed by Marc Boucher. Without this support our collection would not be as significant.
Our latest major acquisitions include the Father Fernand Croteau collection of New Hampshire French-Canadian parish marriage records and the 2 CD set of Quebec Marriage and Death records 1926-1996. Prior to this we acquired the 49 volume Blue Drouin, male and female versions, on microfiche. With well over 1.5 million marriage records from 1765-1936 this is one of the premier resources to consult.
One of our most popular and valuable acquisitions was a microfiche collection of the marriage records of over 1030 parishes. This is a collection of Quebec, Ontario, and other provinces' marriage records from the start of the parish up through the date of publication which is usually in the 1980's or 90's. This, along with our Loiselle Index microfiche collection(450+ parishes) is a great resource for those of you having difficulty connecting into the earlier records.
Click Here to view a Listing of Some the French Canadian Holdings at Our Burbank Library
How to Join the French Canadian Heritage Society of California (FCHSC)
Although the use of the library of the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) is free to the public because it is a non-profit organization we encourage all members of our group to join the Society. The dues help to pay the rent on the building and help buy new books. As a member of the SCGS you will receive their monthly publication, The Searcher. We try to include the activities of the FCHSC in The Searcher. Click on the highlighted name above to go to the SCGS Homepage.
The Library of the Southern California Genealogical Society is
located at
417 Irving Drive at Glenoaks Blvd. (between Buena Vista and Scott Road)
(off at the Buena Vista offramp on the 5 freeway)
Burbank, CA 91504
Phone 818-843-7247
This website was last updated on December 14,2006.
Please address all comments, suggestions and inquiries to Doug Miller.