Lure of the Mills

Le gouvernement de la province de Quebec a promis de faire de nouveaux efforts pour enrayer la marche de l'emigration qui depeuple les compagnes du Canada francais, au profit des centres industriels des Etats de la Nouvelle-Angleterre.   ...  H. Beaugrande 1888, taken from the preface of the second edition of "Jeanne la fileuse" originally published in 1878.

Translation:  The provincial government of Quebec has promised to make further efforts to halt the march of emigration that depopulates the French-Canadian countryside to the advantage of the industrial centers in the New England states.

 A street scene of a Canadian village painted in 1829. 

 This site is dedicated to the half-million young French Canadians who left the province of Quebec in search of work.  For many it was but a three-hundred mile trip, to the New England states where textile mills were booming and begging for workers.  The lure and the hook for many an immigrant, my family included.

Marjorie Lizotte

member of the American-French Genealogical Society since 1985

 member of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan from 1998 to 2003

This site first published in August 2010.

Updated September 2010.

A continuation of A Point in History, this site will follow the emigration out of the Province of Québec of:

• The Fourniers from Rouville County in the early 1860's.
• The Dargies dit Desrosier from Arthabaska County in the late 1860's.
• The Turcottes from Arthabaska County, same parish as the Dargies, for the first time in 1879.
• Ernest Camirand/Cameron from St. Maurice County, around 1880.
• The Lizottes from St. Maurice County, in the early 1880's
• Célina Sénéchal from Matapédia County in 1896.

These individuals, unknown to one another in Canada, except for perhaps the Dargies and Turcottes, became the foundation of a very large family. 

                                                                      A Quebec Village