This was posted to another list that I subscribe to. I thought that it was interesting and a bit of a pick me up since all we have been hearing about for the past while was the destruction of records. Finally someone wants to preserve records. Happy Reading Carol Gabriel List Admin French Genealogical Research Centre This appeared in The Montreal Gazette on March 19 2004 ********************************************* In search of roots $70-million project launched. Roman Catholic Church to open genealogical centre that will trace Quebec's family trees back to 1600s ALAN HUSTAK The Gazette Friday, March 19, 2004 Families throughout North America with Roman Catholic roots in Quebec should find it easier to trace their ancestry once the diocese of Quebec opens a $70-million historical archives and genealogical centre in Quebec City. The fundraising campaign to build the centre was initiated yesterday by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the archbishop of Quebec, and Abdou Diouf, a former president of Senegal and now the secretary-general of the Francophonie, the international organization of French-speaking countries. The launch took place during a breakfast at Montreal city hall. Both men are honorary patrons of the foundation, established to consolidate 350 years of church records under one roof. With the closing of various churches in the diocese in recent years, many historic parochial and diocesan documents - including birth, marriage and death certificates - are stored in warehouses. Without proper care, they are in danger of disintegrating. The Quebec diocese has records that go back to 1658. That's when Pope Alexander VII and King Louis XIV of France named François Laval the first bishop of the colony of New France. At the time, the diocese included all of North America east of the Mississippi River. The diocese of Baltimore, for example, the first diocese in the new republic of the United States, was carved out of the Quebec diocese in 1789. Plans call for the archives to be housed in the Quebec Seminary building, in the heart of the provincial capital's Old Town. An estimated $20 million will be spent to renovate the buildings, another $20 million to catalogue and restore the collection and $30 million to finance the centre's operating costs for the next 60 years. The centre will be promoted as a tourist attraction, and will include a multimedia room that will feature a film about the history of the Quebec diocese. The fundraising committee hopes most of the money it needs will come from corporate sponsors, but will solicit some government funding. "The research centre will be a multifunctional place, open to university students, teachers and the public at large who want to conduct historical or genealogical searches," André Noreau, the foundation's founding president, said yesterday. "We also hope to put some of the archives online." Noreau said he hopes the centre will be operating by 2008, the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City. Although Montreal was originally part of the Quebec diocese, its church records will remain in this city. Canon law requires each diocese to maintain its own parish information and historical records. According to church spokespeople, the proposed centre will be one of the most important archives in Canada because it is the prime source of information about the church in Canada from 1647 to 1826, when the diocese of Kingston, Ont., was established.