During the preparation of the SW Quebec Placenames List, I "mined" many documents for possible entries. The primary source was Robert Sellar's History of Huntingdon and Beauharnois Counties and Robt. McGee's comprehensive index to the history. Another prime source were the Journals of the Châteauguay Valley Historical Society. Add to that, almost 60 years of personal experience living in the Châteauguay Valley. I learnt a great deal of history about our region doing this research.
I also learnt that not all sources are strictly accurate. Old maps especially should be suspect. Many of them were printed overseas and it is obvious that the location and name information had got scrambled in the communications. Where I found conflicting data, I either discarded the obvious mistakes or pointed out the inconsistencies in the entry description. In many cases, however, there is no corroborating evidence and in those cases, the data was accepted as given. There is no guarantee that the data in this document is 100% correct but I have endeavoured to interpret it as best I can from the documents consulted. If you have information that any entry is in error, please contact the author.
Following is a list of the sources used during the preparation of the Southwestern Quebec Placenames list.
- Microsoft Streets &Trips 2001, Microsoft Corp, 2000.
- The History of the County of Huntingdon and of the Seignories of Châteauguay and Beauharnois, Rev Edition 1963, Robert Sellar, Huntingdon Gleaner, Huntingdon, QC
- A Companion to Robert Sellar's History of the County of Huntingdon........, Compiled by Robert McGee, The Innismacsaint Press, 1987. Accompanied by the following maps.
- North American Colonial Association of Ireland, 1840 map of the Seigniory of Beauharnois and adjoining Townships of Hinchinbrook and Godmanchester.
- Map of Châteauguay Valley Before 1820.
- Map of the Townships of Dundee, Godmanchester, Hinchinbrooke and Elgin and the Parish of St-Anicet.
- Map of the Eastern Portions of the County of Huntingdon and the Seigniory of Beauharnois.
- Map of the Seigniory of Châteauguay and Portions of the Seigniory of Beauharnois.
- Hemmingford, Two Hundred Years of Hope and Challenge 1799-1999
- Steamboat Connections, Frank Mackey, McGill Queen's University Press, 2000.
- Canada Official Postal Guide, 1938-1939
- Cent Ans de Merite Agricole, Gov of Québec Publication, 1989
- Maither Family History, J.O.Gamble.
- (Montréal) Weekly Witness Supplement, June 4, 1870
- Chateaugay, N.Y. and the War of 1812, John A. Bilow 1984
- Kahnawake - A Mohawk Look at Canada, Johnny Beauvais, 1985
- Canadian Rail Magazine, July-Aug 1989.
- A Frontier Woman, The Epic Life of Betsey Munro Fisher, by Harriette B.Davis.
- Canadian Official Railway Guide, International Railway Publishing Co Ltd, Montréal, QC June 1956 edition.
- Larousse French-English/English-French Dictionary, Unabridged Edition, Paris 1993
- 1:250,000 Topo maps from Canadian Government, Dept of Mines and Technical Surveys. Various dates of compilation and printing.
- 1:50,000 Topo maps from Canadian Government, Dept of Mines and Technical Surveys. Various dates of compilation and printing.
- 1:20,000 Topo maps from the Government of Québec, Cartography Service. Various dates
- Illustrated Atlas of the Dominion of Canada, H.Belden & Co, 1881 (Huntingdon County edition)
- Bellini's map of Lake St-Louis, 1744.
- Map of Lower Canada, Samuel Holland, London, 1802.
- Cadastrial Map of the County of Châteauguay, Gov. of Québec, 1938.
- Map of the MRC du Haut-St-Laurent, first Ed, 1991.
- Map of the MRC des Jardins-de-Napierville.
- Map of the Municipalité de Saint-Urbain-Premier.
- Monteregie and South Shore Atlas, Cartotek Geo Inc, 4th Ed, 1999.
- Monteregie, Villes et Carte Routiere (Road map), Les Publications MapArt, 1997
- Plattsburgh & Clinton County (NY), Map #35, JIMAPCO, 1991.
The following Maps from the Archives of the Bibliothèque du Québec. In downloadable .JPG digital format from their site at http://services.banq.qc.ca/sdx/cep/accueil.xsp
- Map of the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, 1800
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1813.
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1829.
- Topographical map of the District of Montrea...., Joseph Bouchette, W.Faden Publishers, London, 1831.
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1835.
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1838.
- Canada East formerly Lower Canada 1840
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1846.
- East Canada and New Brunswick, 1850.
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1857.
- A New map of the Province of Lower Canada describing all the seigneuries, townships, grants of land, &c... / by Samuel Holland, Wm. Faden, London 1861.
- Plan of the Frontier of Canada West from St-Regis to Canaan, surveyed in the year 1839, published by the War Office 1863.
- Map of the Eastern Townships of Canada, compiled and engraved expressly for the Eastern Townships Gazetteer published by Smith & Co, St-Johns, 1867. Litho by Roberts & Reihold, Place d'Armes, Montr�al.
- Map of Quebec in Counties, 1870.
- Town map of Howick, Chas. Goad, 1896.
- Town map of Napierville, Chas. Goad, 1897.
- Québec, Montréal and environs, Intelligence Div, War Office, 1896-1899.
- Sheet 3 - Southwest Quebec
- Sheet 6 - Haut Richelieu and Eastern Townships
- Town map of Châteauguay Basin, Chas. Goad, 1909.
- Town map of Châteauguay Village, Chas. Goad, 1909.
- Town map of St-Philippe, Chas. Goad, 1909.
And the following maps and documents from the archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec in Montréal.
- Atlas Electorial du Canada-Uni (Maps of the counties of Québec and Ontario), Thomas Devine, Matthews Lithographers, Montréal 1855 (Note: age of the maps varied - one was marked 1830)
- Postal Map of the Province of Quebec Canada, Post Office Dept, Ottawa, 1893.
- Regional Map of Montréal, A. de Grandpré, 1902
- Scarborough's New Census Map of Quebec, Scarborough Co, Hamilton, ON, 1913.
- St-Lawrence River Map Section, Valleyfield sheet, H.E.Blaine, Dept of Mines, Mines Branch, Ottawa, 1922.
- Carte des Seigneuries de la Province de Québec, A E B Courchesnes, Québec, 1923
- Description topographique de la province de Bas-Canada avec des remarques sur le Haut Canada et sur les relations des deux provinces avec les Etats Unis de l'Amérique, Joseph Bouchette, London, W.Faden, 1815
- Noms Geographiques de la Province de Québec, 2nd ed, Québec, 1921.
- Toponymie de la Region Metropolitaine de Montréal, Ludger Beauregard, pub. by Ministere des Terres et Forêts du Québec, 1968
- The MacMillan Book of Canadian Place Names, Wm. B. Hamilton, MacMillan Co. Of Canada, Toronto, 1978
- Repertoire Toponymique du Québec 1987, Commission de Toponymie, Québec, 1987
And the following World Wide Web sites:
- National Archives of Canada, On-Line Post Office Database at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/post-offices/001001-100.01-e.php
- Clinton County GenWeb site - https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyclinto/
- Huntingdon Gleaner BMD Extracts -1863-1908, Extracted by Bill Henderson, 2001. On the Huntingdon County GenWeb site at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~qchuntin/gleaner/
- Châteauguay Valley Protestant Parish Registers Transcription Project, Norm Valentine, Bill Henderson, Warren Sadler et al. - URL to be announced.
- Endroits au Québec/Places in Quebec, FrancoGène Web Site, Denis Beauregard, (www.genealogie.com/quebec/places.html) no longer on-line
And the following individuals:
- Wayne McKell,
St-Chrysostome , QC- Keith Greig, Ormstown, QC
- Carol Greenbank, Hinchinbrooke, QC
- Gerald Beaudoin, Havelock, QC
- Warren Sadler, Abbottsford, BC
- James Gavin, Elgin, QC
- Gregg Edwards, Havelock, QC
- Dave Hughes, Hemmingford, QC
- Wm Baillie, Howick, QC
- Obourne Lang, Chateauguay, QC
- Donald McCaig, Valleyfield, QC
- Don Lang, Howick, QC
- Robt. Petch, Hemmingford, QC
- Norm Dawson, Spencerville, ON
Thanks to all who have contributed.