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Archiver > QUEBEC > 1999-10 > 0940016876


From: Suzanne B Sommerville <>
Subject: Re: [QUEBEC] Immigration
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 15:47:56 -0400


Message text written by INTERNET:
>I was wondering if someone could tell me where most of the people who
immigrated to Quebec actually came into the country at. Did they come in
through America or were there ports that they could sail to in Quebec? Did
they enter through Acadia and then travel to Quebec by land? Many thanks to

anyone who can clear this up. I think if I know where a person came into
the
country that may help narrow down some things.

Paula

<

Paula, much depends on the time period. If you will look at a map, you
will see that there was no need to enter Québec through Acadia. Look north
of Maine and the Gaspé peninsula. Although it meant traveling several
hundred miles from the Atlantic Ocean, the Saint-Laurent (Saint Lawrence)
River was and is an entry point to the interior of the North American
continent leading to Québec City and Montréal. Traveling by water was much
easier than overland, especially in the early period 1600-1800 and even
later. Roads and railroads came much, much later.

The Saint-Lawrence Seaway made travel into the interior as far as the Great
Lakes by water even easier by providing a means to cross the many rapids
through a lock system, but that was not finished until 1959 and is
primarily for commercial travel.

I have read that even many of those whose destination was the United
States, not the Province of Québec, also entered through Canada in the
1800s and early 1900s.

Suzanne Boivin Sommerville
In Michigan, USA

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