It is with great pleasure that we invite the citizens of Cornwall to attend the official opening of Généalogie et archives Saint-Laurent at our new location at Cornwall Public Library on Thursday, November 13 from 1p.m. to 5 p.m. We thank our numerous volunteers for their effort and the support of Dawn Kiddell, chief librarian at Cornwall Public Library in making this move possible. Généalogie et archives Saint-Laurent has been operating through fundraising, donations and memberships since its inception in 1986 in the Nativity Church basement under the dedicated guidance of Mme Marcelle Leduc-Paquette. It is the only genealogy centre in this region.

At the official opening, guided tours and refreshments will be offered as well as a presentation of the Legacy software at 2:00 p.m.

Our services:

Using Ancestry.com is helpful but other resources are needed to verify some local information. Our extensive collection is contained in three locations:

On the shelves on the main floor in the Reference Section

• The complete series of Drouin and Petit Drouin and Tanguay dictionaries covering Catholic marriages from the 1600`s to 1930’s, the Histor series covering among others, non-Catholic marriages from 1731 to 1825 from the province of Québec .

In the Cornwall Room (room shared with Heritage Cornwall & Cornwall Historical Society)

• All the local obituaries, parish books and local history and where we provide help with your research from Monday to Friday from 1 to 4 pm and on Saturday from 10am to 12pm. Become a member for $30 a year or $10 for a consultation to cover the expenses of insurance, additions& repairs to our books. Our bilingual volunteers also answer e-mail requests.

In our Archives Room in the library basement (not accessible to the public)

• Our local microfilms of baptisms, marriages and deaths of Cornwall, Alexandria and surrounding areas
• Quebec parish registers and microfilms (Loiselle, Fabien,Kardex)
• Acadian collection
• Some American parish books
• Filing cabinets of land records and wills for Cornwall, Cornwall Townships, Roxborough, Finch, Osnabruck from 1868 to 1950 approximately
• Our indexed collection of over 530,000 obituaries
• The Clarence Cross collection (60 binders), the Gary Villeneuve collection
• The collection of Mormon microfiches
• Our members’ family research and publications
• Many genealogical publications from Canada and the United States etc.

Genealogy is an incredible adventure! Take the first step by dropping in to meet us and see our vast collection at the Cornwall Public Library at 45 Second St E., Cornwall, Ont. K6H 5V1 PHONE (613)932-4796 ext 264