DID YOU KNOW? That in 1670 a decree urged parents to marry off their children at a young age? Archdiocesan Register of Quebec A.page 514, Marcel Trudel places the legal marriage age for a groom at 14 and a bride at 12. The King began to encourage early marriages with a financial subsidies as high as an annual pf 300 livres (sixty dollars) to fathers having ten children and 400 livres (eighty dollars) to fathers having 12.(Introduction to New France,Quintin Publications 1997 page 140) because so few immigrants wished to migrate or remain in New France. The birth rate was often the highest in the world reaching as high as 65.2 children per 1000 residents as opposed to a high of 55 per 1000 in other areas. The above was from the book Searching through the old records of New France given to me by my friend Maria. My mother got married at 13 and a half, I thought that was very young. But can you imagine your son getting married at 14?No wonder they had large families back then. And a girl age 12 getting married? To me they are still children at those ages.
Well I finally finished my St Charles Cemetery in Amherst index, so now you can jump from my website www.acadian-roots.com and then to Rick's site www.myacadianhistory.ca and find your ancestors tombstones. Now that is not all. Maria a while back went to Woonsocket Rhode Island and she stopped at the cemetery and took around 300 images, some are just parts of the cemetery, some are just surnames and some are the stones. She sent them to me and I have uploaded them, this is my first attempt at adding the images, so for now they are uploaded and may need to be edited, you can view them by going to my website ,click on USA Cemeteries, go to the drop down menu. They are not in alphabetical order so you will have to check each stone, for now anyway.
I was just thinking, maybe I should have loaded the photos to my photo gallery, but I do not know what my limit is at the moment. Anyway hope you enjoyed todays blog. Now I am going to try and attempt to make some Chicken Gumbo. It is my first time, and I have never tasted Gumbo before so now is the time. grin.
Have a great day.
Aline