MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire residents with French Canadian roots have a new way to connect with the past.

The American-Canadian Genealogical Society recently purchased a digitized version of the Drouin Collection of all parish registers from the Province of Quebec going back 300 years. The 3.5 million documents make about 20 million marriage, birth and death records readily accessible as high-quality digital images that can be printed or saved to a CD.

The society is the only institution in the United States to have the digitized version of the database. The cost to access it varies, and officials recommend that it be used only by those who have an exact date and place to look up.

Information from: New Hampshire Union Leader, http://www.unionleader.com