Good morning and thank you for stopping by. Have you even tried to imagine how our ancestors survived when they arrived to a different climate and to our harsh winters long ago? Coming from countries that perhaps their winters were only cold but with little snow. I often try to think about our Barthelemy Bergeron. He was just a young man, taking a long ocean trip to someplace unknown. We are talking about the late 1600s, even the crossing must have been rough, there were no yachts back then or ocean liners. What did he think when through his eyes he seen the new land? Maybe he had friends who did cross with him or maybe he made friends during the crossing. He arrived in late September so the weather would probably have been changing to cooler nights. So he arrived just before winter time. I was reading an article somewhere online and the article mentioned that the men learned a lot from the native americans.Since the native americans were used to our harsh winters, it is good that they helped our ancestors.
I really enjoyed reading about the grandson of Barthelemy Bergeron ,Michel the second son of Michel Bergeron dit Nantes, for a while I thought the stories I was reading was about Michel dit Nantes but later found out it was his son.Michel the second led a group of Acadians who were originally from Grand Pre and Beausejour and they had fled into the woods near Saint John and Colonel Monkton ordered his soldiers to find these Acadians, so under the leadership of Michel Bergeron who was a trapper and coureur de bois they fled towards Quebec.
They began this journey in 1758. Michel was only around 22 years of age.
They travelled through the woods during the summer, the women carried their babies on their shoulders, the men carried the baggage, searched for food , made the camp for the night. Just sit back and imagine all this. A group of people in the woods, night time must have been scary for them? There were not street lights , but the campfires would probably have given a bit of light.Since all the tools they had were knives and hatchets they lived on beavers, partridges, rabbits or any animal they could catch. Three days before Halloween they came across a village called Cacouna where they spent the winter with the people. Again imagine if you were there and now you have to live with strangers. It must have been so hard for the Acadians.But it is also nice to know that these people from Cacouna welcomed them. When spring arrived they all boarded canoes that they had made during the winter and sailed up the River to Saint Gregoire Quebec where many of the Acadians settled.
I hope you all see the reason I am writing today's blog. It is to tell you how important writing down events is. How important writing down little stories is.
Had none of the above have been written , all those stories would be gone forever.
So if you are doing your genealogy or family tree,add as much about the person that you can. What did they do? What did they look like? Were they tall? Were they funny? Did they play music? Did they accomplish something special? When I read the article about Michel Bergeron, I was amazed, when I read the papers saying Barthelemy Bergeron was captured and was the first prisoner to be released, and when I saw Barthelemy Bergeron's signature on a document words cannot express how I was really pleased.Now I have other lines besides Bergeron, that has interesting stories, the Cormier's, the Godin dit Bellefontaine's,the Leger's and so on. Well I really wrote a long blog today, I was getting carried away. smile.
Thank you for reading this, and do come again.
Have a great day
Aline