La Grande Recrue de 1653: The Colonists Who Saved Montreal

By Ronald J. Auger, translated to English by Dianne J. Little

On November 15, 1953, Montreal celebrated the 300th anniversary of the coming of "La Grande Recrue de 1653." Roland J. Auger, secretary for the French Canadian Genealogical Society, actively took part in the celebrations. Published for the celebration, this book is filled with names, biographies and history but was available in French only. Until this translation, it was not available in an English version. The translator's objective in translating this book was to "make the information accessible to English speaking researchers interested in genealogy who do not read the French language".

The book is divided into four sections:

1. The first ten chapters concern the major characters in the drama and history of the recruitment
2. The second section of the book contains the actual biographies of the recruits who signed on to travel to Montreal to build and settle the city
3. The third section of the book contains actual French documents Auger found in the Canadian archives, one for each of the ancestors who had descendants still living in French Canada at the time of the fete
4. The last section contains three plays dramatized during the 300th anniversary celebration. Since the plays do not have as much relevance to the genealogical objective of the book, Ms. Little omitted this section and has not translated the plays. Instead, she included an appendix with the first generation descendants. This appendix contains only the names of the children. It also includes the date of the marriage as well as the name of the spouse.

We have a handful of copies remaining... when those are gone this book will no longer be available insofar as the publisher closed several years ago.

Contents include:

• List of Illustrations Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Bibliography
• Chapters 1-12
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Translators Bibliography
• Index (the original book had no Index. This detailed index was produced by the translator)
  

It remains an important book in the study of French Canadian genealogy for all descendants who trace ancestors to this historical time and place. La Grande Recrue de 1653 is frequently listed in bibliographies concerning the history of not only Montreal and but also all of French Canada, books about demographics, and biographies of the pioneers of New France, to name just a few.

Details: 

342 pages plus 19 pages of front matter
Softcover - coil-bound
8.5 X 11"
Published by Quintin Publications, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 2002
ISBN (none shown)