Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Clovis has been found. Yes I found him today. I went to the genealogy center, and dug and dug and searched and searched , smile. Clovis was christened Simon Clovis, so that is why we could not find him. He was born in 1880 the son of Hilaire Boucher and Antoinette Landry. He married Marguerite Hebert daughter of Thomas Hebert and Theotiste, but I did not verify Marguerite's birth. This info was on the marriage record. Now Hilaire Boucher father of Clovis was married first to Marguerite Meunier, and he became a widower and married Antoinette Landry. So now we have helped the lady looking for the information. That makes me feel really good. And knowing the members of my acadian group has rallied and done some searching for me. So to all of you who have tried and helped me, including my new found cousin, I thank you. Know that we have made a lady happy. These Boucher families were all in Grande Digue New Brunswick.
I was very contented searching through the old records and microfilms today. I shall be going again, as often as possible. It is funny how fast the time goes when I go to the genealogy center. I go as early as I can and before you know it I have been there 3 to 4 hours.Today I was only there for 3 hours, would have stayed longer if I could. So again my thanks to each and everyone of you.
Have a great day
Aline

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Looking for Clovis Boucher married to Marguerite Hebert circa 1900. This is a special request. If any of you out there have any information on the above couple please reply , add a comment. This couple was in Cocagne New Brunswick in the early 1900s because their children were born there.My group and I are on a joint mission to help someone who is ill at the moment and she wants to do her family tree to give to her two beautiful grandsons (she said).Clovis and Marguerite had the following children, Marie Cedelice,Marie Dina,Regina,Marie Eva, Marie Amanda,Marie Anna, and Joseph Arthur . I really hope someone will read this blog and give us a clue on the whereabouts of this couple, where did they marry? Who were the parents of Clovis Boucher etc. So far we haven't found Clovis in any of the censuses. Thank you in advance.
You are all welcome in joining our group project, all help is so greatly appreciated.
Have a great day
Aline

Thursday, February 22, 2007

When I began my genealogy in 1976, I never imagined at the time that thirty years later I would still be doing it. For me this hobby if that is what you would call it has been such a help to me in so many ways. Along the way it has helped me know where I came from, know who my ancestors were, and helped me in my grieving time. Researching to me is such a good feeling , it relaxes me, and it lets me do what I want to do. I have met some great people along my way. I have met a Ronald Leblanc who was at the genealogy center when I began, I met Stephen White who I admire, I met Janet Jehan one time, I met Lucie LeBlanc Consentino, I met Maria ,Regis Brun , a very nice man to talk to, I met Ronnie Gilles LeBlanc, and I had met Father Clement Cormier.I even met a couple who's family I had found some genealogy information for, who came down from New Zealand and stopped in Moncton on their way to Ireland. They came to my home.Through my research I recently found some cousins who I never expected to be so lucky to meet them. One day soon we are planning to meet in person. I offered to take them to places of our ancestors that we both share. And if my health is good in 2009 I sure want to go to the Congres Mondial and meet some of my group members. I would also like to go to Port Royal , and return to Grand Pre. I went to the site of Beaubassin last summer with Lucie but I would like to return. I know that there are some of you reading this who must feel the same way as I do, towards genealogy. I look at my grandchildren and I cannot give them fancy things, I cannot afford expensive gifts, but in my heart I know what I am giving them is much much more important .My grandaughter already loves my stories and my grandson loves his fluffy book and his papa book from memere.I just gave my grandaughter a page for her book about my mother watching her mother make soap. My mother told me the story and I made it into a page for my grandaughter 's book.To end this blog, my wish would be for you to share your stories with your loved ones, write them down, save photos, write who the persons on the photos are. Do you not think that one day your descendents will say my memere or nana, or grandmother or grampy told me this story as they pass them down to their children? You never know.
Have a great day
Aline

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Well it has been a while since I last posted ,I hope you have all been doing good in your genealogy researching. Last Friday I went to the Centre D'Etude and met Maria, she is a very nice lady, and it was nice meeting someone from our genealogy group. I am hoping to meet more of you, perhaps at the congres mondial in 2009. Maybe we could have an acadianroots group, all stay at the same accomodations, eat at the same place, I can only afford McDonalds haha.
I also have put two genealogy pages up on my site, they are my ancestors, the Cormier's and Williams dit Bristol. I will probably be working on them to make them better as I go along.
Well soon it will be maple sugar time, I went to a sugar camp many years ago with my late husband. We went to Albert County in Elgin and it was a beautiful ride. We followed a little river for a long way before we hit the turnoff for the camp. The water was flowing quite fast at the time, and the snow along the side of the river made it look even nicer. At the sugar camp , we were shown all their modern ways of getting the sap from the trees, they had long pipes from tree to tree, I imagine our ancestors would really have appreciated the easier way to get the sap. I read in the history of Saint Louis that Mr Atkinson a historian wrote in 1844 where many families made between 1200 to 2000 pounds of maple sugar per year. So one maple tree could give at least six pounds of sugar per year. The ones who had maple trees on their land harvested enough syrop and sugar for the needs of their families and the rest they would sell. In the census of 1861 for Palmerston (Saint Louis) gave the amount of 5470 pounds of maple sugar as the production. If you ever go to Hillborough in Albert County in New Brunswick around this time of the year, you will still see the old fashion cans on the individual maple trees. I used to love the maple candy but as you know as we age we lose some of our beautiful teeth grin so eating the candy is very difficult . Now the maple cream is very very good but awful sweet, so a person cannot eat tons of it. And maple syrup on pancakes mmmmmm, delicioussssss. smile.
Thank you for listening and
Have a great day
Aline

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Hi, is it snowing your way? Well you can check out my winter diary tomorrow I may have news for you.
Today I decided to go for a drive, but where to? The weather was overcast, no sun, sort of a gloomy day. So a drive would make me feel much better.
So I decided to take a drive to Memramcook NB, known as the cradle of Acadie. I drove there many a times when my husband was living. We would go through the back roads, Dover Road, Pre D'en Haut, then St.Joseph, we even went to a place known as Taylor Village. Now why Taylor Village ? Well while I was doing my research I came across an article saying that one of my ancestors lived there, he did not own the land. His name was Mathurin Guillaume Williams dit Bristol. As you guessed he was sometimes called Mathurin Bristol and other times Maturang Williams. He was an english boy brought up by Joseph Goguen of Cocagne. For a while he was in Cocagne then moved to Memramcook where he died.
Well I stopped at the Memramcook Cemetery today, and walked a little ways in, but the snow was too deep. As I was walking up the path, I thought Mathurin is buried here somewhere, I wish I knew the exact location. I took some photos of the beautiful church and also of parts of the cemetery. I have added two of the photos on my Memramcook Cemetery pages.
Now it would also be nice to know the exact location of where in Taylor Village Mathurin lived. There were also Cormiers living near him in Taylor Village, some of whom were my late husbands ancestors who later settled in Bouctouche.
On our drive we also passed the site where the first Leger lived, they have a cross at the location. What a nice day, I really enjoyed my drive.
Thank you for the visit and
have a nice day
Aline

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Hello again, so nice to have you drop by. Well to begin with I need to make a correction on one of my previous blogs. Seeing as I have many who read my blogs , I have been alerted to an error that I really should not have made. smile. Remember I told you about my mother going hunting? Well on my blog I said she was 5feet 10??? oh noooooo my mother is four feet ten. A big difference huh? And she would have been around 11 or 12 when she did all this hunting. She got married at 13 and one half years of age. She had her first baby at 15. Back in those days girls married at a young age. If you look back at your ancestors you will see the same thing. And back in the early acadian days many acadians married cousins or relatives.
Now changing the subject I have been busy since we last chatted. If you visit my website you will notice a few changes. My cemeteries are all listed in a drop down menu now, so are my marriages and am working at doing the same for my census, I am nearly finished them. So I am hoping it will make it easier for you to navigate my website. Again a big thank you to Lucie, she needs a lot of patience with me. But I have learned quite a bit thanks to her.
I also have finished parts one and part two of the Shediac Cemetery , I copied all the names on the stones on Lucie's site and have them on my website. I think this is neat, you look for your ancestor on my site then it tells you exactly what row what number in the row that is on Lucie's site. It will save many researchers lots of time. Then you can go view the stone on Lucies site. I really believe our joint project is a good thing. Except that as you can see Lucie and I have worked very very hard on this, and we dont feel it would be fair for others to come and copy our work and add them to their site . I would suggest if you have a site or forum, send your members to our site to check out the information that they want. I am sure no one would want us to go to their sites and copy and put it on site and get credit for it? No I dont think so. Anyway enough for today, off to work I go.
Have a great day
Aline

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Hello, nice to see you as always. Well today my mother wanted to go to Shediac to buy some flannelette to make some baby things for my niece, so we picked her up. While we were in Shediac, I asked where the Shediac Cemetery was, and off we went to the cemetery. I wanted to take a photo for my Shediac Cemetery page on my website. I took several photos , and will now choose the best one.
Then when we took my mother home, my cousin dropped in, and we began talking about when we were young. Of course my mother was listening to us and she started talking about when she was young.
She told us about the time her two brothers and her went fishing for smelts. Her mother had crocheyed them a fish net. So off to the river they went. She continued to say, they would move the rocks and the smelts would swim and they would catch them. Now Mom had a brother with a crippled arm, who was always getting into mischief. But that day all he wanted to do was catch a fish, so they lent him the net and off he went up the river. My mother said a little while later they seen him coming down carrying the net and having a hard time doing so. When he got to them, he had the biggest trout in his net. They took it home and my grandmother set it in a pan, the head and tail of that trout over filled the bowl.
It is so nice sitting down and listening to my mother talk about her youth. For the ones of you who like stories, I am certain you must have relatives that can share some with you. Remember when they are gone, so are their memories. Save them now.
On another note: Yesterday Lucie and I worked on my website, and I mean we worked. Lucie told me what to do and I obeyed smile. She sure is a good teacher. Now if you check out my cemeteries, you will see on the sidebar one url called NB cemeteries, when you click on it you will come to another page with a drop down menu. It looks so very nice.All my cemeteries are together..I do hope some of you will get results from our joint project (Lucie and me).
Have a great day
Aline

Friday, February 09, 2007

Good morning or Good day to you, so nice to have you drop in. Would you like a cuppa tea or coffee ? Today I would like to share something different with you. Do you remember me telling you that I wrote little stories for my grandaughter about my mother when she was little? My mother told me many stories of her youth. I decided to keep my mother's memories alive and I gave my grandaughter a little book I made. My mother's name is Florence and in the book I named her Flossie and I told my grandaughter that Flossie was her great grandmother. My grandaughter is 12 years old and she treasures the book from her memere. Now there were siblings of Flossie there was Teetee and Deedee her brothers. Here is one of the stories I did.(oh and my mother is only 5ft 10 so she would have not been very big at the time).
Flossie was an avid little hunter. All her friends were amazed at how often she could hit the bullseye on a target in a tree.
Her father gave her a 22 rifle to go hunting, he let Teetee use his muzzle loader.
They used to go hunting across the road from their house. In the winter Flossie and Teetee used to wear snowshoes on their feet because the snow would be very deep and the snowshoes kept them on top of the snow.
Flossie helped her father make their snowshoes, her father would make the frames and Flossie would lace them, with laces made out of rawhide.
Not many times did Flossie and Teetee return without either a partridge, a rabbit or both.
They never encountered any bears during their hunting, I wonder how far the bear would have gotten with these two great hunters.
Maybe I will share more stories if you like them.
Have a great day
Aline

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Well it has been a while since my last blog. A lot of things has happened since then. I have moved to the big city. I am not far from the Centre D'Etude Acadienne, a great research center if you have acadian blood. I have been going there since 1976. Can you imagine? It has been 30 years. And I remember the first time I went there. Did not know where to begin. At the time there was a Ronald LeBlanc there and he helped me a lot by showing me where to look. Every day I was amazed at all the stuff they had. And would you believe that after 30 years of going there sometimes from opening to closing and I am still finding new places to look into?
And the staff there are so willing to help. There is Carmella, she has helped me so much along the way. She goes out of her way to do her best in guiding others.
We have Regis Brun a historian, he wrote many books , and he is the one who told me about an old movie film that was there taken by a priest , that contained my mother, my father, my great grandmother and some great aunts on my father's side. Of course that is something I shall treasure , Ronnie Gilles had the movies transferred to a CD for me and I had some copies made for all my siblings. Ronnie Gilles is the one who came with me to pick up my mother who was 87 at the time to take her to the genealogy center to identify the persons on the film. She even identified her cow and her dog.Ronnie Gilles is an archivist and wrote various books.
And Stephen White (Geneaologist who wrote the Dictionaire Genealogique Des Familles Acadiennes whom you have all heard so much about arrived at the center around the same time as I began my digging. He has been such a great help to me. He always stopped what he was doing to give me advice, or to just have a small discussion. And I have seen him at work, day after day. I seen him reading and writing many times over. Some folks may not agree with him on some subjects but I will tell you that I think he does his work thoroughly. And how many of you can talk about an ancestor from way back and not yours and just recite the information on that person? For example if you asked him about Marie Arsenault married to Joseph Caissie around 1810, he probably would say yes she was the daughter of so and so , or she had a sister married to so and so. To make it easier to understand, to me Mr White is a talking encyclopedia.
There are many others at the Centre D'Etude that I do not know by name, but I see them quite often when I go. So if you are ever in Moncton New Brunswick Canada and looking for your Acadian Roots the Centre D'etude Acadienne at the University of Moncton is the place to go.
I never get tired of going, even if at times I don't find what I am looking for, I keep going back again and again. (like the little rabbit that advertises the eveready batteries, he keeps going and going and going) grin.
I am nearly finished adding part one of the Sainte Anne de Kent cemetery in New Brunswick to my site. If you go there you will see a photo of when the church was burning, the neighbors saved what they could before the church burned totally to the ground. I want to thank Gerry Mazerole for giving me the photo.
If you are a newcomer ,just surfing through, and if you are interested in your Acadian Roots, check out my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com and my friend Lucie LeBlanc Consentino's great site at http://www.acadian-home.org

thank you for stopping by
Have a great day
Aline