Hello all you faithful readers , so nice of you to drop by. Well Christmas is over, tomorrow is New Years Eve. It is hard to believe, soon we will be in the year 2008. The years are really flying by, and there is so much work to be done. We need to get busy and write down our history, our memories, because before we know it, we will be old and gray and then we will be no more.
Someone told me, that they had received new information from their relatives during the holidays that really helps them to go further in their family tree. That is great news.
Christmas Eve, we gathered at Mom's home, all my siblings were together. The only one missing was my Dad. We sat in the living room and chatted about when we were young, then we got on the subject of dogs. That is when Mom said she had a dog, that watched over my oldest sister when Mom would put her outdoors in her carriage. No one could go near that carriage. Then she continued with the story of when her and Dad built their log cabin out in the woods, they had two big dogs and Dad would tie a log (probably not a big one) to each dog and say GIT HOME and Mom would be waiting at the other end and undo the logs and they would scoot back to my father.
Then the story continued, still on animals, my brother had two skunks, one he named Oscar, Mom said to him, If those skunks spray you are in big trouble, my brother replied then I will wash in a tub of tomato juice, but their dog got close to the skunk and sure enough he got a spraying and he ran and got under the bed sheets, Mom said "What a smell". grin.
Animals lovers must run in the family because I had a great uncle, he was a hermit, and a bachelor, he raised horses and exotic animals. He had various kinds of birds, peakcocks, with beautiful feathers, he had white deer (albino) and one time, one got loose , ran into the woods, was never found but later on there were deer coming out with lots of white on them. My great uncle would send away for these exotic animals.
It was so nice just getting together and talking and laughing. And it was good for us to be there with Mom. We had a favorite Acadian Dish, poutine rappees, I ate two of them. I enjoy mine with sugar, some like them with just salt. And we had trays of cheeses, and ham, and sweets. We exchanged gifts, my sister in law had my name, she gave me a package of make up. ( I need lots of that grin). I had picked my older brother's name, so I got him a Tshirt which said" I love my phone number, can I have yours? " He laughed when he opened it.
Christmas Day , we went to my son's home for dinner, the turkey was so tender and juicy, what a wonderful meal. I had taken over some cherry cheesecake , I made a double batch. It was good. And I enjoyed being with my son and his family. I notice how my grandchildren are growing up so fast. They enjoyed the books I made for them. I made them two different books but same principle, our Cormier ancestors. One of them mentions a little girl, named Marguerite, which is really from our Cormier line, and the other book talked about each generation.
I had also made a book for my sister in law, on her maternal line, with a photo of her mother who recently passed away on the cover, she phoned me and said 'what a beautiful book,thank you". That made me feel good.
I have added my New years wish for you on my website www.acadian-roots.com
plus I am nearly finished another census, which I shall add as soon as I have permission to add a photo. It will be on my site very soon.
Thanks for stopping by , I do hope you will drop in again.
Have a great day
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So we do not forget. I would like to wish all the armed forces, army,navy,airforce, to all of our men and women who are overseas, in Iraq, Afghanistan, on ships,or elsewhere a very very merry christmas.
Did you know that in one of the world wars that one year at midnight or just before midnight (I am not sure exacly), but that both the British and the German troops laid down their arms, and wished one another a merry christmas? Then they were ordered back to war. Wouldn't it be nice if we had no war, no fighting? Peace everywhere?
Anyway here it is christmas eve and I just wanted to send all the troops everywhere wishes for a very Happy Holiday. Stay safe.
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On April 5 1879 in the french paper Le Moniteur Acadien was the following article. I have translated it for you. Remember I wrote about Father Louis Ouellet ?Here is the article." The reverend L Joseph Ouellet pastor of Sainte Marie in Kent County is looking for 30 or 40 young Acadians sober and hard working to settle a new colony in the vicinity of the Coal Branch ICR Station.All the young people who want to have a lot of land in an area with great potential should send their applications to Father Ouellet.Once we have the number of applications needed we will let them know of the advantages they will receive that the government has promised them.
Two years later five families from Sainte Marie settled in Adamsville;Narcisse Chase, Cesime Chase, Raphael Henri, Francois Babineau and Louis Collet.This movement continued . And in 1910 two families from Sainte Marie ,Louis Maillet and Damien Collette founded the village of Lac Saint Edouard 13 kilometers from Adamsville. In 1883 Adamsville and Saint Norbert were incorporated with Saint Paul de Kent.
The above was translated from the book of Life in Sainte Marie. Now Narcisse Chase married Martin , and my grandmother was their grandaughter.
Hope you enjoyed the article.
Happy New Year to all of you, I will return in the New Year. Stay safe, stay well.
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What are you asking for Christmas? Did you ask for any genealogy books? You could ask for a family tree sofware. I have Legacy and my brother last year bought me the family historian to go with it. That was a lovely gift, one year I received the 1881 census from the latter day saints as a gift from a friend. There are so many books out there, that may interest you. I know it is close to Christmas for mentioning this but it just came to my mind. Or even a subcription to a genealogy site would be a great gift.
Well yesterday I went to my photo gallery at my website www.acadian-roots.com and lately I had been allowing folks to register in order to share their ancestor photos with us. Well that was a bad mistake on my part, I let everyone who applied to join. And I allowed the comments to be posted, well this morning I checked my email over 150 comments were posted and all spam. So I went and deleted them and banned the members. From now on, if anyone wants to honestly post and share their ancestors photos in our gallery, they will need to let me know who they are first.In other words I will not allow them to join unless I know they are sincere. It seems there is always someone wanting to spoil something meaningful.
My purpose for the gallery on my website, is to share old photos with one another. We may have photos of our ancestors somewhere that we do not know that they exist. I would love nothing better to have some photos of my Bristol line from Saint Paul show. Or my Williams and Legers from Notre Dame. I would love to see a photo if there is one out there of my mother in law's father Maxime Cormier who came from the Cap Pele area or Barachois, he married first to a Leger then he married Obeline Cormier in 1891 in Haute Aboujagane. A photo of him would be great to give my son or grandchildren some day.
Also I have a photo of Amand Cormier a Denis and Rose Boudrot, but if another one would come my way ,that would be nice.
In ending todays blog, if you want to join our photo gallery at acadian-roots, go there and contact me and let me know you want to subscribe and add photos.
Have a great day
Happy Holidays
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Have you heard of a place called Saint Paul de Kent? It is a small village in Kent County New Brunswick. I would like to share with you an article I read in my book of Saint Paul. I am translating it to English. A young priest age 30 by the name of Father Louis Joseph Ouellet arrived in Sainte Marie de Kent September 13 1870, he knew there was a settlement 12 miles further which needed a priest. Here is what Father Ouellet writes in his journal;
"From my arrival to Notre Dame (Sainte Marie was known as Notre Dame du Mont Carmel) I was put in charge of the new colony of Saint Paul,where I built the new church in 1873 at a cost of $1,700.Only God knows the work, the sacrifices and hardship the settlers and missionaries had in founding these colonies of Saint Paul,Saint Norbert,Adamsville from down below and Upper Bouctouche River.
The poor settlers came from everywhere with their bare necessities.
From 1870 to 1889 the roads were in a very bad state.The horses as were the rest were old and in poor shape that many times we had to walk to take care of the sick.We ate what we could catch, and lodged in cabins or huts that were comfortably heated.
During my first years in Saint Paul and Adamsville I said the mass in the homes of the poor parishioners,who were so anxious to please the missionaries and so generous. I would go to Saint Paul once a month and every two months to Adamsville. In Saint Paul we would say the mass sometimes at Pierrot Leger on the south side of the river and sometimes at Joseph Damboise or Fabien LeBlanc on the north side In 1873 I began saying mass in the new little church measurement 39 x 50 feet which today forms the "sacristie" of the new church.
The cantors or songsters? were;Thaddee Belliveau, Joseph Dambroise, Joseph Bernard,Placide Bourgeois,Placide Robichaud ,and Anase Gallant.
God was helpful, not one person died without the last rites and all the parishoners prayed for them.
When the missionaries were not available, the people would all meet at the church on Sundays and sing the mass and vespers, and Joseph Bernard would read from the bible and say the rosary. All the people would go then go home full of courage for the following week.
Everyone worked, either at hauling logs , or clearing the forest in order to burn in the spring.Many only having bread and molasses and tea for food.
The ones seeing Saint Paul today (this was written in 1897) can hardly believe their eyes. Saint Paul is a flourishing and vibrant village with its own priest,one of the largest church in the county, a rectory .
Many years before I left ,I bought 100 acres of land from the government and added it to the ten acres the church already had. I built an enclosure for the church and for the first cemetery. I also had a good well dug.
Finally before the arrival of Father Hebert I had a rectory built at a cost of $1,300.Jean Bernard was the contractor .I paid the workers $400 for two days work a year for the upkeep of the priest's property.
I would like to add , that even tho I did not like to leave my dear mission,I was very happy to have in such a short time and healthwise and other sacrifices been the first parish priest of Saint Paul."
I hope you liked this little article. I translated it the best that I could.
I also want to add that next July , there is going to be an anniversary of Saint Paul, they are going to have an exhibit on old photos, and I want to be there, to see if there are any photos of some of my ancestors among them.
Have a great day, thanks for the visit.
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Remembering past Christmases . How many of you remember getting tons of christmas cards in the mail? I remember receiving close to 100 some years, and I would send as many . Back then it cost one cent to post a card, one cent can you imagine? It would be so nice if our post offices would allow us to do so again ,just for the christmas season. I was reading in the french paper l"etoile, about a lady who was over 100 years of age. She was discussing Christmas and she said they used to decorate the tree and add christmas cards all over the tree. I remember doing that when I was newly married. And then I would tape some cards all around the door frames. She continued saying they had a christmas stocking,(mine were long brown ones grin) and they were filled with fruits and candy. Mine used to have ribbon candy and a barley toy (candy),an apple, an orange, some nuts in their shells. Thinking back, my mother must have had a lot of work to do in preparing the stockings and wrapping gifts , we were seven children and Mom always had one or more living with us. But of course we never got many gifts as they do today. One from Mom and Dad, and Santa brought us each a gift.
I remember getting a pair of white figure skates on one Christmas. Boy I was excited. I went skating with them many times, of course I was a very poor skater, we had a costumed carnival one year, and I had the nicest costume, I thought for sure I would win a prize. Oh I won a prize all right. For being the worst skater. haha. I think I won a can opener that year.
I wonder how our ancestors way back celebrated the holidays, it is for sure they first went to church because they were very religious. I used to love going to the midnight mass at midnight, now they celebrate the mass earlier in the evening, I think there are some churches who do celebrate at midnight.
And some of our ancestors probably went to church in a horse and sleigh. There sure must have been rosy cheeks among them , especially in the cold weather.
I remember going on a sleigh ride one year, not for christmas but during the winter, we were around ten couples who decided to go, it turned out to be one of the coldest days of that winter, let me tell you , then when we all got at my place after the ride, we ate chicken fricot and had hot tea and coffee to warm us up.
Thank you for the lovely visit, do drop in again.
Have a great day
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Hello everyone, well it is so windy today, we had snow, we had rain, we had ice pellets. I went out with my shovel earlier and shovelled around my car to get out. Whew. That is done. Then I decided to come online and check my group messages, and read my emails. I was a bit dissappointed by one of my emails, I had posted a request on a list elsewhere saying that I had cemeteries on my website at acadian-roots that I had done as a project with someone, this person took my name off of the pages we had done together, so in other words when a person went there they did not know I had the names on my site, so I wanted to tell everyone"Hey I have worked hard at transferring the names to make it easier for everyone to go from site to site to find their stones easier. So when I tried to post on the list, guess what? I was unsubscribed from the list, I emailed asking why? No reply as yet. So In my heart that is being not fair. So if any of you are being rejected for a reason you dont think is fair, come on over to our group at acadianroots .You can get there through my website. We are a great group. We all get along very well.Now I am going to post the cemeteries that are on my site right here and now. I don't have images, some of the cemeteries I walked through and copied the names myself, some I had friends and family who helped me write them down. Here goes: I have Adamsville , Barachois,Bouctouche,Cap Pele, Haute Aboujagane, Collette,Memramcook,Grand Digue,Cocagne,Sainte Anne de Kent, Sainte Marie de Kent, Saint Paul de Kent, Saint Anselme, Shediac Road, Shediac,Old Saint Antoine Cemetery,I have also gone to PEI and I have Egmont Bay,Rustico,some of Souris. I don't know if I mentioned them all. but as you can see I have lots of cemeteries . I did not do this for the praise either, I did it to help as many of you as I can with your genealogy research. I am now adding Chartersville Cemetery, I don't have the complete cemetery names but no one else has either since people are dying every day, but I have many names.
Now I feel much better having been able to share this with you.
Thank you to my faithful readers who come in regularly to read my blogs, remember that perhaps I am making you smile at times? perhaps I am making you remember long ago? But also remember you are helping me by just coming in and sharing my life.
Have a great day
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Nicknames, do you have one? Did your parents have one? Have you ever heard the nickname Popsey? Well that was the name I called my Dad for many years. I would just have to say Hi Popsey and it would bring a smile to his face. I never talk much about my Dad, that is because my father did not share too many things about his younger days with me. His memory was much like mine is. I can tell you that my Dad had a very nice personality, he was liked by many.And he was a good dancer, would you believe that the first time I danced with him was at my wedding. And later at my Mom's birthday party? I never even knew Dad could dance, I did know he played the harmonica and the jews harp. He could play the accordion too. And he would sing little tunes while rocking my baby brother.
My mom told me that when they were newly married, that there was this Mr Mills, who would have what they called a POUND party. Everyone who would go, would bring a pound of some kind of food. Then they had fiddle music, square dancing, tap dancing. And Mom said the house was usually full. It was strange when Mom spoke of this Mr Mills, because some of their children became friends of ours.
So getting back to nicknames,I am always looking for some nicknames given by the acadians/cajuns and french canadians. If you have some you would like to share with me, please let me know. I want to add them on my website so that others can see them.
Our winter storm has begun,it is snowing, and suppose to snow all through the night changing perhaps to freezing rain. I remember one storm we had ,it was an ice storm, and everywhere you looked the trees were frozen, it was pretty to see but the storm did a lot of damage,by breaking the tree branches, knocking some trees down, knocking out power for many days. So I hope we don't have another one of them. If you are in the middle of a winter storm, stay safe, stay warm.
Thanks for stopping by and do come again.
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Visit with my Mom. Well today we went over to visit my Mom. Mom is a little 4foot10 lady,with a memory that puts mine to shame. Anyway today we talked about the olden days. What brought the subject up, was saying how Saint Paul de Kent was not growing, but Sainte Antoine was expanding. Mom took over the conversation, and it is always so nice listening to her. She was telling us that the first time she moved to Gallagher Ridge, she was only 15 with a baby, and she said before that her and Dad built their log cabin, they stayed at this sort of hunters cabin.
One day they hitched hiked to Moncton, and they took the train on their way back, the train stopped at Canaan Station ,which was a long way to walk back home. They had the baby with them, (my oldest sister). Anyway they stopped at a little store run by a Price family I think, and the lady took pity on them, and loaned them a tobaggan and a large cardboard box,(Mom said it was a RINSO box). Now I remember Rinso was laundry detergent. And she also gave Mom a blanket for the baby. Mom said ,Dad pulled the toboggan and I walked behind to make sure the box with the baby stayed on . Arriving home, Mom said, when they entered their cabin, all the inside of the walls were icy, the roof leaked so the water ran down the walls and froze. They had to put the wood stove on to melt the ice.
Can you imagine this? The cold, the walking in the deep snow,and arriving home to an icy house? They sure had courage, and will power back then. If we are cold, we complain, if our feet get cold we complain. Mom said she remembers when they lived in Parkton, and they lived at the end of Cedar Street ,which is quite a long way from Mountain Road. She said I would walk up to Mountain Road, buy some groceries and walk all the way back down Cedar Street in snow way above her knees, she said I cried, as I was walking and kept saying, "I need to bring the food to my children". As Mom was telling us this, my brother said, 'nobody realizes what she went through". Then I asked Mom, how she got along with her mother in law, my grandmother. She said your grandmother and grandfather were so good to me, she said that when she lived there my grandfather built an extra addition on his house for them. She said she remembers my grandmother would walk down to the Ice Pond which was quite a ways to walk, she would get water from the spring and walk back home , and use the water to do her laundry, and she wouls scrub the clothes on her scrub board, all the while whistling. Mom said she was a hard worker , she had a big family .Mom said,"no one had better say one bad word about my mother in law, she was a very good woman.
As Mom was telling me these stories, I could vision her in the cabin, and could picture my grandmother on the scrub board or wash board.So as you can see, I enjoyed my visit today.
Did I tell you Mom is 89? Yes and she is so good to us.
So no genealogy talk today, except, just to say, the holidays are coming, most of you will be with your loved ones, if you have aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, talk with them, question them,and you will see, that they will love to talk about their younger days.Bring a tape recorder, or just pen and paper, or your laptop if you have one. And don't forget your cameras.
Have a great day, Thanks for stopping by.
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Many of you may call this dish, cinnamon rolls, or whirls, but to many of us they are called "Pette de Soeurs". I just made these this morning, froze some for the holidays and kept some to eat now.

If you look at some acadian cookbooks, you will see a recipe for these. They are very good.I make a biscuit type dough , and roll in in a rectangluar shape, butter it, add brown sugar, cinnamon and voila

Now since it is the christmas season, and everyone has a christmas wish, mine is to find some of my ancestors, first Abraham Chate and Ann Rose from Deptford England. I would like to find more about them. Next the parents of Barthelemy Bergeron dit Damboise married to Genevieve Serreau dit St Aubin would be some nice. We know of one baptism for A Barthelemy Bergeron son of Rene Bergeron and Anne Dagault, can he be the correct one? So next who were Rene Bergeron and Anne Dagault, if Santa is out there I hope he hears my wish. grin

I have added more records of Quinan Nova Scotia on my website at www.acadian-roots.com , and I have two more things to add. One I am nearly finished, the other will take time .So be sure to keep visiting my website.

P'tit Francois hasn't had time so far to translate my pages, but he said not to give up on him, he will get at it as soon as he has some spare time.

So now I must get busy, and do a bit of housework, Thanks for the lovely visit, and come back soon.

Have a great day

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Who is the beautiful baby ? you ask. Well this beautiful little girl is my grandaughter, taken many years ago. She is all dressed up for Santa. smile. I later was blessed with a handsome little grandson. My late husband was an only son living and we only had one son, so when my grandaughter came along, I was overjoyed, because I always wanted a daughter and a son , but we only had a son. So she was the apple of our eyes. Everything she did was a joy to see. Then we were going to have another grandchild, and we really were hoping to have a grandson to carry down my husband 's name. Sure enough God was listening and we were blessed with our grandson. We enjoyed watching them grow. We love our children so very much, but we seem to not have the time to enjoy their every little things because we are busy bringing them up, and teaching them right from wrong. But our grandchildren is different, we can spoil them, and then they go home. Each visit they do to our home is exciting. I know that if you have grandchildren you know what I mean. My son loves his family very much , he is a very good parent, I am proud of him. And if his Dad were here today , he too would be so proud.So I do hope you enjoyed hearing about my grandchildren today.

I worked on my website project, I am nearly finished one, I am debating if I should add it before christmas or after on my website. The other project is going to take a while because there is a lot of typing to do. I may just continue it after the holidays,seeing we are so close to Christmas. I also have to add more names on my Chartersville Road Cemetery page.

So now you have something to read. Thanks for the lovely visit, until next time.

Have a great day.

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Hello everyone, well I have just returned from my second home, yes my second home ,which is the Acadian Genealogy Center. I sure feel at home there. Strange as it seems, when I go there, I relax and enjoy all my researching. Sometimes I get lucky and find tons of stuff, other times I go and either I cannot concentrate because I try to look for too many things at once . grin. Today I looked for a few things some of my members asked me to try and find. Did not find anything today.
But I did find what I was looking for , to add to my website.
I spoke briefly to Mister Stephen White, I always enjoy our chats, even if they are only short. He always seems to make me smile for some reason . For example I asked a certain question and he replies with something comical.Iforget to ask him a question for one of my members regarding a priest or missionary's name. I will do that next time I go.
I was on the microfilms and some of the entries were in latin, well let me tell you, it took me about ten minutes to figure that Quinto was five. Rather than guess I will word it differently on my website.
Our genealogy group is doing good, I am hoping that more will join our group, Acadians,Cajuns,French Canadians, or even if you are English with some of your ancestors being Acadian,Cajun or French Canadian, come and join us. We try to help if and when we can and even if you just want to come in and help, that is fine.
Last night we went to my son's home, and on our way home, I noticed so many homes all decorated, some really do a great job, they put lights around their house, on their stairs, on their trees. They have Mangers, Santas,Reindeers, Candles, on their front lawns, Santa and his sleigh on their rooftops. I used to go with my late husband a few days before Christmas after dark just to see the decorated homes. I think we will do it again this year. I also used to love going to the midnight mass when it was held at midnight. I would have my turkey cooking, and after the mass, we would meet many of our friends on the church steps and wish each other happy holidays, and when we would get home, the smell of the turkey was in the air. We never opened our gifts until Christmas morning. And when our son was married and had his family , we would wait for them to come over so we could all open our gifts together. My wish for this year, is for no one to go hungry, and no one to be on the streets and get cold. It would be nice to have many choices for the homeless to have places to stay warm.
Thank you for stopping by, and please visit again.
Have a nice day
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Today I would like for you to visit this site;
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://myspace-533.vo.llnwd.net/01387/33/51/1387911533_thumb1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Dvids.individual%26VideoID%3D12646255&h=90&w=120&sz=7&hl=en&start=118&tbnid=pGQdCuGj3HmFtM:&tbnh=66&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEdith%2BButler%26start%3D100%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
This is Edith Butler, and if you browse the net you will find lots of her nice songs. The reason I am telling you this, is because Edith has given me permission personally to add one of her songs on my website at www.acadian-roots.com which I have added today, when you go to my website the page that opens with my poem has her beautiful song on it.I am honored to be able to have her song on my site. She has other beautiful songs that I love also. She is a very talented lady who comes from Paquetville New Brunswick. She has travelled many places to sing, and she is loved by all. I felt very good when she compliment my acadian-roots website and I am greatful to her for allowing me to add her song. If you type in Edith Butler in googles you will see lots of information about her and her music.She has a website www.edithbutler.net . Merci Edith.
Now you know why I haven't written a blog, I was busy trying to find the best page for her song and I believe most of you will agree that the beginning of my site is the perfect place.
I am still working on different project and will tell you about them as they mature grin.
I went in the mall today, and the line ups at the cash is unbelievable, and it will be this way, up until the holidays are over, I am not finished my shopping yet, but have done quite a bit. I still have some baking to do, I want to make a rappure for my son (and keep some for me ).
Today I was given a suggestion by my friend to give my Mom a gift certificat, she is 89 and you can imagine that she has everything, so a gift certificat and a little something else is my goal for her gift. I do hope you are all doing ok with your christmas preparations, and I do hope you will all stay safe because after the holidays I want to see each of you here again, or in my acadianroots group, or my lists that I belong to.
Have a great day, thanks for the visit, hope you will come listen to Edith on my website.
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Well so much for clam digging, now it is snow digging.I took this photo along with others this morning. The snow is wet and heavy and it is still coming down and very windy.It is a good think I cancelled my hair appointment, the car is buried and the driveway full. I cleared the back door and took Thunder out, well he did not mind the snow, he rolled and he ran and he rolled again, he was having a great time,while I was waiting and freezing. haha.

Last night I was watching television and I turned the station to the documentary one, and I was surprised at what was being shown, it was the expulsion of the Acadians, of course I was glued to the television, and there were two speakers that I recognized, Regis Brun and Ronnie Gilles LeBlanc, they were the ones who alerted me to the old movie that was at the genealogy center that my mother was in around 1935 or 1936.

The documentary was very well put. It spoke of when the men were told to meet in the church at a certain time along with the boys, and the ships were coming and the acadians were told they were only ships carrying provisions, and how the families were divided , sent out on different vessels , to different parts of the world, and how at some places the Acadians were not allowed to leave the ship. Many children died on the voyages, and how crowded the ships were.

And it talked about when the Acadians settled in Louisiana and they built dykes there and other Acadians later joined them .And naming it the New Acadie.

I was very impressed with the documentary. It also spoke of the Acadians who fled and hid in the woods, and how many died of starvation along the way, how some fled to Cape Breton and New Brunswick. Picture yourself back there, running with them, afraid , hungry and determined to stay alive and free.

In closing I would like to just say, tell your children about our ancestors, tell them stories, write them stories, share their songs , share their way of life, and tell them to be proud to be an Acadian even if they only have an ounce of Acadian blood.

Thanks for the visit ,do come again

Have a great day

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Well I don't want to talk about snow, so I will close my eyes and imagine that I am in Caissie Cape, or Bouctouche Bay digging for clams and quahawgs.

When I was little ,I remember going clam digging with my parents, we each had a pail and a shovel and we would look for a tiny hole the size of a raindrop or smaller, and then we would dig around the hole not too close, as not the break the clam shells. What I did not like, was sometimes what we dug up was not a clam but a worm, yuck. We filled our pails, and headed home to steam our clams. Boy they were tasty we would soak them in a brine made with butter and clam juice. And I also remember walking barefoot along the water waist high, and feeling for quahawgs. They are like a big clam, but they have a hard shell and taste totally different. I had never eaten them, until my late husband got me into eating them. You can eat them raw, or cooked, I preferred them raw. Now Oysters is something again that is different, it grows on rocks, and they are very hard to open, they have a sweeter taste.I enjoy them also.

Now think back to the time of our ancestors, they came over to a new land, and they had to survive, many ate these shell fish and lobsters, back them fish and shellfish were plentiful. So they ate quite well. They fished for Cod and Trout, and Herring, and whatever fish they could get, even eels, but I do not like eel. Someone once chased me with a squirmy eel, and let me tell you I ran as fast as the wind,if not faster. smile.

Well now wasn't this story better than the cold and the wind and the snow, that is on its way towards me? Yes it is as far as I am concerned. haha.

Now the cajuns ancestors were acadians who had to leave their homes and families, they too had to learn to survive in the bayous, so they found different shellfish and fish to eat. I had never heard of crawfish, until i got interested in the cajun music and cajun folks, and I got interested because some were cousins , maybe sisters or brothers to some of my own ancestors. But many did survive, and they were determined to do so.

The photo above was from the book I recently bought Images de L'Acadie.

Now I am hungry, would sure eat a nice juicy lobster right now. smile. I hope you enjoyed digging for shellfish with me. Thanks for the visit, Do come again

Have a great day

Aline

No photo today, all I could show you would be snow,snow and more snow, groan,smile, and tomorrow and Tuesday guess what? Yep,more snow.
Well I must share this with you, it is not genealogy related tho. Yesterday my friend and I went for a coffee at our favorite coffeee shop"Tim Horton", and I told him to order this time, I will sit down. So I wanted a cinnamon roll and a coffee. I was just sitting there ,and my mind was drifting to other things, and the coffee shop was full. All of a sudden I heard this big loud yell. "ALINEEEEEEEE".Well let me tell you I sure jumped. I said "Are you trying to make me take a heart attack?"
Well all the people in Tim Horton's burst out laughing. And I guess my friend had yelled in a lower voice before and I never heard him. The reason he yelled was to let me know they were all out of cinnamon rolls. smile.
And you know sometimes we don't always look our best, and if any of you remember the bowery boys of long ago, and Alfalfa with his hair sticking in the air? Well I looked like that, so I did not want anyone to notice. haha.
Tomorrow I am going to the genealogy center, if the weather permits, I have some lookups to do for some of my genealogy group.I do hope I can help all of them find what they want.
In closing for today, please visit my site www.acadian-roots.com click on Christmas and this comes from me to all of you.
Have a great day, thanks for dropping by.
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Walking in a winter wonderland ,I don't think I would like to walk along that highway. The photo was taken by Roger Cormier, and it is the road between Bouctouche and Cocagne. Brrrr. This makes us aware that we need to take out our woollen socks , gloves, mittens and hats. I went to a second hand shop, and they had books and I started browsing through them. I saw the word Acadie, wow, I looked through the book and it is all photos taken by Roger Cormier. Name of the book is Images de L'Acadie. I asked what the cost was. Two dollars, well! let me tell you I picked it up some fast. The images are beautiful, and they are from all over, Egmont Bay, Beaumont,Meteghan,Sainte Marie de Kent, Dalhousie,Salmon River, Edmundston, Pre D'En Haut and more. There are clam diggers, fisherman, farmers. I am so pleased with the book.

On another note, well I did a bit more decorating, and then I went to see my Mom,again I received something I was excited about getting. A new Calendar with old photos of Moncton, when the Kent theatre burned, when the Notre Dame de Grace Church burned in Parkton, and more. So today was a great day for me.

I will share some of these photos with you at a later time, (if I don't forget. smile).

Tomorrow we begin the month of December, soon it will be the holidays. I enjoy going into the stores and hearing Christmas Music. Now if the lineups at the checkups would not be as long I would be a happy lady. haha.

I have not done to much genealogy, I added a few more names to my Chartersville Cemetery. After the holiday I will think of something new to add.

So thank you again for the lovely visit, I do know of some of you who drop by everyday. Have a great day.

Aline

I never burned my pies. whew, These are my chicken pies, two for the holidays and one little one for today. I wasn't going to make them this year but the temptation was too great to resist.

I first tasted chicken pies before I was married so many many years ago, grin. My late husband used to go to some friends of his every christmas eve and they had chicken pies. One paticular christmas eve he took me over. Well the pies were delicious, so I asked for the recipe, and continued making them myself. I will freeze them, and reheat them when needed.

Now my son loves my rappee pies so I am going to make a couple ,probably early christmas eve or the day before. One for my son and one for us.

The weather is colder today, I believe snow is not far away, since Ontario got some. So it is now time to get out our mittens and hats.

I am all done my Leger project for Christmas giving, and I am nearly finished the one for my ex sister in law. She will be pleased since she just lost her mom a few months ago. I obtained a nice photo of her Mom and it will be on the front page of her book, I also obtained a photo of her and her sister when they were young, I found some photos of the tombstone of her great grandfather which I have also added. Christmas Eve , we all gather at my Mom's, so I will give her the book then.

I have mailed all my parcels and my christmas cards yesterday, another chore done. I have finished trimming my tree, it is not a perfect job, but it does make it look more like the holidays.

I have one gift under it right now, from my friend Maria. Now it is shopping time. If I lived in a big city where there are so many homeless folks, I think I would pick up either gloves or scarves or socks and just give them out. I feel sad for so many of them .

Well now it is time for me to make my banana breads, so thanks for the visit, it did give me a chance to sit and chat with you.

Have a great day and do come again.

Aline

Spring water. Well today my two jugs were empty so we went to our favorite spring. If you remember the fall photo I posted earlier ,well this spring is in the same area. It is quite busy, when we were told there would be a big storm coming, we headed out to the spring and there was a line up of cars already there ,waiting for their turn to fill up.

Today there were two cars ahead of us. It is a very nice site and kept very clean.

Well I decided to put some christmas lights in my front window, do you think I could find my staple gun? Nope, so I went to my Mom's home and borrowed hers, but I had half of my window done and poof the staple gun won't work. So I had to use some thumb tacks to finish. When I won't be looking for my staple gun, it is for sure it will shop itself. grin.

I have added the Mont Carmel Cemetery in PEI on my site at www.acadian-roots.com , it is not the entire names in the cemetery,but quite a few. Next year I would like to go back and do more. I do know that the genealogy center in PEI does have some cemeteries done and for sale, and the prices are pretty good.

I would like to go and do the recent stones also. A possible project for next summer.And I have also added more names to Chartersville Road Cemetery in Dieppe New Brunswick on my site.

Now I would like to end this blog with an announcement. In the year 2009 , the Societe Historique de St Jean will be having a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Hazel destruction of Pointe Ste Anne (Fredericton),as you know many acadians lost their lives and homes, there were Bergerons,Godins,Pare,Saindon and others. So it would be nice to see Godin, Bellefontaines, Pare,Saindon,Heberts,Serreau etc attending this day. They are also trying to get the Federal Government to declare the location of the Acadian Church and Cemetery a historic landmark. So my Bergeron lists are planning a Bergeron dit Damboise reunion at the same time in Fredericton ,and Larry Bergeron is taking names of the ones who would like to attend, his email is

larrybergeron@earthlink.net so if you are interested in joining the Bergeron dit Damboise reunion in 2009 send him an email.

thanks for the lovely visit and do drop in again.

Have a nice day

Aline

Hello everyone, well today I would like to share something with you. Last August I made a book about Fluffy.Fluffy was my grandchildren's dog ,they lost her not long ago, anyway my grandson mentioned he would like another story about Fluffy to add to his book. so this is what I wrote;
DEAR DAVID;
I WAS JUST LAYING AROUND ON THIS NICE WHITE CLOUD, WHEN THIS LITTLE BLUE BIRD FLEW AND LANDED ON MY NOSE. HELLO! I SAID. THIS IS A NICE SURPRISE. THE LITTLE BIRD FLEW AND WHISPERED IN MY EAR.” DAVID WANTS MEMERE TO TELL HIM A STORY ABOUT YOU.
THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME, I SAID.
SO WHILE MEMERE WAS SLEEPING I WHISPERED SOFTLY IN HER EAR. “MEMERE, DAVID WOULD LIKE A STORY SO THIS IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE YOU TO WRITE FOR ME.
ONE DAY I DECIDED I WANTED TO GO SEE WHAT WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF OUR ROAD IN BOUCTOUCHE SO WHEN MOM WASN’T LOOKING I RAN VERY FAST. I KNOW MOM WAS WORRIED ABOUT ME BUT I WANTED TO SEE SOMETHING NEW. I RAN UP THE ROAD AND I SAW LOTS OF NEW TREES AND GRASS AND I SAW SOMETHING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, WHEN I GOT THERE IT WAS A LITTLE BROWN DOG.
HELLO! I SAID, MY NAME IS FLUFFY CORMIER, WHAT’S YOURS?
HE SAID MY NAME IS RUSTY. I SAID “WHERE IS YOUR HOUSE RUSTY? “ HE ANSWERED I DON’T HAVE A HOUSE. WHERE DO YOU LIVE? I LIVE EVERYWHERE. WHERE DO YOU SLEEP? OH IN SOME OLD BARNS OR UNDER SOME TREES, OR WHEREVER I CAN FIND SOMETHING TO SLEEP UNDER. THAT IS SAD, I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, BOY I AM LUCKY I HAVE A NICE LOG CABIN, I HAVE A WARM BED TO SLEEP IN AND I HAVE A FAMILY WHO LOVES ME. WELL RIGHT THEN I MISSED YOU, CHRISTINA, MOM AND DAD SO I DECIDED TO GO RIGHT BACK HOME.
WELL ONE DAY GOD DECIDED HE NEEDED ME IN HEAVEN, SO HE CAME TO GET ME, I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE EVERYBODY BUT I HAD NO CHOICE. WHEN I GOT TO HEAVEN I WAS A LITTLE SCARED BECAUSE I DID NOT THINK I WOULD KNOW ANYBODY, BUT I WAS WRONG, PAPA CORMIER,GRAMPY DAIGLE, AUNT DEB, WERE ALL THERE AND HAPPY TO SEE ME. I EVEN MET A COUSIN NAMED CHRISSY, SHE WAS BLACK AND VERY NICE. I AM VERY HAPPY NOW, I DON’T HURT ANYMORE, I CAN RUN AND PLAY AGAIN,AND I CAN SEE YOU AND CHRISTINA AND MOM AND DAD,AND I SAW WHERE YOU PUT THE FLOWERS FOR ME,THEY ARE VERY BEAUTIFUL. I KNOW YOU WILL NEVER EVER FORGET ME BECAUSE YOU ALL LOVED ME AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY HEART FOREVER. WHEN YOU THINK OF ME, THINK OF ALL THE FUN WE HAD TOGETHER. IT IS VERY BEAUTIFUL WHERE I AM, I HAVE LOTS TO EAT, AND I CAN ASK FOR THE SAME FOOD THAT I HAD AT HOME, I HAVE TREATS TOO. CHRISSY COMES TO SEE ME A LOT AND WE RUN AND WE PLAY AND WE HAVE A GREAT TIME. IT IS SO NICE TO BE ABLE TO RUN AND PLAY, I FEEL LIKE I WAS JUST LITTLE AGAIN.
AND GUESS WHAT? ONE DAY CHRISSY AND I WERE RUNNING DOWN THIS BIG GREEN HILL, AND THE WEATHER WAS LOVELY AND I THOUGHT I HEARD MY NAME. I LISTENED AGAIN. I COULD HEAR’FLUFFY”, FLUFFY IS THAT YOU?” I COULD NOT SEE ANYONE AROUND, SO WE KEPT ON RUNNING AND THEN I HEARD IT AGAIN,.”HEY
FLUFFYYYY WAIT FOR ME….. I TURNED AROUND AND YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHO WAS RUNNING TOWARDS ME, IT WAS RUSTY. I WAS SO VERY HAPPY TO SEE HIM, SO NOW I AM HERE WITH CHRISSIE AND RUSTY. SO TELL CHRISTINA, MOM AND DAD I WISH THEM A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND I LOVE THEM. AND FINALLY DAVID
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU.
ALL MY LOVE
FLUFFY CORMIER
CHRISTMAS 2007.

Our christmas parade was held tonight, and I have been wanting to go see it. It was five pm so I said to my friend let's go now, He said well it is too early but we went anyway. Let's go park our car in the Tim Horton Coffee shop, and we can see the parade from our car. Off we went, got to the coffee shop, no room in the parking lot, so we kept on looking for a parking place. We finally found one.While waiting for the parade we decided to walk down our main street to the nearest coffee shop. Well let me tell you it was cold, and I mean cold. The weather man said it was minus 6 with the winds it was minus 14. So we got our coffee and headed back to my car. We sat there until the parade started. So we went to the side of the road to see the parade, I had my camera, and at first no problem ,but it got so cold, my fingers could not press the button hard enough on my camera, the batteries went dead. Oh me Oh My. I managed to take a few photos anyway. The crowd was huge. Parents had their children bundled in blankets ,snowsuits and mittens.They had a beautiful parade, with marching bands ,floats so well decorated, clowns,dogs ,horses, motorcycles. But what I found to be so nice and it is done every parade, was the volunteers who walked along the edge of the crowd picking up food for the needy.They had little carts and people would put their food in the cards. Very nice idea. After the parade was over, my feet were frozen, my hands cold as ice, grin but I would do it all over again, because I love parades. The traffic was unbelievable on our way home, bumper to bumper.

I also noticed tonight that homes had their christmas lights lit up . Just think about it, one month from today will be Christmas Eve.

On another note, my grandson was here today and we went out window shopping, it was fun, we were looking at games, and he would say I don't have this, I like this, oh look at this. So now I have an idea on what to get him. I wanted to share the parade with you. Hope you enjoyed my ordeal, grin.

Thanks for the visit and please do come again.

Have a great day

Aline

Well soon all the ones who travelled to join their families for the Thanksgiving holdays will be returning home. I saw on the television the busy airports and the traffic. I do hope everyone had a lovely time.
In Canada our Thanksgiving was earlier, so we are gearing up for the Christmas Holiday. I decided to put up my tree,"yes put up my tree in November grin" ,anyway my brother gave me his tree , he bought another one, and I sold mine in a yard sale. So I opened the box, ohhhhh a lot of branches, what goes where? I know the poles go together,so I did that first, intructions, where are the instructions? Oh here they are. Put the red color coded branches first. Ok ,so I sorted all the colors, red, white,black,yellow,blue,grey. There was one branch, no color. hmm. Ok I shall put the branches in the pole, Well I finished putting the color coordinated branches on the tree,But when I finished, I still had this branch with no color left over.Either I missed a hole or it did not belong with the tree. Now here I have all my decorations on the sofa, where is my tree top? Cannot find it. Did I throw it in my sale? So now, my tree is in the corner, with no tree top,I cannot trim the tree without my tree top. So I will have another look around, if I do not find it, I will go get another one.
Our Christmas parade is this saturday, I am hoping to attend. I love parades,and I love the holidays.
On another note, well my Moncton Nostalgia was a good idea. I have received many emails saying it brought back many memories of long ago. So I am pleased to have done so.
I am still adding names to my Chartersville Cemetery,and I notice some people have registered in my photo gallery, I do hope to see new photos by them posted in the gallery. I think it is a great idea to add old photos of our ancestors and for others to do the same, it is a way to share our photos with one another, that way if we lose the photos somehow, others have them and they won't be lost forever.
When my mother in law passed away, we went through her photos, she had old photos, with no names, so we never knew who they were, that is so sad.I believe old photos are part of our history and genealogy, it makes our ancestors more real to us, seeing faces along with names.
My genealogy group is going very well, I am very pleased with them, many are helping others with their research,some older members have returned to our group, it is great having them back. So if any of you do not know about our group, go to my website at www.acadian-roots.com and join our group, it is free and we are a very great bunch. As I said I am very proud of everyone of them.
Have a great day
Aline

Who was Ferdinand Thibodeau? Well first of all he was said to have been born in Memramcook, I have not found him there as yet.I found him in the 1911 census as being born March 1850, his wife was named Adelaide,they had three children.But why am I talking about him here? I was looking through a book that I have and there he was. In 1885 he became the Town Marshall in Moncton,he held the position until 1890. He was also considered to be quite a Champ boxer under the bare fist rules. During the 1890s he ran a hotel or tavern and his name appeared in the paper quite often on Scott Act violation charges.He usually got an adjournment or acquittal.In the 1911 census he was listed as a hotel keeper.

Well today I awoke bright an early and decided to bake some bread, so I gathered my ingredients as I went along, first the water, then milk,sugar,shortening,flour,finally the yeast. Now where is my yeast? Oh I don't have any yeast, my water was lukewarm in my pan,so off to the store I hurried, got there ,their yeast was outdated, back in my car up to the grocery store called Needs, nope no yeast.My bread, My bread ,what's gonna happen? Off to the Coop I go, finally yes they had yeast, I asked the lady in the line up,can I go ahead of you, my bread is all ready but the yeast.Sure ,she replied, so off I go home to finish my bread, oh it is going to fail, it won't raise, my water is probably too cold now. Anyway to make a long story short, it raised and it cooked and it is great. Whew!.

Now I would like to finish by telling you I have something new on my site again. If you are familiar with Moncton New Brunswick, please check out my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ I really hope you will enjoy my new page.

Thanks for stopping by, do come again.

Have a great day.

Aline

Our snow is gone,(for the moment),but today it is windy. I am looking out my window and the tree at the front is swaying back and forth. Brrr. But I think we are very lucky in our part of the world, look at Bangladash and all those loss of lives because of the cyclone. How devastating it must be living under the conditions that they are living today. Homes all gone, love ones gone, or injured,roads washed out. My heart goes out to all of these people and their loves who are waiting for news. I do hope that there will be some tears of joy among the tears of sorrow for many of them.
Well I am still working on my Chartersville Cemetery, I keep adding every day, I do know it will benefit many of you. I feel that even if I add only ten names, that is ten names that someone out there may need .So I shall continue sharing with you, what I have. I believe I told you I have added access to Acadian Postcards on my website, I think that was a good idea, because how many out there did not know of this great Acadian Postcard site, Cajuns can also send Acadian Postcards to their loved ones. A Merry Christmas on an Acadian Postcard would be very nice to send during the Holidays.So go to my website http://www.acadian-roots.com/ click on Acadian Postcards and send as many as you want to.
To end todays blog here is an interesting article from a book that was given to me many years ago of Saint Louis Kent County.
Each village or locality needs men for an important trade "Blacksmith". Saint Louis had the advantage to have some without interuptions and they were as talented and they were devoted. They were Mister John Orr, Bernard Gorman, Auguste Leger, Hubert Gallant, Adolphe Landry, Roderick McDonald, Simon Mazerole, Gilbert Gallant, Basile Daigle, Charles Dutney, James Hennessey, Aime LeBlanc, Job Allain, Jean Daigle, Joseph F Richard, Hubert McGraw, and Francois Babineau.They say that the blacksmith shop of Francois Babineau is now the only Blackmith between Saint Antoine and the Miramichi River. Now this was way back. Are there any of your ancestors among these men?
Have a great day
Aline

Hello, it has been a few days since my last blog, and I came across this tidbit I would like to share with you. I found this at the Provincial Archives.
The Hillsboro "Advocate" states that there are now living at Dover (West. Co.) Peter GUTRO and his wife, aged respect-ively 106 and 101. They have been married over 80 years and during that time resided in that place. They are neither bed ridden nor feeble and able to move about and enjoy them- selves. The number of their descendants is 300. The date was January 1864.
Can you imagine living to be over 100? In Saint Louis Kent County, there were many who lived to be very old. I don't know if it was what they ate, or how they lived that prolonged their life to such a ripe old age. I do know that in Saint Louis fish and pork were their main foods. (maybe it is the poutines and rappure that contributed to their longivity, smile).
Sometimes it seems to run in the family ,some seem to live longer than others.My both grandfathers died young, one was 56 ,and one was around 61. I remember my father saying, well I outlived my father. Dad died at the age of 94 so he had a long life.Since I have been going to cemeteries and transcribing from cemeteries, I notice how so many of our ancestors and relatives died so very young. I guess back then there were many diseases to fight, such as TB, Typhoid Fever,Dipteria,Cholera etc. It must have been to tragic for the parents of those loved ones, can you imagine losing two or three or your children in a very short while? But getting back to living old, my great great grandmother Marie Blanche Breau was old when she died, her obituary said she was the oldest resident in Notre Dame de Kent at that time. My Dad told me he remembered her, he remember she had lots of facial hair, he called it Mousse on her face.
Well I have added another cemetery on my site, thanks to Rick. I added the Maccan Cemetery, it is not an Acadian Cemetery but there are a few Acadians buried there or listed there. I have also added more names onto my Chartersville Cemetery,as you know that is a huge cemetery. And I also have added something new to my site, I added a site for you to send Acadian Postcards to your love ones, I received permission to do this, and I am pleased to have the cards on my site, I do hope you will check out the cards, they are created from paintings by Mr Surette. Thank you so much for the lovely visit and I do hope you will drop in again. Have a great day. Hi to cousin Eve.
Aline

Well old man winter is nearby. More snow this morning, I went out and cleaned my car, the snow was a wet snow. Tonight the weatherman is calling for rain. Yippee.
I would like to share something with you, regarding good deeds at Christmas. I was just alerted to this by my friend. This certain family celebrates this way. They are a large family and they gather at the parent's house, they each buy a christmas gift , the limit is ten dollars, and they each take their gifts over.They sit around the table and the head of the household takes each gift and one by one they have an auction, limit of the bid is again ten dollars. For instance if I brought my gift over, the auctioneer will say, who will bid on Aline's gift. This goes on until everyone has their gift auctioned off. The money that the auctioneer gets goes to a local charity. I find that to be so nice They all have fun and the money goes to a good cause.
I want to also share this with you. My son phoned me today, and I asked how my grandchildren were. My son told me my grandson went to his first school dance, he is eleven, and his older sister was there . Anyway I guess my grandson danced all night, he told my son, well the boys formed a circle and the girls formed a circle in the middle and we all went around and when the music stopped, we had to dance with that girl in front of us.(Paul Jones haha). My son said, did YOU dance? He replied well I had NO choice. haha.
Well I have begun adding the River Hebert Cemetery on my site, this is thanks to Rick Arsenault, who has gracefully given his permission for me to do so. He is downloading the images on his site at www.myacadianhistory.ca and I am writing down the names on my site at www.acadian-roots.com , this way the people who come to my site while surfing will go to Rick's site from my site.There shall be more than one cemetery added and these are in Cumberland County Nova Scotia. There will not only be acadian cemeteries, but the one I am doing at the moment has a few Acadian Names.As you know some acadians married english partners and I also noticed some french canadian names. So both Rick and I are hoping this will benefit many of you.
Thank you for dropping by and do come again.
Aline

Well what can I say, this is our first winter storm. Last night we went to a Christmas Party, yep a Christmas Party given by my hairdresser. We arrived there around 830 pm it was just light flurries at the time. We had a nice time, they had a super lunch, they had salads,sandwiches, sweets, cheeses ,pickles, a very nice table. And they had prizes and I won one, I won a gift certificate for a new hairdo. I was pleased,especially since the holidays are near. We left there around 1130 pm, and I couldn't believe how much snow had fallen. The snow was heavy and wet. I figured that the snow would stop then, but no way. This morning I awoke to this. That is my car, and I have to clean it. sob sob. So this is a wake up call. To get out our shovels, mittens, boots,and get our cars ready for winter,which I have not done so far.
Did I ever tell you about the harsh winters my mom had when she was young? She said one time there was so much snow that her brother and her had to dig a tunnel to get to the shed to get some wood. And one time they could not open the door because of the snow and the neighbor had to come and shovel them out.
I also read somewhere that some of our ancestors would tie a line going from their home to their barns in order not to lose their sense of direction due to the blowing snow and high winds, they had to get to the barn to feed their animals and to do their chores, the animals had to be taken care of, no matter how bad the weather was. It sure must have been hard for our ancestors, they had no shovels nor plows nor snowblowers ,they were not as lucky as we are today.
But there is a good side of all this snow, it puts me in a christimassy mood. smile.
Have a great day
Aline

Remembrance Day,since tomorrow is Remembrance Day, we should remember our loved ones, who fought for us, for our countries, for liberty. Over the years there were many battles fought, many battles won and many lost battles. So tomorrow I would like to suggest that you go online and read about the following battles and wars. Check out the French and Indian War of 1640, Battle of Port Royal in 1690 and 1710, Battle of Quebec 1690, Battle of Hudson Bay 1697, Queen Ann War 1702, Raid on Canso 1744, First Siege at Louisbourg 1745, Battle of Grand Pre in 1747, French and Indian War 1754-1963, Battle of Fort Beausejour, War of Independence, Civil War, Metis Rebellion, Boer War, War of 1812, Vietnam War, Korean War World Wars one and two, Iraq War, Afghanistan etc.

Many men were involved in these wars, and many lost their lives, there were Privates, Seamen,Airforce men, Footsoldiers,, Corporals, Lieutenants, Sargents,Soldier ,Platoon Sargents, Colonel,Commander in Chief,Gunner, Flagcarriers, Drummers, Medics, Nurses,Chaplains,Journalists, Captains,etc.

We must also remember the veterans who survived these wars, they have suffered , they have bad memories, and good memories. They all fought for a cause.Many came back injured.

Our Acadian Ancestors fought in Battles, Fort Beausejour,Port Royal, Grand Pre, in World War one and two,the Civil War, War of Independence.

Take a moment to remember all the ones who went to war, be they Acadians,Canadians,Americans,British,Native American,many loved ones were lost ,many mothers cried. Wars touched so many lives, if we could only imagine one family with loved ones at war. The anguish, the worrying, the crying.

LEST WE FORGET.

Holidays! How were they celebrated by our ancestors ? I wonder. I do remember that Easter was a big celebration, and as you know our acadian ancestors were very faithful to their religion. On good Friday, it was forbidden to eat meat. I remember in my earlier years, that at 3pm on Good Friday, we had a moment of silence. So when my late husband and I used to go driving ,at three pm we both would keep quite for a few minutes. (that was a hard thing for me to do.grin).
For Easter ,we needed a new hat. That was the style way back then, a new outfit and a new hat. I kept up the tradition for a long time. Easter Sunday we went to church, and back then we went on Sunday,today we go on Saturdays. When my son was little , he has his new outfit and an easter basket, and lots of goodies.
Our Easter meals were always Baked Ham. Our Ancestors would have no problem cooking a ham, they had all kinds of pigs. smile.
Christmas was another holiday, I remember my mother telling me,that when she was little, her father would be away working and he would always make it home on Christmas Eve. They would go out and cut their tree. Mom said they decorated it with whatever they could find, colored ribbons ,rags, paper, and so on. And Mom said she remembers getting an Eaton's Beauty Doll, now this would be back around 1927or 1928. She said her father made sleds for the boys.
I remember one christmas ,we had a camp in St.Louis and my sister in law was down from Ontario, so we decided to spend christmas at our camp. We went and got our tree in the woods, let me tell you I was some glad to get back to camp. The snow was nearly up to my waist at some spots, and it sure got tiresome trudging through that snow. But we did, and decorated our tree. Had our Christmas Turkey , we had an electric stove, because we had electricity. And then it was time to go back to the city. So we roughed it for once. I love the smell of a real tree but they are so messy to clean up ,so this year I will put up an artificial one.
Mom said my grandmother hung stockings up for them, and Mom said they always contained, walnuts, one apple, one orange, candies. My grandmother used to shop all year long for gifts, she had 8 children, she bought for her eight children, their spouses, and their kids. I looked forward to my gift from my grandmother even if it was just a hankie, it had come from her.
As you know this year some members of my genealogy group acadianroots exchanged names for gifts. I have bought my gift for the name I picked, and this is making me feel good, because this person will be receiving a gift from someone she has never met personally, and I am hoping that she will be pleased.
So in ending today's blog, and speaking of holiday. Soon it will be Thanksgiving for the United States, and I do hope you all have a safe, and Happy Thanksgiving Day with all your loved ones.
Have a great day
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Well I hear that there is snow falling in various locations of Canada, so soon it will be here. I would like to see it snow on Christmas Eve and then go away. grin.
Today I went shopping, got a few things. I then came home and gift wrapped my parcels going out of town. So all I need to do is address them and wait until it is time to post them. I want to make sure everyone gets their gift on time.
Well I have added quite a few names on my Chartersville Road Cemetery, I believe I have over 1000 names added so far and I shall continue to do what I have set my mind in doing. I am certain that many of you out there are benefitting from what I am adding to our site.
And I have decided that my next project I do will be kept secret until I have completed it and added it to my site. It will make it more interesting for me, and it will be a surprise for you.
I am still working on my Leger's. I am now waiting for an obituary, and a photo of a tomstone from out west. The results are looking good. This is for a christmas gift for about ten different people from the same family. Next I may make a family tree for my ex sister in law who just lost her Mom a month or two ago. She would really appreciate it. So if you have someone and you do not know what to give them for christmas? Give them a bit of their history.
Have a great Day and thanks for stopping by
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Well the storm is over, and we did not get what we had expected. I am pleased with that, but it is still always good to be prepared because one day we may really have a bad storm or hurricane.
Well I decided to add the Chartersville Road Cemetery on my site, well I am adding some of the cemetery anyway. I have added over 1000 names so far. And now I needed a picture to add on my page, so yesterday (after the storm) we took a drive to the cemetery. We did not go into the cemetery but I took a few pictures from the road. One of the pictures I really liked, so i have added it on my page. For the ones of you who do not know about this cemetery,well at first in Moncton, the people were buried in the old Shediac Road Cemetery, and then the new cemetery on Chartersville Road in Dieppe was built. The old Shediac Road Cemetery is now full, there are to be no more burials there. The Chartersville Road Cemetery is called Our Lady of Calvary (Notre Dame du Calvaire) and it is a really big cemetery. I had written them into three notebooks, I have added one of the three books, there are still two more to go. I will add them at my leisure. When I have the second book onto my page I will let you know.There are tombstones that I do not have from the cemetery, so if you have love ones in that cemetery and you do not see them on my page, it will not mean that they are not there, it will only mean I do not have them. I have up to 2003 so there are still 4 more years not done. Maybe I will attempt to do them at a later date. I did not transcribe the ones that I have myself. I was given the CD from a friend Mister Francis LeBlanc who took photos of the stones. So I took the names from the stones and wrote them all in my three books, that way it is easier to add to my site.
So I do hope that many of you will find some of your ancestors .
I have received an email from P'tit Francois and he told me he has been busy and was going on vacation and he will get to doing the translating from french to english for his stories. So if you cannot speak or read french, check once in a while to see if they have been translated yet.
I hope you all have a great day. Thank you for the visit, do come again.
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Hurricane season and our weatherman has forcasted a bad night tonight, with lots of rain and high winds. So to be on the safe side, we went to the store to buy supplies, I wanted to get those little lamps at the dollar store with some batteries, do you think I could find even ONE? Nope, all sold out, then I said ok, I will get some D batteries for the flashlight, All Sold Out. So off we went next door, they had a combination of flashlight and radio. It took C Batteries , all sold out. So we went to the grocery store, I wanted to pick up a copy of L"Etoile for my P'tit Francois page, and they had batteries, so we got three different sizes plus some matches for our candles. We went over to my mother's and brought her some matches. Next we decided to stock up on spring water. Arriving to the spring there were 8 cars ahead of us, filling their containers. I wish I would have taken my camera so I could show you. I took out some extra blankets, just in case.
And in case we lose our power, I now have a roast cooking in the oven. I moved all the stuff that was on the patio inside, even our garbage cans. We have three trees in front, one right in front of my house and two in front of the neighbors house, so I moved my car ahead. The last time they predicted bad weather ,the storm by passed us, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will by pass us again. So just in case you do not see me online, do not worry, it will only be because our power went off. But if my power goes off, I don't know what I will do without my internet. smile.
I decided to add another cemetery to my page, this is a huge cemetery ,Our lady of Calvary Cemetery in Dieppe New Brunswick. I shall only do a little at a time, I don't know if I will do it all since this IS a big cemetery, but I will add what I can, and who knows? In the end ,it may all be on my site. So check the sidebar of my acadian-roots.com website, when you see Chartersville Road Cemetery, it will be the Our Lady of Calvary Cemetery.
So have a great day, for the ones in the path of the hurricane, stay safe.
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Winter time for the Acadians was a cold season. The houses had no insulation and were built rough, since they had to make do with what they had. So when the north winds blew, a cold draft was felt as soon as our ancestors moved away from the stove or their fireplace. Everything in the house was frozen. In the morning the water in the Pails, the tea in the teapot, even the urine bucket was frozen. It is reported that many infants died during these cold winters. They had to sleep under lots of blankets or whatever they had to cover themselves, because in the morning there would snow on them. Heated bricks and irons used for ironing were placed at the foot of the bed to keep their feet warm.
Now I remember my mother telling me, that when we were small, we lived in a place called Highland View and we lived in an old log cabin, which was later condemned. Mom said she would bundle us all up, and make sure that our feet and hands were not bare, she made us sleep where the roof did not leak, and she said when my Dad and her would wake up in the morning there would be ice on their blankets. Apparently one night, I wiggled my foot out from under the cover and it turned all blue, Mom took me to the doctor and he punctured a hole in my heel to relieve the pressure. So I would believe that our ancestors spent some mighty cold nights huddled together.Mom said she even wore mittens on us some times.
I am reading in the book I received and sharing some of it with you,just in case you wonder where I am getting all this information.
Now I am reading that to light their house or room, our ancestors used light from the fireplace , Cod liver oil, and pork or beef rind could be used for lighting. Candles were made from mutton or beef tallow . Later on came Paraffin and oil lamps. Can you imagine going out to outhouse in back of their homes, pitch black and all they had were keresene lamps? I remember going to an old camp way back in the woods , to go there we had to go on a trolley ,over a thresle, and there were no lights outdoors and no roads to the camp. The owner of the camp had an outhouse in the back and let me tell you that when I went to the outhouse, my husband came with me , and stood by the door. We had a flashlight to guide us, and it was still scary. We should consider ourselves lucky these days, we have electricity, we have lights, we have phones, internet, cars ,our ancestors had no electricity, only lamps, no phones, they travelled by horse and wagon, or sleds,or by walking or by canoes. We have automatic washers and dryers, they had the streams, to wash their clothes, trees to hang them on. We have water right in our homes, our ancestors had to go to the nearest springs, or dig a well.
One thing for sure is that our ancestors worked very hard in their lifetime.
Thanks for the visit, do come again.
Have a nice day
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THE MOOSE WAS LOOSE, AND THAT IS THE TRUTH .


I opened the newspaper last Monday, and I could not believe my eyes. This moose had ventured in the north end of the city. He caused some damage before being tranqualized. He damaged a police cruiser, fences, rain gutters. He was seen shortly before 11 am. Anyway they had to tranqualize him, and he did not survive, he was probably scared to death. This reminds me of something my late husband once told me. In the 1940s he had gone to Montreal to find work, and he was staying at this rooming house, and the lady of the house,(Mrs Vandal) asked him if there were many animals roaming the streets down here. She thought that this place was in the bushes. Now if she could open her eyes she would probably say; " I knew it, I knew it". grin. No one knows where the moose came from, nobody got hurt. But it sure must have made a lot of headlines in the neighborhood, since he was going up and down the streets and in and out of back yards. (Maybe he was just out looking for a new Gal ,smile).
Well I have been working on my website, I added some marriages for Tracadie Nova Scotia, as you know there is a Tracadie New Brunswick and a Tracadie in Nova Scotia. I rearranged my sidebar, so it will be easier to navigate.
I am still waiting for P'Tit Francois to do some translation for me so that I can add more stories, but he has been a bit busy, so please have patience, he will get to it as soon as he is able.
We drew our names for our christmas gift exchange, so now comes the fun of looking for something to send. And speaking of Christmas, we went into a store yesterday and the trees are all decorated, the store was decorated and some of the workers still adding christmas stuff.
Our christmas parade is scheduled for November the 24th.
Well thank you so much for stopping by. I always enjoy having guests. Have a great day
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Hello everyone, today I went to the genealogy center. First I wanted to help some of my members with their queries. Next I checked the newspapers for various obituaries, for my christmas family tree that I am preparing. I found two obits so far, and I have to return. The reason I am telling you this, is to let you know that sometimes ancestors move to various places, some go to the USA, others to various parts of Canada, or even overseas.
In the tree that I am doing, which are Legers, I found some in Saskatchewan, San Francisco, Ontario, New Bedford, Leominster, Newcastle, Charlo,Toronto, Montreal, California, Chilawack, Surrey, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and I am not finished the tree. grin. Just like the song by Hank Snow, "they've been everywhere man.
I also have been trying to match the names with photos, and lo and behold, I found a photo of one of their ancestor who was a member of parliament today.
And he looks just like his great great grandson, or his great great grandson looks like him.
So if you are doing genealogy, remember to check the obituaries if possible to know where they moved to.
On another note, I have transcribed a few marriages from the parish records of Tracadie Nova Scotia which I shall add to my website as soon as I can, so if you have ancestors who were from there, check my site a bit later to see if they are there. This would be in the early 1800s.
Have a great day, and thanks for dropping by.
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Can you imagine going back in time and seeing our acadian ancestors? How would they be dressed? Well the photo on the left is one I took at the Moncton Museum,with the permission to do so, and this was noted to be similar clothing worn by our ancestors. Now if you look back at some of my first blogs, you will see a photo of my great grandmother and she wore long dresses in the early 1900s. If you go to my photo gallery on my website at www.acadian-roots.com you will also see the outfits of different photos. I read somewhere that women used to cover their face with stove ash to prevent mosquito bites. I bet back then, many of our ancestors suffered lots of musquito and little black flies (bite em no see em). Today we have bug repellents, back then they had to try to find a solution on how to prevent them from biting. Just thinking about it, makes me glad that I am in this century. I don't know if I told you the story about my mother and her two brothers , her youngest brother was always getting into trouble, one day the three of them were walking along a wooden path, looking for berries. When Mom's youngest brother saw a bees nest , before Mom had time to say don't touch it, he took a stick and poked the nest, well you can imagine what happened next, Mom said "We ran for our lives".
Now back to the photo, notice the crucifix on the wall? Well that crucifix once was on the altar of the Memramcook church way back in the late 1790s according to the note below it. As you know Memramcook is the oldest village in New Brunswick. It was called the cradle of Acadie. Many of us have ancestors that were there at one time or another. So perhaps some of our ancestors viewed that crucifix many times when they attended church. Speaking of church, how many of you remember kneeling all together at home to say the rosary? Our ancestors did that too.
Hope you enjoyed today's blog, thank you so much for coming by. Have a great day.
Oh and in closing I want to say Hi Eve, Hi Cindy and Hi Sara, I know you are here.
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Regarding P'tit Francois, we are going to be treated with something great on my acadian-roots website. I told you that I have added the stories of P'tit Francois des bois in my website, well guess what? we are in for another great treat, P'tit Francois himself is going to do the translation to english very soon. So I will hold off on adding new stories until he does the translation for us. That way, he tells the story in his own way. I can hardly wait to read what he writes. He has offered to do this and I am very pleased. So keep checking , the next story should be translated by him. I shall add a note saying it is so on the page. Something to look forward to huh?

Now you must be wondering what that photo is, well that horseshoe with the eagle at the top and cup in the middle was made for the Moncton Hawks by my grandfather David Williams. I have one like it here. My grandfather worked in the foundry and in his spare time he made things to sell, crucifix, statues, ashtrays etc. There is also one of his ashtrays he made for the Moncton Hawks hockey team, probably the same time as he made the horseshoe. The Horseshoe above and ashtray is in the Moncton Museum. I wanted to go to see for myself, and yesterday I did. But I do not know if they know that it was my grandfather who made these articles. It was my first time in the Museum, and they had a section on Moncton's history. They have a cross that sat on the altar in the Memramcook church in the late 1790s I think and the church burnt, I did not read up on this , I just read it fast and took a photo which I will share with you another day.

Thanks for stopping by, and remember to drop in and read P'tit Francois des bois's stories, they are funny.

Have a great day

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