Did your grandfather, who has disappeared from family history, die in the war? Your great-uncle? The cousin of your ancestors? How to disentangle family legends from the truth? Difficult, sometimes, to really know what happened… In Canada, registers do not everywhere make it easy to find who died in a conflict abroad. A situation partly corrected by a private site created by two genealogy enthusiasts, Josée Tétreault and Paul-Émile Richard. “ The soldiers of Quebec deaths in service » allows you to know, at the tip of your finger, where many soldiers rest. Better: it also gives a better idea, in certain cases, of who these missing people were.
“I had never really been interested in the war before going to France in 2011 for a genealogists’ trip,” explains Josée Tétreault. Launched on the trail of soldiers who disappeared in the war, she realized the void that exists with regard to the soldiers of her country when it comes to retracing their lives.
“Since that time, I wanted to create a website to catalog and honor the memory of these people. During the pandemic, I found myself pretty much unemployed. It gave me the opportunity to put my all into this project. » The affair kept her very busy. “All my evenings and nights were spent there. »
She can now tell dozens of stories. They are all more touching than the others. “In Belgium, we found the graves of brothers Henri and Albert Denis. They were both from 22e Regiment. They died on the same day, September 24, 1917. Their graves are side by side. They had another brother, Jules. He survived his injuries…” They were three sons of a family from Montreal, living on rue Marie-Anne.
Josée Tétreault notes in passing the absurdity of life in times of conflict. “There are several cases of soldiers who miraculously survived the hell of the First World War. But when they return home, they die, struck by the Spanish flu! »
Specializing in genealogical research and paleography (the study of ancient writings), Josée Tétreault now remains on the lookout for everything relating to wars. “During the pandemic, I had a lot of time. I really spent all my evenings and nights on this. And as Richard is a computer scientist, we were able to put together something good. »
Their site relied on the collaboration of foreign informants. “We have several volunteers in Italy, Belgium and Holland. They went to the cemeteries for us. They listed everything. There are still a few places to inventory. We even have photos and videos of the graves. It’s incredible, the work that has been accomplished. »
Sometimes this led to peculiar discoveries. “There were four Canadian soldiers in Holland who found themselves hiding in a cellar. They engraved their initials on a wooden beam, while they awaited death. By cross-referencing information, I was able to end up identifying them. »
The unknown soldiers
Quebec civil status registers do not, unlike those in Ontario for example, make it easy to identify those who were victims of the war.
“When we look in the civil status registers in Quebec, there is nothing to indicate who died in the war. It’s as if people simply disappeared, without a trace. Elsewhere, it is often different. If someone died in war abroad, they say so. It is written. »
Since the graves of military personnel buried overseas do not appear in Quebec civil status registers, it can sometimes be very difficult to find out what happened to a missing relative. “For someone who is not very familiar with their family history, it is absolutely impossible to know, unless you have clues, that someone died during a conflict. »
What is accessible
Do you have ancestors who experienced the slaughter of war? Chances are good that this is the case. During the First World War, the Canadian Expeditionary Force brought together more than 640,000 soldiers. Library and Archives of Canada offers, through its collected “First World War personnel” files, a powerful database about these soldiers. Most commitment documents are digitized and easily accessible. You still have to know your way around. But it’s not that complicated.
Without prior clue, the task sometimes becomes colossal. The family stories of soldiers of the past sometimes lie under the weight of forgetting. It was common not to talk about the lives of these soldiers, whether or not they had returned from the front. Everything about their lives ended up being buried under the rubble of passing time. Lives scarred by the fire of combat have dissipated.
The Canadian federal government also provides access to certain files. It is also possible to consult the Canadian Virtual War Memorial for the Second World War. In this case, on the other hand, the information appears much more fragmentary and difficult to collect, for example for the subsequent conflicts in which Canada found itself involved: the Korean War, Afghanistan, etc.
The database, patiently put together by Josée Tétreault and Paul-Émile Richard, constitutes a separate complementary tool. This website intends to “pay tribute to Quebecers who gave their lives in the service of their country”. Without them, they both assert, “the world would not be what it is today.”
On their website (devoirdememoires.ca), it is possible to search for individuals by their name, by the place of their burial or by the place where they were involved. The tool is simple and easy to access. And free.