Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I always wonder where the saying "Busy as a Bee" came from or Busy as a Beaver. Well I really don't know , but I have been there, busy as can be.grin. Hello everyone, the weather is gorgeous, the trees are blossoming, the flowers are springing up. We are not as early with our flowers as elsewhere tho, I received some photos from Scotland from my friends, they have beautiful flowers, all different kinds, pansy are pretty. There is one tree across from my new home, that looks lke a purple lilac tree but looking closer they are not Lilacs, not sure what kind they are. I have little balcony off of my living room, and I am so tempted to add a little bird feeder there, although I am not sure if the birds would come since the balcony is quite low.
On another note, I am debating on adding something new to my website, I have asked my members of my Chat Room and am now asking members of my genealogy group their opinions on this. It has been created, just not added for now.
I also am doing another cemetery that my friend Maria did for me, she did a great job for her first attempt, there are lots of names to be added. She had sent me the photos but due to spamming I had to remove them, so now I will add the names and whoever will want a copy of the photo of a stone I will send it to them. So that project is being done as we speak. I have added one page out of five or more .
And now we are gearing up for our big Bergeron d'Amboise reunion being held July 25 2009 in Fredericton. Now the ideas are popping up , what to do, what we need, where we will sleep, there will be another celebration at the same time regarding when the english raided Pointe Sainte Anne, and massacred many Acadians and chased them from their homes, so this is going to be a big event. If you have ancestors who lived in Sainte Anne de Pays Bas, then don't miss this event. And if you have Barthelemy Bergeron dit Damboise and his wife Genevieve Serreau dit Saint Aubin in your lines and are interested in our big Bergeron dit Damboise reunion please let me know ,our Bergeron group at googles will register you. I am very anxious to go, because I am going to meet a new found cousin, (who hasnt registered yet,grin) and her family. There will be lots of stories, and photo taking while we are there.
Also next year is the Acadian Congres Mondial in Caraquet New Brunswick, and I am hoping to meet many members of my acadianrootsclub group .If you want more information about the Congres Mondial go to my website www.acadian-roots.com go towards the bottom of the sidebar and click on Congres Mondial ,there is lots of information ,that is the official CMA 2009 site.
I have mentioned Maria doing a cemetery for me, I cannot forget to mention that Rick and I have a project going also, he has walked through many cemeteries of Cumberland County and taken photos of the stones, which he will be adding on his site and I shall be adding the index on my site. I will add a link going to Rick's site on my index pages so you will have an easy time to navigate between both sites.
And Effie has sent me a cemetery book , that I really appreciate, from her book I can verify some dates and it is going to benefit me in helping others. so to Maria,Rick and Effie thank you, I am also receiving some stuff from Paul and from Don, so thank you both. As you can see , I have a great group of members in my acadianrootsclub, for genealogy, and also Paul LeBlanc has an acadian group on rootsweb to which I belong also. I am trying not to forget anyone. grin.
So, I know understand what "Busy as a Bee means" grin. Thanks for the lovely visit, do drop in again. Have a great day.
Aline

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Did you all think I had forgotten you? Nope, not at all. I have been quite busy lately. If you go to my website www.acadian-roots.com you will notice new pages, I have added partial lists of two cemeteries in Maine, one in Sandford Maine and one in Waterville Maine. Many French Canadians and possibly Acadians went to the United States in search of jobs, new factories were opening and the jobs were plentiful, so I have extracted some Acadian Surnames buried in both cemeteries, now these people were probably descendants of some Acadians who fled into Quebec during the time of the deportation of the Acadians. So I am hoping that these names will help some of you, now there were some french names such as Veilleux, LaJeunesse, St-Cyr etc who married in the Acadian Surnames such as Boudreau, Landry, Cormier etc.
Also one of my members lost his father a few days ago, Rick is the owner of myacadianhistory.ca site , and he has cemeterie tombstone photos of Nova Scotia, and is adding more to his site, which I in turn will add the index of names on my site with his permission. So I have made him a sympathy card and it is also on my website, so if any of you know Rick , please sign his sympathy card, to let him know we care and offer our condolences to him.
More members have joined our acadianrootsclub, and we are trying our best to help them as much as we can, if you just surfed in and want to come join us, go to my website acadian-roots and send me a message via the url that is posted there.
I am still getting settled in my new place, I have lots more to do before I am done, I will need to repack everything and put them in order here, I just threw everything here and there, now I need to find them and put them in the correct places. So now you can understand why I have not been posting my blog, it will be better soon.
Thanks for the visit, do come again.
Have a great day
Aline

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Cows are out, sheep are in, that's what I was told when I began my kitchen cow hunt, grin. Well I posted on some classified ads for kitchen cow stuff, so last saturday I got a reply someone had some placemats, I asked where, she replied I am at the flea market. So Sunday morning bright and early off we went to the flea market, now I never looked anywhere else, went right up to her table, she had three placemats, but I was not too impressed, but bought them anyway, I won't be using them on my table. Will keep looking, but I walked around the market, and lo and behold I found other cow stuff, I got a sugar ,creamer, toothpick holder, cookie jar. Someone else phoned me she had a clock, so I have that too. So I am going to continue looking for cow placemats and other stuff that would be nice in my kitchen, cow magnets would be nice on the fridge.I am not sure if they made cow cannister sets or not, will keep my eyes open for them also.
Well I just finished another page for my website but have not added it, I am looking for a CD that someone sent me to add what is on the CD to another page so that I can connect them, do you think I can find that CD? nope, still lots of stuff not unpacked yet.
Now that I have redone my photo gallery, I need some old photos of acadian or cajun or french canadian ancestors, be them mine or yours, so if you want to share some of your old ancestors, leave a comment or go to my acadian-roots website and send me a message. A lady had sent me a lot of them ,I had to remove my other gallery so I lost all her photos, I think it is nice to look at old photos just in case someone connects to our lines and we can share photos with one another.
Our group is growing every day, more have joined us, everyone seems very satisfied with our group, they all see how we are all helping each other out. We are as I said before like one big happy family.
Thanks for stopping by, hope you will come again.
Have a great day.
Aline

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Have you every lived in Moncton New Brunswick in Canada? This is where I was born and I believe I had posted some photos way back at the beginning of my blogs of Main Street in the 60s. Well about a week ago, I received an email from a friend that I correspond with. Our friendship began through her looking at my acadian-roots.com website, and through me knowing her brother who told me she was also into genealogy. We found out we have ancestors in common. Anyway, last week she sent me some photos taken in 1950s of Moncton , taken from the air with a list of the buildings , so I have added these awesome photos on my Moncton page at www.acadian-roots.com , I know the ones of you who live or have lived in Moncton are going to really enjoy seeing the buildings taken by a pilot named Mr. Cunningham .I recognized the Moncton Cathedral in the photo, that is where my grandparents married, and where I was baptized. I do hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did.
I am still working on another page on my website, I will let you know when it is up and running and what is it about. My genealogy group is growing everyday, so if you just surfed in and interested in your acadian/cajun/french canadian roots, go to my site mentioned above and send me an email for an invite from there. As my group is by invite only.
Now I am going to add something here, that you may find funny or odd for me to do. grin. I am looking for Kitchen Cows for my kitchen, need to know if there are any places in Canada that sells Cow Placemats, Cow Stove burner covers, Cow Cannister sets, or anything for the kitchen with cows. I have the soap holder, I have cookie jars, I have a plate and stand. I tried to find Cow stuff here in Moncton, none to be found. I know Cows are out and Sheep are in, But I want cows grin. I know in Florida they sell Cow stuff, but I tried to order and cannot do so.
Leave me a comment if you know where I can find these things, unless I start yard saling and hope to find some there.
Thanks for listening, hello Cousin Eve, Jean n Harry,Sara, Maria,Effie and all of you reading this.
Have a great day.
Aline

Sunday, May 11, 2008




HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you mothers, grandmothers, greatgrandmothers. Today I would like to share something with you. My mother. My mother turned 90 years old. Yesterday we had an open house for her. On the top photo you can see her reading a congratulations from our governor general of Canada. She also received a certificate from Honorable Mr. Chiasson of New Brunswick. The open house went great. Lots of friends, lots of family members came. We took many photos, Mom was so pleased to see so many attend.
Now the photo at the bottom , is something I want to share with you. If you read my past blogs, you will see that I had told you about the movie that I stumbled upon at the University of Moncton, thanks to Regis Brun and Ronnie Gilles LeBlanc. This movie which my Mom later identified the people in it was from an old movie camera, and after we found out who was on the movie, Ronnie Gilles and Regis made us a copy to a DVD. When I had approached Mom, telling her about this movie, she blurted out that they were the only ones with a cow and the cow would come to their bedroom window and Moo, and Mom said you would swear the cow was saying EdMOONDDDDDDDDDD, which was my Dad's name, and Dad would say she's calling me, time to get up. Well yesterday at the party, my brother played the movie for everyone to see on his television, and I decided to try and take a photo, and if you look at the photo on the upper left, that beautiful lady standing there is My MOM, she was around 15 or maybe 16 years old. Wasn't she beautiful? And can you imagine, I see her walking and moving on the DVD? This DVD to me is worth more than all the money in the world.
I wanted to share this with all of you. You never ever know what you will find when you are into genealogy, or family trees, just keep digging and keep looking, I sure hope you will come across something special as I did.
Have a great day everyone, thanks for the visit.
Aline

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Well the grass is getting green, some flowers are popping through the ground, the buds are starting to come out on the trees. My Mom who will be 90 next week, just returned from the United States, she said all the lilac trees were in bloom. They are not in bloom here yet, I love the smell of lilacs. A lady from Ontario told me she has started her garden. I love a garden, but the only problem with my gardens when I made them , I could not tell a weed from the plant. grin. Planting a garden is hard work, I remember planting a small one right in the city, in my back yard. I had lots of energy back then, and I had planted these Jumbo Jim tomato plants, they were gorgeous, and healthy, I had dug the garden with a shovel, it was some job, and then I got a load of manure, phew and spread it into my soil. My son looked out the door and said to me,"Mom I'm not eating anything from THERE." He was around twelve years of age. But the tomatoes were delicious.Oh and the first time I planted a garden, I was cleaning around my new baby plants and didn't I see a white worm, I think it is a grub or slug, anyway, you should have seen Aline run. Yep, I got scared. grin. Then I did not want to touch those things, so I would pick them up with a stick or shovel and toss them out of the garden. I sure was brave huh? smile.
Well I added another little tidbit in my tragedy page on my site at acadian-roots,
I need to add more from the Chartersville Cemetery (Notre Dame du Calvaire) in Dieppe NB to my site. I just moved and at the moment , not sure what box has the cemetery book. I have also opened a new group in Yahoo called La Petite Acadienne, this group is only going to be another door to get into our acadianrootsclub group which is doing so well. If a person surfs the yahoo groups and come across ours, they cannot join, and it has no way of contacting us TO join, so I created this new group only to have others know where to go to join us. So to all my members of our acadianrootsclub group don't go join there, as I said it will only be to let others know about our great group.
Sunday we went to Fredericton, I was hoping to see a Placque on a tree in the old Acadian Cemetery, we looked on many trees, and inquired , no one knew anything about it. I also checked out Wilmot Park where our Bergeron dit Damboise and Godin reunion will be held next year. It is quite a large park, and near everything. I was impressed. Anyway I emailed a lady yesterday regarding the placque and she told me, it was just a temporary carton one, because Stephane Bergeron was in Fredericton and he descends from the same Bergeron ancestor so the placque is not there anymore. So I was a bit dissappointed. Someone in my Bergeron group talked about some kind of monument, honoring the first familes or Pointe Sainte Anne which would include the Godin, Bergeron, Roy, etc . I think that would be a very nice idea.
If any of you are interested in our Reunion to be held in July 2009 let me know. If you have descend from the Bergeron or Godin lines, it doesnt have to be your paternal line, it can be your maternal lines too, mine is on my maternal line, you qualify.
Thank you for stopping by
Have a great day
Aline

Monday, May 05, 2008




Flooding in New Brunswick Canada. Yesterday we decided to go for a drive to Fredericton (the capital of New Brunswick. I wanted to go find the area where the Acadian Church and Cemetery used to be. Next year is our Bergeron dit Damboise reunion to be held in Wilmot Park weather permitting. We took the Coles Island Road to go, it used to be a shorter road, anyway the photo of the trailers and the canoe, was taken on the Cole's Island Road. I couldn't believe that so much damage was done. The couple in the canoe lived across from the trailer park.
Continuing our drive, we passed through lots of places where the water level was high, I took photos from the car. We finally arrived in Fredericton and found Wilmot Park, and the lieutenant governor's home which is located on the land where the church was. We looked for a placque that was suppose to be there with the names of some of my ancestors but could not find it. But the park is going to be great for our reunion in July 2009, we are including the Godin descendants also. On our way home we decided to take the long way, through Minto, to Hartcourt then home. We stopped for gas and I mentioned the flooding, the store employee told us that down the road the road was closed, it was a ten minutes drive. Off we went, me with my camera and came across the area he was talking about, these are the photos above. The place was called Riverside Corner. Well there was no way anyone could go through there. Then my friend told me it could happen that the water could cause sinkholes , meaning the water would erode under the pavement and cause the road to sink.
We continued driving along the road going towards Minto, we got to another place that the water was covered, this time we could see the yellow road divider below the water.George said, we can make it. Well! I was not too impressed, after him telling me about the sinkholes. I said No Way Hosay!, we turned around and noticed a jeep heading for the crossing, so George turned the car and said we will follow him. Gulp! As we were driving through all you could see was water splashing against my car. Once we crossed George said, you should have taken a photo of us crossing. I replied" Take a photo???? I was holding on for dear life, the photo was the last thing on my mind." grin. They announced on the news that the water was receeding in Fredericton but was making its way down towards Saint John, many had to be evacuated ,some roads were closed.
On another note, I know some of you who are reading my blog are newcomers, so thank you for the visit. To you I would like to say, you are probably into genealogy and stumbled upon my site, well if you are interested in genealogy or family trees and need help, or if you just want to come join others who have the same interests as you do, we have a great group, we are over 400 members and growing everyday. Now just to let you know, we sometimes get off the genealogy subject but you can be sure we get right back on it again, I have been into genealogy since 1976, been to the centre d'etude many times, I know Stephen White but will not use him to get members, he has helped me help others lots of times, he is a great person but do not join our group because I know Mister White, I only know him from the center. Join our group because you need help, or want to to help . Many of our members including myself have Stephen White's DGFA books and we can help you. Many of our members live various places and are also willing to help. So all you Acadians, Cajuns, French Canadians come join us, new blood is good for a group, it sometimes helps others find their ancestors too. So go to www.acadian-roots.com
click on our group in the left sidebar and send me an email, I will then invite you, and to help you along, register with yahoo, it is free and it will be easier to join .
Thanks for listening, thanks for the lovely visit. Have a great day
Aline

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Saint Paul de Kent is a small village in Kent County. Many of my maternal ancestors settled there. Yesterday there was an article in L'etoile,(our french newspaper) so I thought I would share it with you, although it doesn't include my ancestors.The title of the article is Saint Paul and its founder L'Abbe Georges Antoine Belcourt.written by Lucie Gosselin and Karina Langis.
Translated by me to the best of my ability.
After having visited many countries arriving at Saint Paul de Kent, I asked myself who had uncovered this splendid place. When discussing this with friends, they talked about l'Abbe George Antoine Belcourt. On this subject I devoured all the articles written by George Arsenault in the Societe Historique Acadienne .(SHA). I realized that the first settlers of the parish of Saint Paul de Kent came from the parish of Rustico in Prince Edward Island.
Taking into consideration the poverty of the people of this parish, this good abbe Belcourt sent some young couples from his parish to colonize the parish of Saint Alexis of Matapedia and the parish of Saint Paul de Kent in New Brunswick ,Canada. It is him who encouraged Mgr Sweeney to buy the lands so that the Acadians could cultivate them. At this time it was a great feat.
Further reading on the subject, I realized that thanks to a man named Olivier LeBlanc of Sainte Marie de Kent,ancestor of the provincial deputy Bertin LeBlanc ,that these Acadians successfully settled in the new parish. Young Olivier who had just built a new church of Mont Carmel in Sainte Marie with the means of a frolic would also have created frolics from 6 am to 6 pm to build the new homes for the new settlers. My grandmother had already told me that this Olivier had encouraged the women to knit and sew the clothes and blankets to fill up the new couples trousseaus because they arrived in Saint Paul deprived of all they owned. It was quite an opperation. Olivier did the impossible my grandmother told me when she visited me in Saint Paul. This same abbe Belcourt had even gathered money to buy farming tools for the parish of Saint Paul de Kent. We don't know if he tried to organize a bank like those in Rustico ,we know he left a box of books at the home of Anselme Girouard (the father of deputy Gilbert A Girouard nephew of Olivier LeBlanc). These books were sent by the historian Rameaux de Saint-Pere.
But sad to say, these books ended in the church and would have burned in the fire of 1955. In Rustico he founded l'Institut du savoir. Mister Rameaux de Saint Pere had obtained gifts? (des dons) from Napoleon 111 the emporor of France for Saint Paul. The bust of Napoleon is in Memramcook. I don't know if abbe Belcourt left a known heritage in Saint Paul. In Sainte Marie de Kent, he left as heritage the passion of Astronomy. According to some cousins, this passion may have possibly favored the creation of the Astronomy Observation founded by an ancient parishioner of Sainte Marie de Kent at the Moncton University .I ask myself if this abbe Belcourt would be the one who left the music and singing passion. While listening to the folks of St Alexis, I hear the same exceptional talent also in Saint Paul. Ah will the soft ,and beautiful voices of the St Paul choir make the honor roll one day?
Now to add a bit more about Saint Paul de Kent in New Brunswick. Some of you may not know it was once called Bishops Land (terre de l'eveque). Joseph Bergeron dit Damboise was one of the early settlers, he came from Iles Verte in Quebec with his wife and two sons Ferdinand and Antoine. Ferdinand was born in Van Buren Maine, so his parents Joseph and Adeline travelled from place to place to find work and a better life. They were in Saint Basile for a while also where Joseph worked for the church.They were on Prince Edward Island for a while, where I believe one of their sons Joseph and a daughter died. So possibly from PEI they heard about the new land in Saint Paul and decided to settle there. I read that before the church was built many masses were held at the home of Joseph and his wife Adelina. The church bell is named partly after Joseph Bergeron dit Damboise.Quite an honor I would say.
In Saint Paul at present , you will find an apple orchard, it is still there and was planted from seed by my great grandmother Domithile Williams dit Bristol. My Mom told me that Domithilde never lived to see them bear fruit, she died in 1929. I have since gone to the apple orchard and walked through it, thinking to myself" I am here walking where my great grandmother once walked, touching the apple trees she planted, I will tell you, it was a very touching and good feeling for me. Because I am sure she was there, I am sure she walked among the little apple trees, she dug the soil and planted in this spot that I stood in.
I do hope you enjoyed my blog,it had been a while since I last wrote. I have moved to another place , and it took up a lot of my time but I am back.
Thanks for the visit. Have a great day
Aline