Within three generations of the fall of New France, a new conquest was under way.
French Canadians were leaving their ancestral homeland along the banks of the St. Lawrence River and seeking a better fate in the United States. Soon, from the Upper St. John Valley, through budding mill towns, through rural Vermont and New York, to Illinois, Michigan, and even California, expatriates were building something new. French-Canadian heritage encountered U.S. institutions and culture, out of which came that very “something”: Franco-America.
Franco-America has been a lived experience.
Franco-America has been a network of institutions and communities.
Franco-America has been an idea both loved and lamented.
The earliest migrants likely had no such thoughts. Few might imagine a permanent and collective experience in which distinct cultures nourished one another. Some traveled to and settled in areas where the long-term survival of French-Canadian heritage was impracticable. Integration reduced Canadianness to a genealogical fact. Elsewhere and at other times, migrants might hope to form new communities anchored by familiar institutions—at first, those of the ancestral parish, and, later, those born of the Franco-American hyphen.
Everywhere, the genealogical fact remains and begs to be understood. In many places, in the U.S. Northeast and beyond, there is more to Franco-America than ancestry. There is a living and breathing culture. Not without its challenges, it too invites historicization: an inquiry as to how this all came to be. The Query the Past blog explores this rich past—migration, development, transformation—from the 1770s to the present.
Three ways to find information:
Browsing. Blog posts appear in reverse chronological order under the “Franco-Americans” tab. Scroll down and flip to subsequent pages; something may catch your eye.
Standard Search. A search box appears in the right-hand menu. Try a search term and see what pops up.
Subject Search. The drop-down menu on the right gathers blog posts by topic. This is a quick and easy way of finding information about a common or recurrent topic.
This website aims to disseminate old and new perspectives about Franco-American history and culture. The writing is entirely the site’s creator unless otherwise specified. Please cite appropriately.
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