A Canadian family history website has launched what it says is the largest collection of French-Canadian and Quebec vital records, spanning 346 years of history.

Ancestry.ca said Tuesday its searchable collection of baptism, marriage and burial records extends from the year 1621 to 1967.

Ancestry.ca is an online database of family and social history in Canada with 400 million names pulled from collections such as the 1851, 1901, 1906 and 1911 censuses of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia, vital records from as early as 1813 and U.S./Canada border crossings from 1895 to 1956.

It is part of a global network of ancestry sites run by Generations Network in Provo, Utah. The sites have some free content and also some fee-based services, depending on the depth of research required.

The company says its French-Canadian database indexes
Quebec's historic Drouin collection. In 1899 a lawyer named Joseph Drouin founded The Drouin Genealogical Institute, using Quebec's vital records to research and sell family genealogies.

The collection includes the ancestors of some famous French-Canadians and Quebecers, including Pierre Trudeau, William Shatner, John Labatt and Henri and Maurice Richard.