Research is Underway on a Collaborative Francophone Migration Project

Gregory Family, Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, MS042 Reeder Photograph Collection, J.T. Reeder.

Joseph Gregoire, who would soon become known as "Father of the French Canadians of Lake Superior", left Canada for Norwich Mine in Ontonagon County, Michigan in the winter of 1854-1855…

Explore Joseph Grégoire’s migration from Québec to the Keweenaw in a new Story Map by undergraduate history major Brooke Batterson

History is about the people who lived it, and archival material has allowed us a glimpse into the lives of early migrants from Quebec, Canada to the Keweenaw. The HESA Lab is a partner in an international collaborative research project called Three Centuries of Francophone Migration in North America 1640–1940, which unites over 40 researchers in Canada, the US, the Caribbean, and Europe to better understand the historical experiences and contemporary relevance of French-speaking people throughout the continent. At Michigan Tech, researchers will use the Keweenaw Time Traveler and other resources to investigate the lives of French-Canadian migrants to the Copper Country explore their greater significance for the development of society and industry in the Upper Peninsula. 

Undergraduate history major Brooke Batterson has been learning more about one of the first families to arrive from Québec after industrial mining got underway who settled in a place that came to be known as Gregoryville (near Lake Linden). She has created a Story Map, which provides an immersive experience with historical maps and archival images to explore, as well as stories to read and share. ​

Joseph Gregoire came from St. Jean, Québec to the Keweenaw and established one of the first majorly successful lumber mills in the region. The Gregoire family played a crucial role in the development of the area and held significant influence throughout the community.  Little is left at Gregoryville today but some signs of the family's history remain in the landscape around Lake Linden. The story is a micro history of a single family that will lead to broader research on social mobility for Francophones in the Keweenaw.

Three Centuries of Francophone Migration in North American 1640–1940, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, is a 7-year project based at the Université de St Boniface in Winnipeg. The project directors visited the Keweenaw in February 2020 right before COVID shut down international travel! Read more in our previous blog post.

Field work in Lake Linden, Michigan, 2020, Brooke Batterson, Mark Rhodes, Sarah Scarlett.

Sarah Scarlett, assistant professor of history, and Don Lafreniere, associate professor of geography and GIS, in the Social Sciences department, will use the Keweenaw Time Traveler and a combination of spatial and archival datasets to focus specifically on whether French-Canadians were socially mobile as they migrated from Canada to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during the period of 1860 to 1940.

Read more in a Michigan Tech Unscripted blog post called ​“C’est la Vie.”