The Programme de recherche en démographie historique: past, present and future developments in family reconstitution

The Programme de recherche en demographie historique (Historical Demography Research Programme) (PRDH), founded in 1966 and based at the Departement de Demographie of the Universite de Montreal, has since its inception featured a central project, a family reconstitution database of Quebec’s Catholic population from 1621 to 1799 named the Registre de la population du Quebec ancien (Population Register of Historic Quebec) (RPQA). This article, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the project, explores the development of the RPQA over the five decades in the context of similar international databases, explains the current state of the database as well as our record linkage methodology, describes an important collaboration now underway to build a larger Quebec historical data infrastructure, outlines new and renewed international collaborations, and summarizes research conducted using these data as well as future research possibilities. The particular geographic context, historical development and ...