Today is a chilly day, this morning it was minus 2 with the wind chill factor. I have a feeling that I shall be telling you a lot of stuff about my winter days in my other winter blog.
I have added all the PEI marriages that I had extracted on my site. I shall be going to the genealogy center soon and look for marriages in Tignish, Egmont Bay and other villages on PEI.So I would suggest you check my website often to see when and what I have added. I added a new link , to the Northern New York American-Canadian genealogical Society. I have spoken via email to a lady who said she has Acadian Roots, and looked at my site, she was impressed, and is adding a link to her site.
I also want to mention that Lucy LeBlanc Consentino is working quite hard on her site also. She is adding information on Restigouche and Carleton, I believe she has finished Restigouche. So check her site often.
If you have any suggestions on what we both can add to our sites to help others, or what you would like to see on our sites regarding genealogy please send us an email. If you go to http://www.acadian-roots.com click on the photo, then on the sidebar you will see how to contact me.
I also have been to the New Brunswick Provincial Archives, they have added new stuff. One that I am impressed with, is Dan Johnson's vital statistics he had taken from various newspapers. He has since passed away, but the Archives have his books. I went and tried it, I looked for a surname first to see if it was listed, and yes there was a listing so I clicked on it, and lo and behold it had the short obit of my great great grandfather (who died in his bed in 1893 at the age of 84).
They also have some cemeteries listed, there are some catholic and some protestant ones. It is worth going to have a look.
Have a great day and Happy Hunting for your Roots.
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Hello, thank you for stopping by,I haven't posted in a few days , so I thought I would do so today. The weather is changing, evenings are getting cooler.There has been snow reported in Ontario and parts of the USA. Soon it will blanket my part of the country. So I decided to start a winter blog, sort of like a diary, it will probably be very funny at times. I shall begin the posting the first part of November and I will give you the url later, I do hope you will come share my winter blog.
This morning I have finished drying my summer savory herbs and I put them in bottles. For the ones who do not know what summer savory or sariette is, well it grows like a bush, once it has flowered you pull the plants out and hang them upside down somewhere to dry.( I had mine in my computer room in the corner with some white paper on the floor in case some of the plant fell.) Today my plants were real dry so I stripped the dried leaves from the plants, crushed them and voila I now have some summer savory. I use it for chicken fricot, and for my turkey stuffings.
Now on to genealogy, yesterday I went to the genealogy center and I extracted some marriages from some PEI parish records. I am going to add them to my website, but some of the records were so hard to read, some of the records looked as if they had been chewed by mice so you get a word here and a word there.
I was having a nice conversation with Mister Stephen White and he told me that
the first records of Tignish were lost, there are no records before 1832.
So I will do my best to write them as correctly as I can, but you need to verify the information that I am adding for instance Drouin and O'Coin and Aucoin, the ones that I thought were Drouin could be Aucoin because the writing was hard to read. I shall add some marriages from Rustico and from Miscouche to begin with, and when I go to the genealogy center I will extract more when I can.I hope by adding these marriages , some of you will benefit.
Have a great day
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Well, it has been a while since I have posted so I decided I had better get busy.
We had a power black out a few days ago, no lights anywhere around where I live, and we took a drive into the nearest village, all was pitch black. The power was off for around 3 and one half hours. I returned home from the Bingo it was so dark, and I then had to find my candles. The two dogs were underfoot , while I was fumbling around, good thing I did not trip over them .(smile).But I found my candles . I am going to buy these little lights that look like a lantern but is run by batteries and have some around the house....
I am still working on my Minoudie Parish Index, I am now at the Melanson's so it is going fine.. I was thinking this morning, what could I add to my website, that others will find some of their information. Should I add Bathurst? Should I add Pokemouche? Even just adding the index gives you a clue to where your ancestors were. I would like to add something that others do not have in order for all of you to benefit.So I shall think about it some more.
Now I am also into the Christmas Spirit, on Christmas Eve all my siblings are meeting at my mother's home. She is now 88 years , so we want to be together. We are also exchanging names, so I know who I am buying for.
I would love so much to do something for someone to make them happy for Christmas, it would be nice to just buy something or fill a box with food and sneak up to a house, drop off the box in the middle of the night and run away, no names , no clues. Can you imagine how some faces would light up the next morning? Hmmmmm. it is an idea.Maybe some of you could do the same in your neighborhood.
I don't know if any of you remember reading or hearing about this couple who gets a gift every christmas about the 12 days of Christmas? They got a partridge in a pear tree, turtle doves etc. And they do not know who is sending the gifts. So the mystery goes on.
So now I hope you have a great day, I hope you find your missing links if you are into genealogy. See you next time.
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Hope you brought yourself something to drink, while you are visiting. Remember I told you I would post little tidbits I find in the paper once in a while? Well today i will post one, and then share another one of my stories with you.
This was in the Evangeline newspaper August 31 1886 page 3, column 3.
Translated:: Haute Aboujagane(NB);
At this same moment we hear of a terrible accident that happened in Haute Aboujagane, two horses harnessed to a hay wagon bolted. Mister Damien Bourque ran in front of the horses to stop them and he tripped and was seriously hurt. Three children who were in the wagon received light injuries. Doctor Belliveau arrived in no time and aided Mr. Bourque who suffered from a brain concussion.

On a lighter note: As I have mentioned in one of my blogs, I have made a story book for my grandaughter on the young days of my mother. So the other day, Mom said to me, "Did you tell her the story about the moose? " I said I am not sure, so I phoned my grandaughter and she replied no. So I made her another page to her story. Here is the story, but in her book I used different names and I told her who they really were.
One day after a snowstorm, my mother and her brother who lived in the country, overlooking a meadow looked outside through their window. The snow had formed a nice shiny crust. Looking towards the meadow, they spotted something that was caught in the crusty snow. So they put on their winter coats and hurried out to see. Well my mother's brother who was around11 or 12 at the time, was not afraid of anything, so he ran ahead, my mother following behind, and came to this big moose, it could not move fast since it would sink each step it took, so my mother's brother walked up to it, and jumped on its back, Mom said he never stayed on for very long, but he did end up on the back of the moose. I can picture this happening and how they would look , since I have photos of them at that age.
So as you can see, the children of long ago, had their own kind of fun. But this could have had a sad ending had that moose revolted or fell on my uncle, so I would strongly advise anyone out there don't try it......
Have a great day
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Hello again, I just noticed that this makes 100 posts. I didn't think I could think of so many things to say. (smile).
Well instead of thinking of the snow that will soon be here, I would like to share with you a little story that happened.
This happened a long time ago. My husband and I had a camp, next door to my sister-in-law. My brother in law had a sports boat, and we all decided to go for a sail . We went way out in the ocean, the weather was really hot, I remember I got this huge sunburn. Anyway we decided to try our luck at fishing, and it was the time that the Mackrel and the Cod were in full force. So we started jigging, and we started catching Cod. I am serious , we had the bottom of the sport boat full of Cod. The smell was something else haha. And the boat was a sport boat not a fishing boat. What a mess in the boat. So we went to shore and we bottled some Cod, and ate some Cod, and salted some Cod, and then we had to just give the rest away.... This was my first try at jigging and I really loved it, since there were no worms to put on the hooks haha...
On another note; I finished adding my Richibouto Village Cemetery to my site, now I am in the process of adding some names from the Minoudie Nova Scotia Parish Records Index Book. I am going to add some names taken at random for now, because there are lots and lots of names, I want to put all the Acadian surnames on my website, but I won't add all the children of each person.
So that way, maybe some of you will see a certain name and know that that is where they where....The records are from 1849 to 1918.....
Have a great day
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Hello, thank you for stopping by. I wanted to share this photo with you. This photo was taken yesterday. The weather was beautiful, it was a great day for going for a drive , and taking photos.A few blogs back, I showed you a photo of my great great grandmother Domithilde Williams dit Bristol, and I believe I also told you the story about her planting an apple orchard. Well yesterday , I decided to go see the apple orchard, which is planted near Saint Paul. I had my photo taken among the trees. If only she could see the fruit of her labor, she would be so pleased. I later phoned my mom, and told her that I was at the apple orchard and took photos. We counted the trees, well not exactly the correct total but there are at least 30 trees. My mother told me that Domithilde planted that orchard from apple seeds, she saw them come up ,but never lived to see them bear fruit. Notice how nicely they are spaced? It was a very good feeling standing there ,where my great grandmother had walked and worked. The orchard was planted in the field next to her house.

On another note, I finished the Cocagne Cemetery, and have now started the Richiboucto Village Cemetery, if you find some of your ancestors in the Cocagne Cemetery, perhaps I may have more info on them in my book,since I did not add the entire info on some . And I told you that I had did the names up until the 1980s in Richiboucto Village, well I noticed I have a few newer ones as I add them to my page. So I do hope some of you find someone you are looking for somewhere on my website.

Have a great day

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We are already in the middle of October, my time sure flies. I remember when I was a young girl and it was Halloween, the weather was always cold or rainy. I remember we used to put heavy clothing under our costumes. Then we would pass the houses for treats. I remember taking my son out to pass the houses, we would both dress up, I would wait for him at the road, then I remember taking my grandkids out. (Gee, I feel old) (smile). My grandaughter was always eager to go, but my grandson who was around 2 or 3 at the time would want to go home. Back during my time, we used to take pillow cases instead of bags and we would usually have them nearly full by the time we finished. It is not the same today, there are so many people out there who do not realize how dangerous it can be. Just a reminder that if your children go out, make sure you check their treats, I would not let them eat apples, or anything not sealed. I would not even let my kids go out alone .Many places have cancelled the passing of houses but they do make parties in community halls for the children.
On another subject, yesterday the weather was beautiful, and guess where I went again? Yep, back to the Richiboucto Village Cemetery. The Cemetery was divided in two, so I did the left side, which took me as far as the 1980s, I did all but three rows on the left side. I am very glad I did, it will give me more names for my website and it will probably benefit some of you. Then we went to see the old cemetery that now has a monument, but it was too muddy and wet , we could not enter. Although the weather was nice, you could feel the fall weather, nice but not really hot, and the mosquitos still greeted me, I was in a hurry to get as many names as I could before having to call it a day and I kept saying to the mosquitos, "leave me alone I am busy ". smile.
My cocagne cemetery obits in my website is coming along real good I am now at the Richard's, so soon I shall be finished. Then I start adding the ones from Richiboucto Village.
Have a great day
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Well for you living in Ontario ,Canada, I seen on the news that you have received some of that white stuff, the stuff that comes down looking like cotton balls, but are really snowflakes. Yes you have received some snow, and that means it soon will come my way.I have created a winter blog, which I will give you the url a bit later. I will begin doing it , in November. My aim is to make it funny at times and real at other times. I know it will bring smiles to your face when you begin reading it everyday. For the ones of you who do not have snow, this is a chance to read about it .
Well I am still working on my Cocagne Cemetery, I only do a few pages at a time, today I am up to the surname Goguen, and there are lots of them, seeing that one of the founders of Cocagne was Joseph Goguen. He is the one who is said to have adopted my Williams Dit Bristol ancestor.
The story is that a young cabin boy on a ship that landed in Cocagne or sailed near Cocagne jumped ship and hid in a hayloft. Joseph Goguen found him and the young lad could not speak french, so Joseph Goguen who could speak many languages asked him his name, the boy said William and he was from Bristol.
Joseph had him baptized by a missionary and gave him the name of Mathurin (for the missionary that baptized him) Guillaume (which is french for William) and Bristol for where he came from. Some of Mathurin's children later took the surname Williams, some took Bristol, some even took the name Bill.
My great grandfather was born Jacob Bristol, he married under the name Jake Williams. That sure was hard to find at the beginning of my research.
It would be a great find if we could trace Mathurin's ancestors in Bristol England.
All we have is either his first name was William or his last name was Williams.
Not much to go on.
So now I must go work on my Cocagne Cemetery a bit more.
Have a great day
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What a beautiful day, so how do you think I spent part of my day? Well I decided to go for a drive, but where to? Headed up towards Rexton New Brunswick, from there I decided to go towards Richiboucto Village. It is a lovely drive, the leaves are so gorgeous. I used to work in Richiboucto Village around 20 years ago, so as I was driving along, I noticed that not much had changed in that area. Arriving in the Village , I made my way to the church, and yes behind the beautiful church, guess what was there? Yes , a cemetery. Now there was no way I would walk away and not go into the cemetery. I had taken my book and pen along with me and my camera, just in case . So I began walking through the cemetery, it was a bit chilly but I looked at the stones, and I found the brother of my great grandfather. So I took a photo of his stone. next I took out my book and began jotting some names down. I copied around 150 or more names.I did not even do half the cemetery, but I did about one third of it. I began with the oldest stones, my some of the people died at a young age, 17, 22, 35 etc. I omited the young children, maybe I have a few but not many, in order to do more of the cemetery. Then it was getting chilly so I decided to quit and go home. I also noticed there were lots of Richard's in that cemetery .
I will add these names in my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com as soon as I can get my other projects finished so check out my site often to see when I am going to add the cemetery.
If every I get the chance to go that way again, I will copy more names.
On another note/ I opened my trunk earlier today, looking for something , and I came across a school picture of me when I was in grade 7 and age of 12. Now my grandaughter is in grade 7 and she is 12, so I have decided to give her the photo for christmas for her to keep , but you should see the picture. I have a cardigan sweater , it has a hole in the sleeve, it is buttoned the wrong way, that was very typical of me, I guess I was never a little lady back then, I was rough and tough haha.
Have a great day
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Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you are having a great day. I shall be going to dinner at a friends house today. The weather is so beautiful, the leaves are all in full colors of orange, yellow, reds and greens. Now is the time to take those fall photos. I have ordered my calendars, I picked the best photo from a group of photos I took. Calendars for christmas giving is a great idea. If you have a love one in a nursing home, a photo of yourself and your family on a calendar would certainly be a great gift to hang in their room or set on their bureau don't you agree?
Came across this tidbit in a book I have on Sainte Marie
Jean Baptiste Girouard son of Marin Girouard of Sainte Marie was known for his nervousness.When he was young he decided to go to the USA with his brother Olivier. On the boat he took in Saint John,he slept near the kitchen,and in the morning he heard someone sharpening their knives.They spoke english and Jean-Baptiste could not understand them since he spoke only french,so he imagined that they were going to do away with him. Olivier had a hard time trying to stop him from jumping overboard.His trip to the USA was short lived.
The english had put a scare in him so bad that when election time came and the english would enumerate, Jean Baptiste looked for a hiding place and found the ideal place, in the church steeple where the bell was.Father Ouellet who wanted to help him even made him a bed there.
Have a great day
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Hello , thank you for dropping by. The weather is getting colder, so I moved my bird feeders to the back of the house, where it is more sheltered. The bluejays are coming in large numbers. They love sunflower seeds. I fill two feeders up and in two days they are empty. But I love watching them, they are such a pretty bird.

I am still working on my cocagne cemetery, I have a long way to go, since there are so many stones. And I went to the genealogy center and I found some news from various villages .I am going to add them in my blogs once in a while. Here is the first one I am entering.
Meteghan Nova Scotia January 8 1920;

We have lifted the ice these last few days for our Buttery.The farmers have showed up very cold. And we have hope that this industry will double in size from last year. Mister Andre Robichaud has promised us that he will make good butter, and with the experience we know he has, we are certain he will not dissappoint us.
So brave farmers tend your cows, enlarge your herds and you will become rich.

Have a great day
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What a beautiful day it was yesterday, but we had rain overnight so today it is a big overcast. As you know there is going to be an Acadian World Meeting (Congres Mondial) held in Caraquet New Brunswick Canada in the year 2009. There will be Acadian Descendents coming from all over the world. If you decide to go, you will meet other Cormiers,LeBlanc,Arsenaults,etc. At the moment there are already meetings happening to organize the trips etc. I would suggest in booking your hotels motels camping areas etc about at least one year ahead not to be dissappointed. I am hoping that I can attend, I haven't gone to the others but my heart wanted to be there. While you are in Caraquet you can also see the Acadian Village (Village Acadienne) that is like stepping in the past, seeing how our ancestors lived. There will be lots of talk about the World Meeting in the months and years to come.
Now on another note, I am not sure if I have shared this story with you but here goes.
When my grandaughter was four years old, Barney was a very popular show, and she used to watch it regularly. So her birthday was coming and I decided to play Barney. I went to a party store , rented the Barney costume,including big shoes.
Now this was in the month of June. I got some helium balloons to take to the children that were attending and a special balloon with the number 4 on it.
I remember parking the car on the road , getting dressed near the car (it was a really hot day). So my daughter in law had the kids outside on the veranda. I walked up the pathway to the house, and I remember hearing the kids "Barney , there's Barney" and they were all so happy looking, Now I saw my grandaughter and she was looking at me, with a different look, she ran to her mother who picked her up. I gave everyone their balloons and we all went into the house,. My grandaughter began to cry,(did I ever feel bad) my son said "Honey it's only memere dresssed like Barney. So I slowly slipped out, went to the car and took off my costume, returned to the house. She was playing with the other children, she gets up, walks up to me and said" Memere , why did you pretend to be Barney?"
I replied "Because Memere wanted to make you happy". She replied Me don't want you to be Barney ,Memere ME happy already". I gave her a big hug and said Memere loves you.
This is something I treasure.
Have a great day.
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Today I went to return a book I had borrowed in Cocagne, at the same time I took some photos of the Cocagne Cemetery. The weather was perfect for taking photos.
So when I returned home, I decided to go out again and take more photos with all the fall colors. A friend of mine suggested I go to Bouctouche and she explained where to go. When I arrived there I was overwelmed with the beauty of all the trees and the walking paths and the benches to sit on.
Walking through the paths, I stumbled across an old cemetery, of course I could not go by and not go see. So into the cemetery I went. Some of the stones were very old, there were many different names, but the one that caught my eye was Irving.
And then I realized I was on the property of KC Irving. His homestead was converted into a park , of all kids of trees, there were chestnut trees, weeping willows, spruce , fir, rose bushes , flowers, maple trees and too many to mention.
There was even a little private chapel on the grounds. I had some photos taken of me among the trees, and I will have some calendars made for Christmas to give to my love ones.On my way home I stopped near a brook, and there also the view was breathtaken with all the colors of fall. I took a few more photos.
In ending I would like to say, that if ever you go to Bouctouche New Brunswick especially in the summer or fall, be sure to drop in to that beautiful garden of trees. I am certain to return there as often as I can.
Have a great day
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Well it has been a few days since I last posted so today I am going to talk about our ancestors again. First of all I just finished talking to my mother on the phone, I usually phone her to pick her brain (smile). Today I asked her how her mother made Lye Soap, since it was very popular back then. My mother told me that my grandmother used to buy the Lye already in tins or cans, and she melted the fat from the slaughtered hogs and made her lye soap, she had to let it harden and my mother said it was a very strong soap. Now I found an article regarding lye soap online and some exerts from the article said Lard was saved from the hog kill which usually took place at the time of the first hard frost in the fall. Lye was made from the ashes taken from the wood stoves, they would pour water over the ashes and siphon the liquid lye (so my grandmother took the easier way by buying it already done). To make the soap Lye and Lard were mixed together on an open fire and stirred for hours with a wooden spoon or stick , it was said that when the spoon or stick stuck straight up the soap was ready. Then the soap was put in a metal pan and allowed to dry and harden which sometimes took from 2 weeks to a month. Lye soap was used for everything from bathing to laundry to cleaning.
So now I am going to make a little story about Lye soap and my mother to give to my grandaughter to add to her Adventure Book that I have created for her.
On another note, I would like to add that I am adding the Cocagne New Brunswick Cemetery to my webpage, it will have the names of the person, either the parents or the spouse and the date of death. some dates are not available at the moment but as I get them I shall add them. If you find a name with the spouse and you need the parent's name , contact me and I may have their names also.
http://www.acadian-roots.com
have a great day
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