Ste. Croix Parish, Lafontaine - 1856-1910
Description
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The images in this group include baptisms and marriages from the historical parish registers for Ste. Croix Parish, Lafontaine for the years 1856-1910
The Sainte-Croix Church was born of humble beginnings and community needs in the early 1850`s. Parishioners in the village of Sainte-Croix, later known as Lafontaine, had to travel to Penetanguishene to fulfill their spiritual needs. In 1850, Father Amable Charest began celebrating mass at a residential house on Concession 16. The Mission of Sainte-Croix was founded in the same year.
The first Church was a small wooden structure made of squared off logs constructed in 1856. The wooden logs were chosen as a result of their vast availability. The Church, Exaltation de la Sainte-Croix, was dedicated after the original name of the village of Lafontaine.
The first pastor, Reverend Etienne Gibra, arrived in 1861. Reverend Gibra would be credited with enlarging the small wooden Church by thirty feet and adding a sacristy. Between 1873 and 1896, there was a period of immense construction for the Sainte-Croix Church.
Father Michel arrived in 1872 and used some of his own money to build a rectory. In 1874, construction on the new Church began. It was built behind the old one, explaining why the current Eglise Sainte-Croix sits so far back from the road.
The new Church was opened in 1877 and cost roughly $18,000.00 to build. All of the materials used in the construction of the Church came from the local area. Louis Thenasse, a parishioner, fired bricks made from clay on his farm. Local trees and fieldstones were also used in construction.
The Sainte-Croix Church has remained a vital part of the community ever since.- Notes
In the Archdiocese of Toronto, original parish registers are NOT available to the public. Please DO NOT contact parishes for access to these registers.
Other Resources
Death and burials are not sacraments and are therefore not formally recorded by all parishes. In Ontario, official death records are kept by the Office of the Registrar General
If you are looking for a burial, and you know that the individual was buried in a Catholic cemetery in the Archdiocese of Toronto, please contact Catholic Cemeteries & Funeral Services – Archdiocese of Toronto.
ARCAT does not hold any Birth, Marriage or Death records. Information on and access to Ontario Vital Statistics can be found on the Archives of Ontario's website.
- Date of Original
- 1857-1910
- Subject(s)
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- Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto (ARCAT)
- Collection
- ARCAT
- Language of Item
- English; French
- Geographic Coverage
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Ontario, Canada
Latitude: 44.7501 Longitude: -80.06638
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- Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Contact
- Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of TorontoEmail:archives@archtoronto.org
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Toronto, ON M4T 1W2
