Data access statement from the BALSAC database
The data that support the findings of this study are available upon request from the BALSAC Project. Access to the data is restricted by ethical regulations surrounding the use of population data for scientific research.
Brief description of the BALSAC database
This study uses data on the population of Quebec from the BALSAC population file. The BALSAC database, developed since 1971 at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, contains data on the Quebec population from the beginning of European settlement in the 17e th century to the contemporary period. These data come from the digitization of civil records and have been linked together in order to reconstruct families and genealogical lines over nearly 400 years. Today, BALSAC is a major research infrastructure used by researchers from Quebec and elsewhere, in both the social and biomedical sciences. BALSAC now contains data on more than 6 million known individuals over a period extending from 1621 to the present.
Data access statement from IMPQ data through BALSAC research service
Access to some of the data used for this work was provided by the Integrated Infrastructure of Historical Microdata of the Population of Québec (IMPQ), through the BALSAC Project.
Brief description of IMPQ
This study uses data on the population of Quebec taken from the Integrated Infrastructure of Historical Microdata of the Population of Québec (IMPQ). The IMPQ allows access to a wide range of microdata from Quebec’s civil records (1621-1914) and Canadian censuses (1852-1911). The IMPQ is the outcome of a partnership between the BALSAC project at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (CIEQ) based at the University du Québec à Trois-Rivières and the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) from the Université de Montréal. It brings together more than twelve million mentions of individuals connected through more than 300 million family links. The microdata come from the digitization of a body of documents covering almost three centuries and composed of: Quebec’s marriage records-between 1621 and 1914; births and deaths recorded in Quebec from 1621 to 1849; and births and deaths recorded before 1914 in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region. To this has been added the microdata from seven Canadian census conducted between 1851 and 1911 and covering the city of Quebec and Trois-Rivières, and the regions of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Cote-Nord and the Gaspe peninsula.
Data access statement from ERRQ data through BALSAC research service
Access to the ERRQ data used for this work was provided to the BALSAC Project Researchers' Service, which is responsible for managing and accessing the genetic and genealogical data associated with the cohort.
Brief description of ERRQ
The Quebec Regional Reference Sample (ERRQ) consists of genomic samples coupled with pedigree data, collected by the laboratory of Professor Damian Labuda at the CHUSJ Research Centre in collaboration with Hélène Vézina, director of the BALSAC project at UQAC. Two types of data were generated from this genomic sample bank: 1) genetic genotyping data for 823 individuals from 6 regions: Gaspésie, Côte Nord, Quebec City and surrounding areas, Montreal and surrounding areas, Abitibi, Outaouais; and 2) pedigree data produced using the BALSAC file during the initial research project. No phenotypic data were collected and this cohort is free of medical bias.
How to obtain a DOI related to my dataset
As of December 2021, BALSAC allows to deposit researcher’s datasets on the Dataverse platform. This open-source platform allows for the preservation, sharing, citation, search, and analysis of research data. If publication requirements ask you to provide a DOI, please contact the BALSAC Researcher Services (balsac@uqac.ca). We will be happy to deposit your dataset unto BALSAC-Dataverse .