2. Research Methodology and Sources

This family tree project began as a desire to understand the lineage of the Lorion name and family.  Along the way it expanded to include information about our paternal and maternal ancestors.  Therefore in addition to research of the name Lorion it also included the McCarthys (paternal grandmother) along with the Brodeurs and Davids (maternal grandfather and grandmother).  Overall I was successful in tracing all four lines back from Massachusetts to Canada and eventually to France in the 1500s and 1600s.  As I moved back in time from generation to generation it became apparent that one of the challenges in genealogy research is ensuring that you are always tracking the correct individual.  I found that the names that had been documented were often changed from generation to generation and even from census to census.  In some cases the family itself chose to make “accommodations,” but it was probably mostly due to errors in reading handwritten notes from hundreds of years ago or, more recently, errors by the census takers trying to interpret information from French-speaking individuals.  As an example, the name Lorion was listed in various documents as Lorin, Lorian, Lauron, Dorion, etc.  At any rate, I made every attempt to check and double check the information wherever possible to ensure the highest level of accuracy.

Internet Research:

This research was conducted mainly through the use of various internet websites, other published family trees, Massachusetts State Archives, library and cemetery visits, and finally the use of a professional genealogist to help with some particularly difficult issues researching the McCarthy line.  There were several major websites that contributed significantly to the research; www.ancestry.com; www.YourFolks.com; http://familysearch.org; www.myheritage.com; and http://nlaurion.perso.sfr.fr/.  This last website has been especially helpful with the Lorion section of the research.  It was established by Nathalie Laurion and Marie Laurion and chronicles the Lorion family from the time that they first arrived in Canada in the mid-1600s until present day.  They are our cousins from Canada and, although the majority of their work has been focused on the Canadian relatives, they have done a credible job of documenting several generations of the Lorion family into the mid-1900s.  Another interesting and very useful research tool was provided by www.geneology.umontreal.ca.  In 1966, the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH, Research Programme in Historical Demography) at the Université de Montréal undertook the exhaustive reconstruction of the population of   Québec from the beginnings of French colonization in the seventeenth century. This objective has been realized in the form of a computerized population register, composed of biographical files on all individuals of European ancestry who lived in the St. Lawrence Valley. The file for each individual gives the date and place of birth, marriage(s), and death, as well as family and conjugal ties with other individuals.  So what we have here is a collection of internet-based research tools that allow genealogists to access vast amounts of data and have the ability to cross reference it with other sites.  Exhibit 001 (A, B, & C) contains several examples of the data available through the PRDH.  Examples from other sources are included further on in the report.
 

Parish Registers:

The majority of this research was done through Ancestry.com and the YourFolks.Com websites.  Ancestry is perhaps the most complete research tool available.  YourFolks is another incredibly important tool used in this analysis.  As it turns out the most complete history of Canadian citizens is through the efforts of the local Catholic parish priests.  They were the “official” record keepers of vital information from the earliest days in the 1600s to the 20^th century.  They were meticulous in their documentation of baptisms, marriages and deaths.  These resources were carefully read and codified into large computer data bases to simplify genealogy research.  In many cases the actual parish registers were scanned and stored in electronic form to allow researchers to see the actual documents as they were created hundreds of years ago.  The main database containing these records is the “Québec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”.   Using primarily these the two websites, I was able to trace the existence of most of our ancestors.  In most cases, actually being able to see copies of the parish registers with their hand-written notes.  The vast majority of data relative to our Canadian ancestors is contained in this database, however since the raw data was handwritten text hundreds of years old – the archivists who were entering the data into the computer systems, at times needed to make a “best guess” at the information.  So while there is only the single comprehensive source of the data, different web sites may have slightly different interpretations of the data. 

Published Family Trees:

Another helpful tool provided by the Ancestry website was the ability to use family trees that were developed and researched by other people.  It was particularly useful when data from different sources seemed to conflict, as in the spelling of names, places or dates.

Census Documents:

Census documents from Canada and the United States were another particularly effective element in the tracing of various family members.  Canadian census reports were used as far back as 1666 and U.S. census reports from the mid1800s through 1940.  Unfortunately, the 1890 U.S. Census documents were virtually all destroyed in a fire, so researchers have to go from the 1880 Census to the 1900 Census when following family members.  That was a particular challenge to our research since all of our ancestors moved to the U.S. in the last half of the 1800s.  The last of the available U.S. Census documents is from the 1940 census and was only made available in the fall of 2012. 

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index (1500-1900):

Prior to 1820, most ships coming to America did not keep detailed documentation of who was on board.  Immigration was more of a trickle than a flood. Many individuals traveled to their destination on uncomfortable, rat-infested cargo ships - usually only five, ten, maybe thirty passengers suffering through the trip together. Because of this, pinpointing documentation of an ancestor’s journey to pre-1820 North America can be almost impossible. Simply put, very little information exists today that could help.

That's why the Passenger and Immigration List Index proves such an invaluable resource for family history enthusiasts. Thousands of different records have been used to compile this index, everything from original passenger lists to personal diaries. The result is the only compilation of passenger lists this comprehensive. The publishers provide yearly supplements as their research uncovers new immigration data. The supplement for 2008 added approximately 124,000 new names!

For each individual listed, you may find the following information:

• Name and age
• Year and place of arrival
• Naturalization or other record of immigration
• Source of record
• Names of all accompanying family members together with their age and relationship to the primary individual