Recently I had found a baptism record on the database called Manitoba, Canada, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1834-1959 on Ancestry. It was for a baptism in 1877. I was delighted to find it because, despite misspellings in the record, it did confirm the parentage for the person I was researching.
But then I noticed something strange. The record was a digitized microfilm and the subtitle of this part of the database was Catholic Records: St Eustache, St François Xavier, Vol 6-7 1884-1892, Vol 8-9 1889-1900. What was a baptismal record from 1877 doing in this set?
The records are indexed on Ancestry, but the images themselves are on FamilySearch. I decided to use the filmstrip icon to browse back and forth to see if the microfilm had any what I would call “headers” to indicate exactly what these records were supposed to be.
The digitized microfilm has 731 images. I discovered that the record set was divided as follows:
Image #3 start of St. Francois Xavier 1884-1889
Image #102 start of St. Francois Xavier 1888-1892
Image #253 start of St. Francois Xavier 1892-1900
Image #391 start of St. Eustache 1874-1897
What???? There is no indication in the title that this record set begins in 1874!
And then on image #393 I found this.
Aha! So the baptismal record I found was for a baptism in Baie St. Paul, not St. Francois Xavier or St. Eustache, but the records were transferred to St. Eustache because the settlement was badly flooded ( a cause inondations) in March of 1882, and the parish moved over to St. Eustache.
The local history book Treasures of Time: The Rural Municpality of Cartier: 1914-1984 says that the flooding of Baie St. Paul was so bad that:
“The water reached the tops of the windows of the church. One part of the cemetery slid into the river. Many of the small houses were destroyed.”
Going back to the microfilm, the next header is:
Image #615 St. Eustache 1898-1903
A good reminder to really explore your sources. They may not be telling you what you think they are!
As Canadian as can be 
Jackie, you are astounding. What amazing research amidst the over 700 images. I so enjoy these stories. Thanks.
Judi
Good work checking out all info Jackie
thanks Helen!
Thanks for your faithful encouragement Judi 🙂
Nicely done. Love the detective work.
Thanks! Love solving problems!
I was wondering if you are on facebook, Jackie? This could be information that many others could find so beneficial. I could see that this could be shared with the Manitoba Genealogical Society’s facebook page, the Red River Settlement fb page, several Metis Genealogical Groups in fb, etc. ….Also, have you notified Ancestry about this glitch?
Thanks Bonnie. I did alert Ancestry and MGS about it. May consider contacting others.