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Madawaska County |
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Madawaska County |
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Welcome to the webpage devoted to genealogical research for Madawaska County. It is but a small part of the worldwide GenWeb project, whose ultimate goal is to provide on-line genealogical reference and data from all over the world. If you have any information related to Madawaska county, please contact me so that I can set appropriate links to your information.
Good luck in your searches.
Located in the north-western corner of New Brunswick, Madawaska County is bordered on the north by Restigouche County, on the east by Victoria County, on the west by Temiscouata County (Quebec), and on the south by Aroostook County (Maine). The genealogist researching records of the land that is now Madawaska county should understand the history of this area, and the evolution of its borders.
New Brunswick was first established in 1785 and comprised eight counties; the western part of the province, including the land that is now Madawaska county, was originally York county. In 1831, the northern part of York County became Carleton County. The parishes (similar to US townships, and used as census sub-districts) of Perth, Madawaska, and Andover were established in 1833. In 1844, Victoria County was created from the northern parts of Carleton County. The parishes of St Leonard and St Basil were established in 1850; Grand Falls, Gordon, Lorne, and Drummond were established in 1852, 1863, 1871, and 1872 (respectively). In 1873, the western half of Victoria County -- including the parishes of Madawaska, St Leonard, and St Basile -- became Madawaska County. The parishes of St Francis, St Hilaire, St Jacques, and Ste Anne were all established in Madawaska County in 1877.
Madawaska's southern border has been no less dynamic. The 1783 Treaty of Versailles, which ended the War for American Independence, stablished Maine's eastern boundary at the St. Croix River. However, neither this agreement nor the subsequent 1815 Treaty of Ghent (which ended the War of 1812) established Maine's northern and western borders, resulting in nearly a half-century of conflict (the Aroostook War) between New Brunswick and Maine. The dispute was resolved bloodlessly with the negotiation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (adopted in 1842), finally establishing the border between Maine and New Brunswick (and hence between the U.S. and Canada). Because of this (and of the continued shared culture), events from Aroostook County, Maine may show up in Madawaska County records, and vice versa.
Click here for a list of all of the towns in Madawaska county, and town-based links.
If you're not sure where a specific town, village, plantation, etc. is located, try:
Click here for a list of all of the towns in Madawaska county, and town-based links.
Click here for the Madawaska Churches page, a list of all of the churches in Madawaska county, including an indication of which have records (mostly birth and marriage records) that have been microfilmed.
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick -- There are now on-line listings of the Madawaska County records available, in both English and French
Census records are available on microfilm both at the National Archives of Canada (NAC) in Ottawa and at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick(PANB) in Fredericton. Censuses are conducted every ten years (1871, 1881, etc.). Federal Privacy laws prohibit the release of certain information; the latest publicly-accessible census records are from 1901. The census records are not usually indexed; however, this page provides listings of the parishes (census sub-districts) that may prove helpful to researchers.
Note: Victoria County was established in 1844. Madawaska county was established in 1873, yet its census records are still included under Victoria County in the 1881, 1891, and 1901 censuses.
Note: Until 1842, there was still disagreement as to the border between Maine and New Brunswick. So, earlier US Census records for Maine include the part of what is now Madawaska County north of the St John River. A proofread transcription of these 1840 US Census records is now available on-line.
There was a survey undertaken in 1831 of the north and south banks of the upper St. John by representatives of the State of
Maine (because of US claims to the area, information on communities in what is now
Madawaska Co. is included). This survey is one of land holdings, and gives
details on land owners, amount of land, improvements, names of current and
past owners, and is also linked to a list of the original land British land
grants in the area (1790 and 1794).
A transcription of this survey can be reached through:
http://upperstjohn.com/aroostook/deane-kavanagh.htm.
Norm DeMerchant has provided a transcription of the records for Bounty Grain for Raising Bread Corn on New Lands 1817-1821. These records list how much grain was raised, and by whom, and includes many of the names of Victoria and Madawaska residents. The records can be found at:
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nbcarlet/bountygrain.htm.
Société Historique de Madawaska
PO Box 474
Edmundston, NB E3V 3L1
Le Centre d'Études Madawaska
165 boul. Herbert
Edmundston, NB E3V 2S8
telephone: 506-735-8804
Le Centre d'Études Acadiennes
L'Université de Moncton
Moncton, NB
telephone: 506-858-4085
Société Historique Acadiennes
PO Box 2263, Substation A
Moncton, NB E1C 8J3
The Acadian Cultural Exchange
RFD #2 Box 99
Madawaska, ME 04756
Acadian Archives / Archives acadiennes
University of Maine at Fort Kent
25 Pleasant Street
Fort Kent ME 04743
telephone: (207) 834-7535
email: acadian@maine.maine.edu
New Brunswick Genealogy Society
P.O. Box 3235, Station B
Fredericton, N.B.
E3A 5G9
website: http://www.bitheads.ca/nbgs/
Généalogies Acadiennes, by Placide Gaudet
Dictionnaire généalogique du Madawaska - Répertoire des mariages des aproises de la vallée supérieure de la rivière Saint-Jean, au Nouveau Brunswick -- compilation of marriages from the upper Saint-John river valley by Father Henri Langlois, copyright Mgr Ernest Lang, Saint-Basile 1971
Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes, by Cyprien Tanguay -- click on the link for the on-line version
The Atlantic Canadians, 1600-1900: an alphabetized directory of the people, places and vital dates
New Brunswick (Send email to majordomo@listserv.northwest.com, with body: subscribe new-brunswick)
Colonial America - To discuss colonial times in north america including Canada and the southern Spanish colonies. (Send email to majordomo@listserv.northwest.com, with body: subscribe colonial-america)
Maine - Lots of people moved back and forth across the border. (Send email to majordomo@listserv.northwest.com, with body: subscribe maine)
Le Madawaska -- the on-line version of the Edmundston newspaper
The success of the GenWeb projects stem from volunteer effort, such as taking the time to transcribe records. There is also a page of volunteers who have access to publications and are willing to lookup information.
Additionally, there is a page of queries, where readers can submit specific questions about people, places, etc. These queries can then be read publicly, hopefully by someone with the requested information.
This page last updated Friday, 22-Apr-2016 22:39:55 MDT.
