Thursday, August 30, 2007

You never know what you find when you dig. Archaeologists dig, they find bones, they find old china, they find old pipes, and old foundations.
We who do genealogy, we who do family trees, we dig, and we search , and we uncover great treasures also. We find who we are, we find where we come from. We find old photos of our ancestors.
Some find that their ancestors were pirates, some find that their ancestors were of royal descent, some find that their ancestors died tragically, others find they have a mixture of english, or irish, or native american, or french canadian, or even african descent. We have bad guys in our lines, we have good guys in our lines. Never the less we should all be proud of who we are. Because right now, we who are researching our roots, are a very special breed. We are leaving something behind us when we leave this earth. Maybe this is why we are here, to do this digging and writing things down. So that history will be retold over and over again by our descendants. I am proud to be a little part of all of this.
Now on a sadder note, two days ago someone I knew died tragically, he was working for the city and putting up the signs for constructing, when a big tractor trailer crashed into him. He had just gotten back to work after two weeks holidays, and he was planning on retiring next year. His name was Butch, and he was a very kind man. His mother was in a nursing home, and he would visit her everyday faithfully, feed her, and run errands for the other patients, and talk to them. After his mother died he kept on going to the nursing because he had become fond of other patients too, so he would run errands for them.
He was a drummer in a band for many years, he was also a runner. It is so sad when someone leaves for the day and doesn't make it home again.
So to all you truck drivers and all you drivers out there, please be very careful, drive safe, sometimes people don't look where they are going and sometimes people dress in dark clothes and cannot be seen at night. Again please drive safe everyone and please stay safe.
Aline

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Poem to begin todays blog, sent to me from a friend in Connecticut ,I really liked it and hope you like it too;
" Among my many memories
Is Grandpa's ole Straw Hat.
It was his companion outdoors
Wherever he was at.
He wore it out in the fields
Where he worked long hours each day
When he was planting corn and beans
Or working in the hay.
When he would go to the barn
He wore overalls of denim blue
And his old straw hat on his head
For he had chores to do.
Sometimes he'd sit on the creek bank
Where he would fish awhile
The sun beat down on his old straw hat
But on his face he wore a smile.
His old straw hat had seen better days
It had been the best of its kind
But it was getting tattered and worn
But didn't seem to really mind.
He was contented in his old straw hat
Whether working or at rest
He was satified with what he had
Yes! Grandpa was the very best.
by Frances Carter.
Now I really loved this poem. I remember my Dad always wore brimmed hats . He always wore a shirt and tie, and I remember my Mom ironing and starching his white shirts. No matter where Dad went , he always looked good. And when my Dad's hats would wear out, my brother used to cut the brim off and make a hat and add some trinkets out of boxes of cracker jacks onto the hat. Some of my brother's friends began doing the same thing, it was their fad at the time.
Ah, those were the days, and these are the memories.
Aline

Monday, August 27, 2007

Well you must have missed me a little, but I was unavailable for a short while, I was swinging on my chandelier for about fifteen minutes, to begin with I have my private little computer room, I thought I was snug as a bug in a rug, so earlier today I made a cuppa tea and decided to come online and work in my private little room. I had set my cuppa tea down and stepped out of the room, when I opened the door, I saw it. I looked again . Yikes ! A MOUSE was laying on my carpet, I yelled helppppppppp. My friend came running in, by that time I was hanging on my chandelier. Get it out, Get it out. When the mouse was out of my little room, do you know I had even forgotten I had a cuppa tea. It sure was cold by then. Now I am back here, and I keep looking around. I am ready to make a quick getaway if need be. sob sob.
On a nicer note, I went and picked up the books I had made for my grandchildren for Christmas, I am so very pleased with the results. I am sure the kids will love their little story books created by their memere.
I changed to look of my photo gallery today , it looks nicer, and I had my first user add her photos today.
I phoned the dog kennel to set an appointment to take the dogs there while we go to Prince Edward Island on Friday, I checked the weather, so far there is a 10 percent chance of rain on one day and 30 percent the next day. Sure hope it stays that way.
We are going to Abram Village but first I want to do a cemetery if possible. Abram Village has a festival every Labor Day weekend, people go in load by bus. So the crown will be very big. It should be fun.
Will keep you posted, thanks for the visit
Have a great day
Aline

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Can you believe it? Our summer is nearly over? But I do love the fall, with the changing colors of the leaves and it is cooler. I love taking rides in the country ,down some little unknown road (with lots of gas in the car ,grin) and admire the scenery. The colors are spectacular, oranges and yellows ,reds and greens.
Well I have been busy with my genealogy research , I have added more names to my database and I am at awe at what I find. I was told we had some native american blood, I said 'I don't believe it". But lo and behold a few days ago , I trace one of my lines that I had not ventured into and yep, one gentleman married a native american. Well that did not satisfy me, so into Stephen White's DGFA I go. Yes again it is true. I am truly a great mixture, someone said I was a Heinz 57 , I am really believing that I am. But nevertheless. I am so grateful for all the ancestors in my line. Because without all of them, there would be no me, and without me there would be no children and grandchildren that i love so.
And I have ventured where no Aline had ventured before, grin. I decided to add a photo gallery on my website www.acadian-roots.com , now what software do I use? I checked out so many of them, I even downloaded a few but when it got to the hard part of setting them up, this little brain of mine went into a slow mode. grin. So finally I decided to add coppermine photo gallery. I still did not have a clue what to do, but to begin I downloaded it, then what? So I contacted my webhost ICD Soft, and let me tell you, the support I got was the greatest. They had patience with me, and without their help, there is no way I would have understood all these php, and msql and so on. Now that It is on my website, I would like to change the theme, the colors but again I have no clue what to do, but for now at least there is a photo gallery. I want to post and others to post our ancestors in order to be able to share with others. I would love to see new photos with some of my ancestor on them. So I keep hoping there will be photos as such.
I still have our chat room at my family.com and I really enjoy it because we can chat off the genealogy subject, we share photos there too.
On Labor day weekend (next weekend) if the weather permits I am going to Prince Edward Island for two reasons, first I am going to try and do one cemetery, I sure hope the rain stays away, and then I am off to Abrams Village for a festival and exhibition. So please keep your fingers crossed that the weather will be nice.
Thank you so much for the lovely visit, do come away.
Have a nice day
Aline

Saturday, August 18, 2007


Another year older. Well today was my grandson's eleventh birthday. So my daughter in law asked me to pick up some little prizes for the kids. There were six kids invited plus my two grandchildren. So off to the dollar store I went. I picked up some little prizes, umbrellas for the girls and games for the boys. I picked up the little gift bags to put them in, plus some candies. So arriving at their home today, I decided to do a treasure hunt game. While the kids were in the house I snuck outside and placed the little gift bags in the backyard, one in a tree , one under another three, one along the tree lines and another one elsewhere. Then we got the kids together and told them, Bobby you look for a bag with a dog, Jimmy you look for a bag with a flower on it, Mary you look for a bag with a pink stripe and Joey you look for a bag with a rooster on it. It was fun for them as you can see in the photo. They were running , and laughing and one by one they found their gifts. Next I put nine candy rings in a bag and said look inside the bag very fast, now guess from one to ten how many are in there. So a little girl guessed it, she won the prize. Next came opening the gifts, eating pizza and having cake. All in all my grandson had a great birthday.
Now in my family when my grandson has a birthday we buy a little something for my grandaughter, and when she has her birthday we buy a little something for my grandson. Today I got them some school supplies, and inside my grandaughter's bag I slipped a photo. The photo was of me at her age, and I had long shoulder length hair,thick and light brown, my grandaughter has long black hair. And I pointed out to her how my sweater was buttoned all wrong. smile. So now she has a photo of her memere at the same age as she is now. I know she is going to put the photo away in her special bureau drawer. I do hope that years from now when I am no more, that she will still have that photo of her memere. After the party my grandchildren said bye Memere I love you. That sure made my day.
And today I added their school list of supplies into their family tree book so years from now they will look at the book, laugh and say wow those were the school supplies I needed way back then.
Thanks for listening , have a great day
Aline

Thursday, August 16, 2007


Acadians came from all over to celebrate the Acadian Day Festival. The weather did not dampen their spirits, as you can see by the sky ,the rain was not far .I attended two celebrations, first we went to Cap Pele, and watched the clowns with the children, listened to a musician called Gary Donelle, it was the first time we heard him singing Acadian songs, he was very good, he ended his set with the song Lac Bijou , a song by Zacharie Richard, I loved it. They had face painting, and lots of people had their faces done. In Cap Pele they had a dish of smoked fish, a lot of people were nibbling on the pieces. From Cap Pele we headed back towards home, and we went to the Dover Park in Dieppe, that is where the photo was taken. It was a huge park, they had dignitaries, and they also celebrated the opening of the Internation Kite Festival, with people from 17 countries participating. The music was fantastic, one of the bands was Reveille, and they really had the place clapping and dancing and singing. It was a great experience to be able to be among all the celebrations. If you would like to see more photos and more of the festival go to www.acadian-roots.com click on Acadian Road Trips and enjoy the photos. I held this little acadian flag while watching the activities and just when it was nearly time to leave, I broke my flag. So I am putting that I want a new one on my christmas list. grin.
Thank you for the visit
Aline

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Hello everyone, thanks for the visit. To begin I would like to tell you that I do things on impulse a lot of the times. This morning I came online, and then I thought, gee I would like to go to Prince Edward Island and maybe do one or two cemeteries. So I asked my friend to come , we left here around 1130am. The weather was beautiful. We crossed the confederation bridge and arriving on PEI we stopped at the tourist bureau, I wanted to know how to get to Egmont Bay and to Rustico. So we got a map, and decided to go to Egmont Bay, and if we finished early to go to Rustico. It was a lovely drive, seeing all the potato fields, and the green grass, and the water. We passed though Abram Village, and we were not far from Mont Carmel, I saw the church there and was very tempted to do that cemetery instead of Egmont Bay or to do the both. But we kept going towards Egmont Bay. We arrived there , found the churches, the old one and the new one,but no cemetery in sight. So we seen this elderly man riding a four wheeler, and we stopped, and said do you speak french or english, he was french, where is the cemetery? we asked, OH he replied I am going that way follow me. So we turned my car around and followed him right to the cemetery. The cemetery is located near the water, there were people swimming nearby. So we went into the cemetery and I had taken my tape recorder with me, so I began by recording the names, my tape recorder is staticky, anyway I taped for 60 minutes and my recorder stopped, so the next step was pen and paper, many of the stones were not readable, could not even see one letter or one date, so we had to skip them, so many of the ancestors would have to be found through the cemetery plans.
There were lots of Arsenaults and Gallants in that cemetery, some Bernards, Gaudets,a few Cormiers and Legers (very few) and other surnames. We were in the cemetery for over three hours, the sun was hot and the mosquitos were coming out , I did not do the latest ones buried there, a few were in the older part but the last ones buried, I did not do, since it was getting late, and I was getting hot and getting a sunburn.But I really enjoyed being there. We passed by the Miscouche genealogy center, I would have loved to go in, but today it was not possible, perhaps I will go back before the winter comes.We arrived home at 830 pm. I wanted to share my trip with you. If you live near a cemetery, it would be a great thing if you could go into the cemetery and copy the names and dates, and maybe even donate it to your genealogy center. And if you want to ,I can also add it on my website at www.acadian-roots.com with your name as the source.
Oh and don't forget that August the 15th is Acadian Day so go out and have a great time.
Aline

Friday, August 10, 2007

Mice Mice go away, Aline would really like to stay. grin. Yep another one bites the dust. I live in a neighborhood that has old buildings so I guess the mice enjoy them. I have been looking for a place , so far no luck since I am a bit picky, I don't want to go back to the country.
On a more pleasant note, I received some mail today from a Bergeron Cousin from Louisiana, the article was regarding Barthelemy Bergeron's father in law. Seems that his father in law Jean Serreau dit St Aubin found out that a certain Jean Terme was romancing his wife Marguerite Boileau. Jean warned Mister Terme to leave his wife alone, but Terme did not heed his warning, and one day Jean Serreau caught them holding hands and filled with anger and fury he picked up the nearest wood or club he could find and Whack he hit Jean Terme over the head and knocked him out dead. Hmmm. Jean Serreau had to leave town, he went to France where he received a pardon from the King and returned to Canada.
Speaking of romance, did I tell you that when my parents met, my mom was barely 14, my dad was 9 years older and they decided to get married, now my mother's father was away a lot but he did not appove of his daughter married at such a young age. That did not deter my parents, they would meet at my great aunts place and on a little wooden bridge to make plans. One day they took the train went into the city and got married by a baptist minister. OH that did not fare very well, the parish priest found out about it and he went and broke them up, sent my father home and my mother to her place. Then the priest wrote to the bishop asking permission to bless their marriage, the bishop agreed and they remarried. All this time my grandfather was away. When he returned and found out his daughter had married, he was furious , and my parents avoided him, but my grandfather was not finished, he went over to my father's fathers place and burned down his barn. I found this article regarding this in our paper, and saved it.
Aww The Things that Love can Do, it can be long ago or even today.
Thanks for the visit.
Have a great day
Aline

Thursday, August 02, 2007

They're coming to take me away haha....sob sob. do you remember me telling you the incident I had with the mouse in my last residence?well in my new residence, that I just recently moved in, I was sitting on my rocking chair, minding my own business, chatting with my son, when what do I see following the baseboard and running under my fridge. A Mouse ,A Mouse, help! help!, well off to the store I go, I got two mouse traps, some poison pellets, and spread them around where it was safe for the dogs. I then went and checked around, they had started a nest under my loveseat cushin, they had paper and droppings so I cleaned that out, and I did not like it, anyway about five minutes ago I got up from my computer to go downstairs, and there was this DEAD mouse, right in the floor of my computer room. Guess who is going to move? Guess who is going to move as soon as she can find a place with two dogs. Yep Me, Aline, I got so scared. It is a wonder I am not in a strait jacket right now. Where I live the basement has lots of holes that the critters can enter. The landlord wants to tear this complex down in five years, well I am not waiting five years before I go. The two mouse traps are laden with peanut butter, they prefer to come scare me to death instead of eating the peanut butter. sob sob..... Please keep your fingers crossed that I can find something else real soon.
Have a great day. I did have one until five minutes ago , grin.
Aline