A “territory experience” evoking the country and the people who shaped its soul.
With Trace my Roots, Parcours Fil Rouge offers a system of tours available through a website, genealogical markers and memorials. The system has proven its worth and, along with a guidebook, it allows you to discover the country and the history of the people who have brought it to life.
Trace my Roots is based on the wealth of sources documenting the lives of the first settlers of a territory and their descendants. It invites you to meet the founding families: the first to arrive, the ones that settled and those that made a special contribution to the development of the territory.
Trace my Roots brings together several components. In addition to the genealogical tours on the website, the history of the selected families can also be discovered with a book from the collection published by the Éditions GID and, depending on the territories, it may include makers such as Marqueurs Familles or a Mémorial.
The website offers original self-guided tours marking specific routes for about twenty families and enriched by info capsules related to these same families. It offers each family a tour designed to discover various components of their history. Each tour includes places associated with the members of the same family, for example, it marks the cemetery where they were buried, the houses where they lived, the mills, the dairies, the tin shops they held, the schools they built or attended… Trace my Roots also offers free info capsules presenting additional information related to these families.
Click here to buy the book Le Kamouraska et la Grande-Anse, the first one from the collection Passeurs de mémoire. This book was inspired by the rich and various contents and the originality of the “territory, history, and family contribution” approach. Published by the Éditions GID, this first title embraces the territory of Kamouraska with an incursion to the West, that is, of the St. Lawrence River coastline, from Saint-André to Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, encompassing the piedmont and the hinterland. The historian John R. Porter signed an original preface. The historian, author, and publisher Serge Lambert, also president of the Éditions GID, signed the book as a co-author and wrote a substantial and educational introduction telling the arrival of the European settlers at that time, and addressing a variety of issues pertaining to more than one family. The presentation of each of the 24 families outlines, in words and images, the highlights of their presence on the territory and introduces some members for each of them. The foreword by Doris Girard, President of Parcours Fil Rouge and co-author of the book with the collaboration of Maude Gamache-Bastille, relates the origin of Passeurs de mémoire and sets the book in the project. According to her: “by juxtaposing the history of these 24 families of builders, the book gives life to the territory history and perpetuates the initiative.” She is especially interested in the little history telling the big history, the one drawing the lines between yesterday and today, taking us on a journey, and helping us decipher current events and think about the world in which we live.
The Marqueurs Familles are tangible signs that make us feel near the ancestor who marked the territory with his or her presence in the early days of the colony. The Mémorial is at the heart of the final resting place of thousands of people and is also a witness to the history.