Description of the database

By Lionel E Mayrand

 

 

We exchange data with people who have connections into any of the branches of our families.  We are sharing our data in the interest of collaborative research and we hope you will do the same for others.  This is done to help people to find their lineages and to fill the pedigree charts with good referenced information.  We have created an interactive section of our site where you can download GED files to save you time. 

 

If you apply for a password you will have the ability to enter changes, add important references and error corrections for consideration.  You may also upload additional information we do not have; this is how our tree continues to grow. Our researchers and contributors collect data from a wide range of sources and will include their mother or fathers ancestry that will not be related to the main branches of the main family tree.  We now have the ability to assist our dedicated research contributions with the option of uploading a separate family tree, to preserve their data.  If you contribute GED files, anywhere edit your notes to ensure that there is nothing there that you do not want published. Please do not submit information that is copyrighted or invades the privacy or would embarrass others. 

 

Electronic data exchange can result in a number of unrelated ancestors or other individuals being added as part of the researchers or a web site tree.  Internet electronic data exchange can result in an error that is imported into a number of trees or databases giving the appearance the data is a fact.  Your contribution of reference data or personal confirmation our family is an important contribution to the effort.  From time to time we may delete branches that appear to be orphans that are unlikely to be connected to the Main Family Tree, so please don’t be offended if your reference disappears.

 

Quebec naming customs have resulted in a number of similar names making editing and matching with genealogy software difficult.  Internet genealogy requires a lot of sorting and editing to keep a database accurate and in consistent.  Some software and internet sites will estimate important dates, like birth, death and marriage.  World Family Tree will include WFT est. along with a date when their site of software makes a guess. 

 

In our tree we use about, est., estimate, bet, between when making an estimate based on related data.  You will also see “before” with a date used when another fact provides a valid date.  This is used often when an individual marries again and the date of death of the last spouse is not known.  Our estimates for dates before 1850 assume girls married between 12 and 15 years of age.  We use an estimated marriage age of 20 to 30 for males before 1850 when the lack of women resulted in late marriages.  In some cases the first date we have is the date of birth of the first child.  Once in a while the marriage date is after the date of the birth of the first child, no disrespect is intended.  It was not uncommon for couples in Acadia to “jump the broom” and formally marry the next time a priest came to the area.

 

Our database does not capitalize last names or imbed a/k/a in (brackets), a/k/a’s and some dit names will appear in GED or FTW file as a separate data field.  The database uses French accents, some French words; many references use the old French names of locations.  Many locations in Canada (Arcadia) have changed names and the districts in France have changes as well.  We hope French speakers will help with translations and spelling errors.  Currently our pages are available only in English perhaps French later, but we need help.

 

This means you should search our database and any other with and without accents for the best results.  A large edit is in progress to add counties to references for both the United States and Canada.  The country names for both the United States and Canada are not used, partly to save space and partly as a matter of style.  The database is used to generate reports, tree and reference material for publications of our family and other.

 

We have not personally researched all families listed; dates and information are subject to verification.  A good rule for all family trees is, "if its not documented it’s a suspicion not a fact."  A fact is a data source that a third party can access and verify.  If anyone in our tree does not want their data included, let us know and we will remove the information from the public database.  Our database grows with the contributions from the devotion and hard work of contributing researchers and individuals included in our tree.  Please let us know if we have errors.  We are not responsible for typographical errors misplaced citations but we want to know if you find something that might be an error. 

 

You are encouraged to seek further documentation for your own confirmation. If there are no dates about the living, then the computers can not determine if the person is alive or deceased.  We set our site and published data to display Private when data indicates the individuals maybe living.  Our site estimates the person to be living anywhere from 75 to 100 years depending on the laws of the countries that they are in.  We are committed to keeping personal information about the living private.

 

When exchange lineages that include the living are sometimes shown depending on who you are exchanging with, but my request is that, if you update any of our data to the internet, be sure no dates appear for living individuals. Place in the source information your contact email address, and the lineage, so people can contact you regarding your update. Our data files include the website name embedded in the files to aid in identification and contact.  We have no claim to owning the data, except that which is our immediate lineage. Our data is provided by many members of our family.  Always look in the notes of the genealogy data for origin or source.

 

Remember nothing is carved in stone except time.

 

Our association is a California Public Benefit Corporation, exempt from income taxes under 501(c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code.  Contributions to the association are tax deductible in the United States and may be tax deductible in other countries.  Our researchers and volunteers may claim their out of pocket costs, including travel as US qualified volunteer expenses as a contribution.  Please contact us if you need a donation letter.  Cash contributions are encouraged to help cover costs and allow the organization to grow and support more research.  Contributions of the value of time are not tax deductible anywhere; sorry we know how much time you may spend on research.

 

Revenue generated from your access to advertising on our site help cover hosting expenses, perhaps translation software.  The sponsored advertising will lead you to some very good information.

 

 

Database Description Version 6.doc