Quebec Family History Society
	FAQ » Eastern Townships 1878

The "Eastern Townships" of Quebec are roughly bounded between the 45° and 47° latitude, and 70° and 73° longitude in the south-eastern part of the Province of Quebec, south of the St. Lawrence River, north of the New England States, and east of the Richelieu River.

There are numerous mountains, rolling hills, river valleys, and very good farm land. The area was predominately English speaking in its earlier years, and had many UEL as settlers.

There are twelve counties and 87 townships in this section of the Province, c. 1978. Over the years there have been some name changes, but this table gives the 1978 "snapshot".

COUNTIES	TOWNSHIPS
ARTHABASKA	Horton, Bulstrode, Blandford, Stanfold, Arthabaska, Chester, Tingwick, Warwick, Simpson
BROME	Farnham, Brome, Bolton, Potton, Sutton
COMPTON	Westbury, Bury, Lingwick, Hampden, Ditton, Auckland, Clifton, Compton, Eaton, Newport, Hereford
DRUMMOND	Grantham, Wendover, Simpson, Kingsey, Durham, Wickham
* FRONTENAC	Adstock, Forsyth, Dorset, Marlow, Risborough, Spalding, Ditchfield, Louise, Clinton, Woburn, Chesham, Marston, Whitton, Winslow, Gayhurst, Aylmer, Lampton, Price
MEGANTIC	Somerset, Nelson, Inverness, Leeds, Thetford, Coleraine, Ireland, Halifax
** MISSISQUOI	Dunham, Stanbridge, West Farnham,
RICHMOND	Melbourne, Cleveland, Shipton, Windsor,Stoke, Brompton
SHEFFORD	Milton, Roxton, Ely, Stukely, Granby, Shefford
SHERBROOKE	Orford, Ascot
STANSTEAD	Magog, Hatley, Barford, Barnston, Stanstead
WOLFE	Wotton, Noth & South Ham, Wolfeston, Garthby, Stratford, Weedon, Dudswell

* Some include Frontenac in what is now called the Eastern Townships, and some don't. It is on the eastern side , so you could argue either way. Some of the references of the late 1800s also include the Counties of Beauharnois and Chateauguay, but they are definitely "outside the pale" in any recent standards, being instead part of what is usually referred to as the Chateauguay Valley.

** The Seigneuries of St Armand East and West were also in this County, and in later years were called parishes.

In recent years, the Quebec Govenment has "consolidated" administratively, and renamed, most areas of the Province. Hence you now see names like Brome-Missisquoi for example. (they didn't all keep their old names.)

"The Eastern Townships Research Centre" at Bishop's University, Lennoxville, QC is a good resource for researching this area.

Eastern Townships Index
Marlene Simmons has compiled over 425,000 church, cemetery, census, newspaper, bible and notarial records that she will search for a fee. These records focus primarily on the area between Lakes Champlain and Memphremagog as far north as Sorel but also cover early church records for the western shores of Lake Champlain as well as the Hemmingford/Lacolle region and northern Vermont.

Check her home page for details on what's currently available.