My family just got back from a 4 day trip to my in-laws house in Lambton, Quebec, Canada. Is anyone else researching Quebec, Canada? Are you having trouble finding information on the cemeteries there? I have been. Even on the online maps, the cemeteries may be greyed areas, but they don’t say the name of the cemetery. It made it hard to research ahead of time where I wanted to visit.

While there, I got my “boys” to go to three cemeteries with me. I already knew where they were and had even briefly been to 2 of the 3. My husband didn’t understand why I was taking so many photos, but the first and last names all seem so common that once I get there I’m confused who I’m looking for. What’s the problem with taking lots of photos anyway? They’re all digital, so they’re free. I was already looking at all the stones so it didn’t take that much more time to snap a quick photo to study on the computer when I got home if it was a surname I was researching. Since the Drouin collection on Ancestry generally stops at 1930 (at least in the parishes I’ve been working in), the gravestones seem the easiest way to find the more recent dates. Maybe I should redefine “easiest”. Easiest given that you don’t mind driving 5-1/2 hours, have nice in-laws that let you use their house there for free and can whine enough to get your family to let you spend some time in the cemeteries. Ha-ha!

So, the verdict is in. I did take a lot of photos of people that I can’t connect to the family right now but I also found a number of his direct ancestors and siblings of them.

I’ve started working on putting them on FindAGrave already. That site is sure hard to use for Canada. It lumps all the provinces together so you can’t search on just Quebec when you’re looking for a cemetery. Also, the cemeteries are getting put in inconsistantly. Some are “Blah Cemetery”, some are “Cimetiere Blah” and others are “Cimetière Blah” (the last one with the accent is correct as far as the French goes, but not so sure it’s correct on FindAGrave). Then, the accents on the names are another whole matter. I guess I’m entering them without them, but I hate doing so. When I started to post the photos, I even found that someone else had listed some of the names that I took photos for, so I posted the photos to go with those listings and am glad I could help someone else.

If anyone knows of a great site to see maps of Quebec towns with the cemeteries displayed, please post it to the comments! That would sure help make the most of a limited amount of time if some of the location research could be done ahead.