About Patricia Balkcom

Welcome!

In the 1980s, I began researching the ancestors of my paternal grandmother (Catherine Winnifred Cassin, born in Valcartier in 1894).  The internet and home computers were still ten years in the future and so I kept my notes on hundreds of index cards and wrote letters searching for new information.  I struck gold when Eric Corrigan, a new-found distant cousin living in Valcartier answered one of my letters and started me well on my way to discovering the early history of the area and making very special friendships with people from the area.

Over the years many others interested in the early settlers and their descendants have kindly shared their research findings and family histories. As a result, this site has evolved into a collection of many genealogical records for Valcartier, Riviere aux Pins, Stoneham, Ste-Catherine-de-la-Jacques Cartier. 

I am now a grandmother and a retired nurse living in Etna, New Hampshire with my husband, Jerry. He also has been bitten by the genealogical bug and together we have traveled to many places where our ancestors lived, attended family history conferences and wandered through countless cemeteries.

I hope that this website will lead you to new discoveries about your family!

Ireland, April, 2018