RESEARCH PROGRAM ON FRENCH
EMIGRATION TO NOUVELLE-FRANCE
(PREFEN)
Synergy and Co-operation
In cooperation
with the Maison de l'émigration
française en Canada,
a major genealogical research
project has been developed:
the Programme de recherche
sur l’émigration
des Français en Nouvelle-France
(PREFEN).
This five-year (2002-2006) research
program is funded by the Canadian
Government, in partnership with
the CNRS, the Université
de Caen and the Conseil
Général de l’Orne.
A number of French and Canadian
universities are working together
on the project, which is being
overseen by a high-level scientific
board.
AN UNPRECEDENTED AND AMBITIOUS
PROJECT
The mission
of PREFEN is to create a computerized
database that will enable users
to learn more about French emigration
in the 17th and 18th centuries,
a multi-disciplinary subject
that brings history, demographics,
anthropology and genetics into
play.
Two tools have been developed
to carry out this program:
- a database establishing
the identity of the 14,000
French citizens who settled
permanently in Canada before
1760;
- an in-depth study of the
Perche region, which will
involve going through the
archives of the townships
of Tourouvre, Mortagne-au-Perche
and Bellême: 330,000
notarial acts and 200,000
baptismal, marriage and burial
certificates.
This research, drawn from various
official documents from that
time, will make it possible
to more closely reconstruct
the possible social and genealogical
background of the French emigrants
and help shed light on their
family and social history, as
well as their reasons for leaving
their country.
A FORWARD-LOOKING PROJECT
PREFEN is
an excellent opportunity to
advance scientific expertise
in history, demographics, genetics
and genealogy in France, in
Canada and around the world.
With the creation of an Internet
site and a computerized database
containing information from
thousands of archival documents,
the results of the research
will be accessible to everyone.
The cooperation that is already
in place to carry out this program
is expected to spread in the
years ahead to French centres
for Canadian and Quebecois studies
and to genealogical communities
from France and other parts
of the world, opening up new
avenues for research.
PREFEN Internet site: http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/crhq/prefen/index.php
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