Secondary Sources:
Published genealogies, family histories, city and town histories.

When I speak of Published Genealogies, I am referring to genealogies of an area which include many different surnames. Genealogies of a particular surname are called family genealogies and may or may not be published. Town and county histories are included here because they not only give you a glimpse of the life your ancestor was living in a certain area, they may also provide you with some genealogical information.

Published Genealogies
Most of the standard Maine and New England resources for genealogy and biographical information are not very useful to us, because they were published too early, or cover an early time period when our ancestors were either still in Canada or were poor mill workers, lumbermen or farmers and thus not considered biography worthy. Browsing through the index of one such source, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine by George Thomas Little, published in 1909, I found only a handful of French names, and only one, Bonneau of Biddeford, proved to be of French Canadian descent. One 30 volume set of books, Our French-Canadian Ancestors, by Gerard Lebel and translated by Thomas J. LaForest, is a biographical resource which includes some genealogy and history of our early ancestors. Once you reach the point in your research where you can connect to these families, you will find it very useful and charming.

Family Genealogies
Histories of families come in a variety of shapes and sizes and also vary in the amount of information they provide, the reliability of the information and the ease with which they can be used. In recent years, the Franco-American community in Maine has produced a number of family histories associated with the annual Madawaska Acadian Festival. Each year a different Acadian or French Canadian family is honored and a genealogy book is published for that family. There has also been a surge of interest in genealogy in general in the last couple of decades and our Franco cousins have also caught the bug. I can't possibly list them all, but there are a couple that I have found especially helpful because they are not exclusively of one family and include many surnames that I have found in my ancestry.
A History & Genealogy of our Family, A Branch of the Sire (Cyr) Family in the New World by Leo G. Cyr.
History of a Lavoie/Leavitt Family by Robert E. Leavitt

To find out if a genealogy is available for your family, seach URSUS by subject, and enter [surname] Family. Remember that surnames can be spelled many different ways, so be prepared to try several spellings to get to the information.

This might be a good time to talk about Franco surnames. Names were changed for several reasons, and even if they weren't changed they were probably recorded incorrectly on official records, so you sometimes have to think creatively to locate your ancestors. Many Franco Americans anglicized their names, Leblanc became White, Desjardins became Gardener, etc. My Grandfather, Archie Sirois, was the only one of 5 brothers who kept the name Sirois. The others all changed the name to King. Many of the people in the community referred to my mother and her siblings as King, even though they were legally Sirois. Some names were changed to reflect what the English ear heard. I've seen Sirois spelled Searway and LaVoie spelled Lavway and Pelletier spelled Pelkey. After a generation or two, the new spelling becomes the name. When looking through census records, you really have to think about how the name sounded to the enumerator - Nadeau becomes Nado, Beaulieu becomes Bolier, etc. So don't get too hung up on how you think the name should be spelled.

City and Town Histories:
A published history of a town will often include vital records, biographical sketches of prominent citizens and/or genealogical information. Maine communities with large Franco-American populations are well represented in this genre. In some cases the smaller Franco community has created its own history. Here are a few:

History of Madawaska: According to the Historical Researches of Patrick Therriault... by Thomas Albert.

Sands, Spindles and Steeples: A History of Saco, Maine by Roy Fairfield.

Nos Histoires de L'ile: History and Memories of French Island, Old Town, Maine.

Van Buren History by Martine A. Pelletier

Historic Lewiston: Franco-American Origins by the Lewiston Historical Commission

A History of Rumford, Maine by John J. Leane

This concludes the basic lessons. Tonight is the program and we'll see what direction this takes after that. I'm sure you folks will have some suggestions about topics to cover and sources to add and discuss. We've only touched on some of the resources and methods that can be utilized while exploring your Franco-American ancestry.