Ancestry.com and the Drouin Genealogical Institute have reached an agreement that returns availability of the Drouin Collection to Ancestry.com today, according to Dick Eastman. Eastman credits reader Marc Paquet for posting a comment with the news. My thanks to all of you that share comments with the general community. Your collective knowledge exceeds any single one of us. Hat’s off to you.
Ancestry.com may or may not fix the collection page (www.ancestry.com/drouin ) until their regular weekly “roll day.” If not, maybe the links below will start working first thing Monday morning:
- Quebec Notarial Records (Drouin Collection), 1647-1942
- Acadia French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1670-1946
- Quebec Vital Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967
- Ontario French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967
- Miscellaneous French Records (Drouin Collection), 1651-1941
- Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954
The announcement is given in French at http://institutdrouin.com . The Google translation is:
News Release
Ancestry.com and Jean-Pierre Pepin (Drouin Genealogical Institute) announced to their customers and the wider community of genealogists that they have made in resolving their dispute.
In doing so, the parties took into account the concerns of genealogists outlined in recent weeks.
Thus, Ancestry.com will provide online digital Drouin Fund on its website from Monday, September 21, 2009.
The parties wish to thank the community of genealogists and wish them well for future research.
Ancestry.com
Drouin Genealogical InstituteMontreal September 17, 2009
The French word for collection is fonds, for which Google gives the more common English translation, fund. Thus, the Google translation of the page reads “Drouin Fund” when the correct translation is “Drouin Collection.”
Collection Integrity
Changing the subject, it turns out that the word, fonds, is of extreme importance to genealogists. The basis for modern archival practice is expressed in the rule:
Respect des fonds
Literally, “respect the collection,” the principle means to respect and preserve the integrity of an assembled set of historical records and artifacts to preserve their evidentiary value. Genealogists derive pleasure and meaning from seeking and understanding our forbearers. To do so, we need evidence that we can trust.
I call upon genealogy record providers (Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, Footnote.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, etc.) to learn and comply with sound, archival practice.
Respect des fonds.
Many people do not realize that the Drouin Collection also includes English-language vital-statistic records from the Eastern Townships of Quebec, such as the marriage of my gg-grandparents (maternal line) in 1870.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this collection is lacking a large segment of the 1942 records.
ReplyDelete