Cyprien Tanguay
Cyprien Tanguay (15 September 1819 – 28 April 1902) was a French Canadian priest and historian. Biography. He was born at Quebec in 1819 and died in 1902. After a course of classics and theology at Quebec Seminary, he was ordained in 1843. The first twenty-two years of his priesthood were devoted to parochial work, especially at Rimouski, where he greatly contributed to the foundation of the future diocesan seminary. His early taste for genealogical studies fully manifested itself after his official appointment to the Agriculture, Immigration, and Statistics Ministry,(1865). His whole time was henceforth spent in genealogical  research compilation based largely on in-situ consultation of catholic parish registers throughout Quebec, the Maritime provinces, Ontario, and the old French settlements in the United States. He also twice visited Europe for the same purpose. As the result of his labours he published (1871–90) his , comprising seven large double column volumes of over six hundred pages: a colossal undertaking, fit for a numerous body of collaborators, which he achieved alone. Although he was unable to realize the latter part of his program entirely and many inaccuracies have crept into his work, yet on the whole it is highly reliable  and almost unique. Every French Canadian by completing from contemporary registers the information supplied by this dictionary can proudly trace back his genealogy to his ancestors from old France. It has proved valuable for the discovery of canonical impediments to marriage through relationship, and has given birth to a copious genealogical literature of less comprehensiveness. In recognition of his labours the author received a prelature from Leo XIII (1887). He also published (1868) and (1886). Tanguay's Works. L'abbé Cyprien Tanguay, Roman Catholic priest and genealogist, is the author of the DGFC "Dictionnaire" of French-Canadian families. A plaque marks  the site of the house in which he lived in the Lower Town area of Ottawa not far from the National Art Gallery and the Byward Market. Tanguay's original research and extensive publications placed French-Canadian genealogy on a solid footing, which has proven a great benefit not only to French Canadians but to the millions of Canadians and Americans and others who have one or more French-Canadian ancestors. His DGFC "Dictionnaire" contains many errors and some unsupported speculation about incomplete marriages. The DGFC "Dictionnaire" is a fundamental reference work for French-Canadian genealogy. Its seven volumes, containing  more than 4,350 pages, have been published in a facsimile edition by Élysées Éditions in 1975, with a bonus volume by Abbé Tanguay's "À travers les registres", also available on CD-ROM format. The CD contains Tanguay's DGFC "Dictionnaire" and the following other important works : Joseph-Arthur Leboeuf's 600-page "Complément a Tanguay", Tanguay's 276-page "A travers les registres" and Tanguay's 526-page "Repertoire général du clergé canadien". Tanguay's work has been supplemented by the research and publications of others, including by Leboeuf, as above, and Abbé Archange Godbout's "Origine des familles  canadiennes-françaises", but was not supplanted until a century later. It contains over 2,000,000 births, deaths and marriages with other notes covering the period from the founding of New France to the early 19th century. DGFC Dictionnaire's influence. summarizes Tanguay’s contribution along the following three dimensions : DGFC "Dictionnaire" user utilisation over time has evolved to include: The Québec-based Institut généalogique Drouin's founder, Joseph Drouin, first established in 1917 a commercial-basis genealogical service that included its "Dictionnaire national des Canadiens français (1608-1760)", which was based on Tanquay's "Dictionnaire", this work being carried by his  son Gabriel in 1937. In the late 1950s, the Institut developed its own dictionary based on parish registers, which was indexed to allow quick, efficient research. Such genealogical innovations as developed by the Institut likely prompted the Franciscan priest to found in 1943 the Société généalogique canadienne-française, the first such Québec genealogical society based in Montreal. Today the Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie now includes 70 member genealogical societies, none of whom however have a national-scope genealogical dictionary. In terms of worthy successor to Tanguay's "Dictionnaire", French-Canadian genealogy had to wait until 1983 for René  Jetté to come up with his "Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec des origines à 1730", which is based on Montréal University PRDH's (Programme de recherche en démographie historique) "Répertoire des actes de baptême, mariage, sépulture et des recensements du Québec ancien". In 2002, Jetté's PRDH colleague Bertrand Desjardins made available the Gaëtan Morin Éditeur CD-ROM "Dictionnaire généalogique du Québec ancien des origines à 1765". In 2013, the Institut généalogique Drouin (bought out by Jean-Pierre Pepin in 1997 or 1999) entered into a partnership with Montréal University's PRDH and 's UQAC, Laval et McGill universities  to ensure full indexing and diffusion of Institut's LAFRANCE database of Québec civil vital statistic records in the XIXth century. In his examination of "L'Ancêtre" articles published over the last 18 years since publication of his 2019 article referenced here, Fortier found that Tanguay's "Dictionnaire" was cited in 10% of articles, that is, far behind Jetté's 41% and PRDH's 49%. Thus it is only in recent years that Cyprien Tanguay's "Dictionnaire" was substantially rehabilitated.