Happy New Year

Well the year is nearly over, and a new one will soon be beginning. So I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. May the New Year bring you much happiness.
Do you have a goal you want to achieve in the new year? If you don't have any, why don't you start a new project . For example, now would be the time to ask your relatives ,aunts,uncles,grandparents, mothers and fathers for little stories for you to write down and enter in your family history notes.If you have not started your family tree, this is a good time to do so. Before your relatives are all gone. Don't delay with this, you never know what tomorrow brings. Or start a journal , you don't have to be brainy to do this, just sit down when all is quite and jot down the events of your day, jot down something special that has happened, your son won something at school, your daughter is a cheerleader , your children got married, write down something about these things. I am telling you, someone later on will enjoy reading all of the stuff we write. My grandaughter has a book I wrote about the days of my Mother's youth, she cherishes the book, my grandson has one on his Papa (grandfather). Papa is gone but he has a book about him. Write stories about your pets, and their names and what they did , were they smart? Write about the birth of your grandchildren. Ask your grandparents for stories about their school days, what kind of car did they have, what did they do in the winter time, how did they spend their Christmas long ago. You will be amazed at the information you can gather. I have done this with my mother, and I am still asking questions, and writing them down. A few days ago, she told me when she went to school in a one room school house, her brother and cousin used to get to school first and light the stove, I never knew this and it was exciting to know. And sometimes when you ask aunts and uncles things and your parents, sometimes the same story gets bigger by everyone's views.
I would love to make a video of my Mom next year, she is going on 92 and has a great memory and I would love to have her share them on a video with me. We shall see.
So until next time Happy New Year everyone, and please stop by my store check out my stuff, I have Acadian,Cajun,Irish things and much more. You can see the flash images at the bottom of this blog or go to www.zazzle.com/allicor*
Have a great day
Aline

Hello everyone, I had a few minutes so thought I would come and blog.
The holidays will soon be here, and I am slowly getting things ready. Got the turkey, a 20 pounds, expecting my son and his family over for dinner. It has been quite a while since I fixed a big dinner, so keep your fingers crossed that I do everything right.
I have been busy with my website I added the Moncton City Directory 1949 . I added all the streets in Moncton and the households. I have been wanting to add this for quite some time but never seemed to have the time ,and finally I decided it's now or never. grin. You can find the directory at http://www.acadian-roots.com you will see a lit up NEW on the sidebar. I found my grandmother listed there, she was a widow then. I would have been around seven years old back then. I also added what was said at the beginning of the directory about Moncton.
Next I have been blogging elsewhere for my store, since I don't want to bug everyone too often. I have sold a few things, and everytime I sell something, even if it is only five dollars I get excited because I am not talented when it comes to creating fancy stuff, I am old fashion, and I create what is in my mind. I created a pair of Acadian Shoes, with all surnames on them. I like those. And I did some stuff with lobsters, wolves, these two are my lastest. Anyway if any of you want to look, you can go to the bottom of this blog and see a panel or you can go to http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*
My Chat n Brag room is growing we are now 71 members. My two groups on Facebook "Old Photos of New Brunswick" and "Williams dit Bristol" are growing also. So if any of these groups interest you check them out.
If you want to join our main genealogy group acadianrootsclub go to petiteacadienne group the url is on the sidebar, and from there I shall invite you to our main group. The members there are great.
For the ones who are just arriving here, you can view your christmas card on my acadian-roots website.
I know there are many readers coming to read my blog everyday and are not added to my followers, but I know you are reading this. To everyone of you, I thank you for believing in me and my blogs. A very Merry Christmas from my home to yours.
Have a great day
Aline

Christmas Stories

Around Christmas there are many heartwarming stories, and there are also some sad stories. The sad stories are that there is almost always some tragedies or accidents,such as a home that burned in New Brunswick leaving a family of three homeless. But at least there were no injuries.
I don't know the cause of the fire, but please if you put up a real tree, make sure it is does not get dry, make sure it has plenty of water.
Also there are also heartwarming stories,such as Moncton's Turkey lady Sue Stultz who campains for turkeys. She sets a goal for the number of turkeys she wants and the deadline. All the turkeys are then sent to fill the Christmas Boxes for the needy. A very nice gesture.
I went to a used store this week and picked up a book called "It happened in New Brunswick" and in the book the author quotes from a newspaper article in December of 1961 the following:
"A note placed on a Christmas tree in Quarryville during the shipping season by a 9 year old Quarryville girl has ended up in Houston Texas. About 2.30 pm Wednesday Mayor D.A.Adams
received a long distance telephone call from Byrne Toucheck of Houston saying he had found a note asking for a doll for Christmas signed by Amber Connors of Quarryville N.B. He was asking Mayor Adams to look into the matter to see if there was such a child. Mr.Toucheck asked Mr. Adams if he was the mayor of Quarryville,as he did not know the size of the place or anything about it. Mayor Adams had telephoned and located Amber Connors daughter of Andrew Connors. The little girl said she had put a note on a tree in a carload of trees on the railroad track and ready for shipment. She had not told anyone about doing this until news of the note's arrival in Texas was received. Mr.Toucheck suggested to the mayor that he present the girl with a doll for Christmas.
A little boy named Egbert also did the same thing, except he could not read nor write in English, all he could do was write in French so either his grandmother or aunt wrote the following letter.
"Hello I am a little boy 8 years the 4th of December,I hope you think of me on Christmas Day,send me something for my Christmas.I like to have a pair of skates number 3. Please tell Santa to come here and don't forget me. He tied the letter to a Christmas tree that ended up in Detroit. The skates didn't arrive on Christmas Day but a couple of days after ,Egbert received a parcel in the mail with his skates. He was so proud of the skates that he kept them in the box for a long time showing them to everyone. This Detroit couple found their way to Egbert's home the following summer and kept sending him gifts every Christmas. Finally when Egbert became a man he went to Detroit and while he was there he went to their home.What a lasting friendship that was. And a beautiful story.
I find around Christmas that there are so many people with a good heart. They give if they can, and if they cannot they are also happy to see others giving . You can do so many things, that only takes some of your time. You can volunteer to drive, you can volunteer to deliver boxes for Christmas, you can stop by and see some seniors in nursing home with a hello and Merry Christmas. You can bake cookies and give them to friends, neighbors.
I do hope you liked todays blog. Oh and check out my skunk sticker at http://www.zazzle.com/comical_bumper_stickers-128880613001317099 hope you get a smile from it. Until next time.
Have a great day
Aline

Chit Chat

Today I would like to just chat chat with you. So I do hope you have your cuppa coffee ,tea or milk and relaxing. The weather is cold , it is minus 10, so Aline is staying where it is warm and cosy.
I have been busy with Christmas. Our tree is up and it looks pretty good. Of course I cannot take credit for it, my brother decorated it. I wish I had his talent, he is great at decorating, he decorates cakes that are gorgeous. His wedding cakes are so professional looking. And me??? Well you wouldn't want to see my cakes. grin.
My gifts are nearly all bought and wrapped. I have a few more to do. I am anxious for Christmas to come, my son and his family are coming over, and my Mom lives two door over and my siblings will be stopping by.
I have added more names to my Chartersville Cemetery, I have a long way to go to finish but if I add a page now and then it soon will be finished. You can find the cemetery at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ . As a matter of fact you can find lots of thing on my acadian-roots.com , I love my pages on the seniors who lived over 100 years. And I love the music I choose.
I am also busy creating stuff for my store at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor* .Yesterday I made some genealogy realated things. If you check out my tee shirts you will see a cute lady's shirt with a poem created by me. I sort of like it. I have a new genealogy mug in my miscellaneous folder and I have a few new things in acadian/cajun folder.
Now I started another blog called zazzyallicor which will focus on my store BUT I will also blog about genealogy and tidbits there. You can view the blog by clicking on my links here on the sidebar. Or the url is http://zazzyallicor.zazzleblogs.com/ ,
I am still looking for anyone descending from Mathurin Guillaume Williams dit Bristol and Angelique Gauthier for my Williams dit Bristol group on Facebook and I am also looking for anyone who has old photos of New Brunswick and willing to share with us in my group of Old Photos of New Brunswick on Facebook.
So as you can see I have my hands full at the moment, and I have our acadianrootsclub genealogy group and our Chat and Brag group. Wow. "Calgon take me away". grin.
So as you can see this blog was about everything under the sun. smile. In case I don't have time to blog I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Safe Holiday.
You can view my Christmas Card to you at http://www.acadian-roots.com/
Have a great day
Aline

Acadian Soldiers

In my last blog I mentioned the journal of the english soldier Jonathan Bancroft who overseen the deportation of the Acadians from Grand Pre in 1755. This is more precious than gold,it is a part of our history come to light through the eyes of a simply 30 year old soldier. If he were alive today he would be surprised at seeing how important this little diary of his was.
Speaking of soldiers, our Acadian Ancestors fought in wars too. There was the battle of Bloody Creek in the 18th century, then Beausoleil Broussard was a freedom fighter.
The Acadians were not fighters as a rule but there were Acadians in the Military,in Canada or elsewhere. In Canada's two World Wars, they were soldiers but rarely officers. Some Acadians were involved in the major American war in the 19th century, the American Civil War. Most Cajuns like more Creole officers where on the side of the Confederacy defending Louisiana. They even had their own general Alfred Mouton. He was killed in action at the age of 35. He was the first American Hero of Acadian origin.
There were also Acadians on the blue side as well as the gray. Dosithe Porelle was born in Shediac NB ,he joined the New Hampshire Volunteers in 1862. He fought in the famous battles of Wilderness and Shenandoah Valley. He was promote many times for bravery proving that Acadians were good in military action. Today we have Acadian soldiers all over the world, Cyprus,Bosnia,Afghanistan. I am certain that all these Acadian soldiers have families at home ,waiting who are so very proud of them.
Now to my store information. Remember the song the 12 days of Christmas? Well today is the third day of Christmas Deals, Today any orders over 25 dollars gets free shipping, and the mugs of yesterday is still on, buy two get 50% off. Just in case this message touches someone who wants to buy something for Christmas. The code will be at my store that you use at the checkout. http://www.zazzle.com/allicor
Have a great day thanks for the visit
Aline

Pass It on

I just wanted to pass this along, and to tell you to pass it along to all your friends.
Remember that I had talked about the journal of an english soldier who overseen the Deportation of the Acadians in 1755? Well a copy is on line, and thanks to my friend Effie who found it for me I would like to share it with each one of you. So if you blog pass the url around so that everyone will be able to read it. There are 40 pages to download. I just did and it sure looks for interesting reading. This is something new that we did not know about. Something through the eyes of an English soldier. Enjoy and have a great day.
Aline
http://www.smu.ca/newsreleases/2009/26-11-2009.html

Our Senior Citizens

I would like to do my blog first then I will talk about the image on the upper left so please read the entire blog.

My blog today is about our seniors and why they are so very important.

Seniors are people who have so many things to share with us, if we take the time to listen. Have you ever wondered about the times your grandparents were young? Have you ever wondered what they did every day? How did they pass their time? I often wish , I had talked to my grandmother and her sister years ago, before they passed away. Now it is to late to do so. My Mom told me her mother and aunt had a very good memory and they could have told me so many stories. Today I would be there sitting and listening to them and making notes on every thing they said. Had I not listened to Mom, I would never have known that when my grandfather worked in lumber camps as a filer, my grandmother used to cut the lumbermen's hair for twenty five cents a cut. Back then, that was a lot of money. Nor would I know that my grandfather travelled to work,all over the country, to the USA and Canada, and many times he would take his family with him. These are things that we want to pass on to our descendants, to let them know the real stories about the ways our ancestors lived. In the french paper L'Etoile, last week there was an article on a lady who turned 103 years old. This lady was born in Caraquet but she lived in Moncton since 1975. She is in good health , a little hard of hearing. She remembers spending her youth on her parent's farm. She said they had lots of animals on the farm. She said she remember in school the teacher telling her she could teach children because she had such a great memory. She said we always had a farm, my father wasn't rich but we needed nothing. She is 103 and remembers all the names of her 17 grandchildren. She said she often goes out to the restaurant with her children. She loves to play cards. She said she walks a little in the hallway . I bet if we asked her more questions, we would probably be amazed at her answers. This is what I mean, if we have seniors, in nursing homes, an occasional visit with our pen and paper or even a recorder could result in so many good stories to pass on. I bet if you asked them, how they spent Christmas long long ago, you would be surprised and interested in what they said. So please remember, if you have seniors in your family or among your relatives, now is the time to preserve their memories. Do not pass up the chance to do so.

Now comes the reason for the photo above, Theresa from http://tangledtrees.blogspot.com just awarded me this Kreative Blogger Award, thank you Theresa. In turn I would like to give the award to two that I believe is deserving of it. First to Lynn LaBauve at http://labauvegenealogy.blogspot.com , and next to Rick Arsenault at http://www.myacadianhistory.ca . I know there are many bloggers out there who really deserve awards. In return for the award we have to list 7 things about ourselves.

1. I have been into genealogy since 1976

2. I have never tired of doing genealogy

3.I have in my possession a DVD made from an old movie in which my mother and father are on in, and this movie was in the Centre D'etude Acadienne Archives. Thanks to Regis and Ronnie.

4.I created a genealogy website of which I am very proud of.

5.I have Acadian,French Canadian,English and Native American Blood flowing in my veins.

6.I have two genealogy groups one is a backdoor to get into my main one.

7.I have created lots of Acadian /Cajun stuff on my store.

Note if any of you wants the urls for my groups, or store, or website leave a comment.

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next time

Have a great day

Aline

More on Acadian Deportation

I just wanted to come share this with you before I lose the url. It was posted in our local transcript today. So please pass this story around. It is a great find, as I mentioned in my last blog. About the discovery of a journal written during the Expulsion of the Acadians seen from the eyes of an English Soldier. Very powerful and I am anxious to read this ten page journal.
I believe this journal tells us that the Acadians didn't just walk gracefully to the boats, they resisted . I was telling Mom this morning . Just think if someone would come into our homes and divide the family, take my sisters away, and my brothers in another boat what would you do? Mom who is 91 replied." I would fight as hard as I could ".
Anyway I shall post a longer blog next time. Here is the article in the newspaper,please pass it on.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/front/article/874618

Acadian Deportation

Well today I was reading an article forwarded to my group about the Deportation. In the article, it talks about a diary of a English soldier who was sent to Grand Pre in 1755 to oversee the deportation of the Acadians. This journal recently came to light. Apparently his diary has lots of little things jotted down . The soldier was thirty years old and his name was Jeremiah Bancroft.
He wrote the following note the eve of the Deportation.He wrote about unknown prisoners escaping from the palisade at Grand pre, he wrote about soldiers fighting among each other, he wrote about a court martial of a soldier who had assaulted an Acadian woman and the lashings that were given. there are desertions,there are thefts not only from the Acadians but from other soldiers. It was chaotic. There were fatigue and fears and concerns (against the natives).
But on September 5 he wrote something that gives us a powerful image of happenings that fateful day. He wrote"In it, he struggles to describe the reaction of the 418 Acadian men and boys who had been called to their church, arrested without warning, and told of their fate — that their lands and cattle were being seized by the British Crown, and they and their families would be sent away on ships.
"Seeing themselves so Decoyed, the shame and confusion of face together with Anger so altered their countenense that it cant be expressed," the soldier wrote." ( this is a copy from the article in the Chronical Herald )
On Thursday, Saint Mary’s University archeology professor Jonathan Fowler and research partner Earle Lockerby unveiled the recently published 10-page transcript of the journal of a Massachusetts soldier stationed at Grand Pre in 1755 as part of the army charged with expelling the Acadians and destroying their homes.
I would love to be able to read the entire ten pages of the journal. That soldier was there, he lived the part. We need to try and look at the big picture, our Acadian Ancestors went through a devastating time, they were kicked out of their homes. The were separated never to see each other again (some were). Many lost their lives.
We've not heard about how the english soldiers felt, how they reacted.What was going through their minds. They were given orders and they were to obey. As you read above some of them deserted. Why? Probably because it was too much for them to handle. They had to have had a heart and they must have gone home and cried maybe? We should not blame the soldiers totally. It was the higher powers, the ones who gave the orders that should be blamed.
This Mister Bancroft wrote a diary. He wrote about a soldier assaulting an Acadian women so he was punished with lashes. So there had to be some good soldiers who only followed their orders.And probably some bad ones too.
I grieve for all our Acadian Ancestors during the Deportations and the many years after. They should never ever have had to go through what they did. .
And I must add here that I also grieve for all the Native Americans who lost their lands and were put on Reservations. It also must have been terrible for those people. Yes they were people just like you and me. I have not delved into the Native American history, but I am sure there are many stories to be told about them too.
Because of all these people, I am here, I have Acadian blood,I have English blood and I have Native American blood flowing through my veins so without these people many of us would not be given the opportunity to live and share these stories with our descendants.
To end today's blog I would like to say, "Let us hope and pray with all our mights that a tragedy like the Great Deportation never ever happens again to anyone else ."
Have a great day
Aline

Remarkable ladies

As you all must know, there have been very remarkable ladies who have made impressions on the world. Earlier I was reading a french book called Acadian Silhouettes and I found a story about this remarkable lady that I would like to share with you.
Who was she? Well her name was Venerante Doiron . She was born in 1867 daughter of Pierre Doiron and Marie Michon of Lower Caraquet. She was one of ten children. And oddly enough ,she married and had ten children of her own. She went to school until she was twelve years of age and left because she had to work. She worked as a maid for a lady named Emelie and her husband Narcisse. In 1889 Emilie began having labor pains and knowing that the midwife Phebee was not available she sent Venerente for the passing missionary. He taught Venerante to become a midwife. It is said that after the birth of the triplets,the missionary made Venerante kneel and made he see her marvellous work and assured her that everything would be all right. He blessed her and thus she became a midwife in the Acadian Peninsula. One half century later she had assisted close to 800 births,and she cured many patients with her ointments and her medecin made with herbs.
She travelled by sleigh,by dog sled, by ox cart or by horse. She travelled as far as St Simon,Pokemouche,Inkerman and Miscou to offer her serviced. She also acted as a vetenarian.
This was not all she did, she had a family of ten children,she weaved,she sewed,she knitted,made blankets,worked in the field, split wood. She even took in orphans under her roof. She died of pneumonia at the age of 74. What a remarkable lady.
Now another remarkable lady I would just like to say a few words about. This lady was and still is someone to be proud of. She lived with her family in the country. At the age of 12 she could hunt,she could fish, she helped her Mom carry water, she helped take care of her siblings.
When she was nearly 14 she got married. Before she married ,she did not want for anything, in other words she had it pretty good, but when she got married the hard times began. They built a log cabin her and her husband and their two dogs. Her husband would go to the woods, cut down the trees and have the dogs pull the logs home one by one, she would remove the logs and send the dogs back for more. She did not have wallpaper, so she took some old Eatons Magazines or any magazines she could find, she made a paste with flour and pasted the paper on the wall. Her floors were did not have linoleum, they were wood so she would scrub that floor on her hands and knees with Gillis Lye to make them white. She had eight children,lost her first one. That must have been heartbreaking for her. They moved to town and she was very young and she began helping others deliver babies when the doctor could not make it. She assisted quite a few births so she also was a midwife.She told me once, that some of the deliveries were awful hard.
Now besides raising her children,cooking,sewing,knitting,being a midwife.She also took in foster children. I also remember seeing her out in the cold weather, with an ax chopping wood. Making some kidlings to start a fire. Oh yes she too is a remarkable woman. Who is she?
She is my wonderful Mom,and a truly remarkable lady.
Thanks for the visit do stop by when you have time.
Have a great day
Aline

THANKSGIVING

Tomorrow many of you will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day, so I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving Day. I know that in the USA, it is a very big celebration.
Once the Thanksgiving day is over, next comes the Christmas Holidays.
I have my tree standing patiently in the corner of my living room waiting to be decorated. My brother came over with a huge box of bulbs and said to me" here you have enough for your tree". Well I think there is enough to decorate two trees. grin. I have done my christmas cards, they are all in the mail. I also have prepared my Ecards for my online friends, they are all sent out to be delivered on a certain date.
I have been working on my store, and created some Christmas Cards and a christmas kitten mug (my latest additions). My sister sent me a nice photo of her tree so I made it into a christmas card. I am having fun with my store. I never thought I could do something like that.
I have a lot to learn but slowly I shall get there.
I don't want to push my store on you but I would like to say that is you are into genealogy or know someone into genealogy and you are looking for something for them. I have created some Surname Mugs, with some names of the first Acadian settlers in case you are interested. They would be in my Surname folder, and I also have some Acadian and Cajun products. The url is
http://www.zazzle.com/allicor* When I get an idea , I rush over to create something. grin.
Ideas don't come too often tho. smile.
On another note: Our Williams dit Bristol group on Facebook is growing. But I know there are many out there who do not know they do have Mathurin Williams dit Bristol somewhere in their lines, and they would qualify to join the group. For example, Hubert Lirette married Mathurin's daughter Agnes, so there would be many Lirettes who descend from this couple.
Mathurin and his wife Angelique Gauthier had many grandaughters , who did they marry? Well their descendants also branch into the Williams dit Bristol lines. So while doing your Acadian side of the family, if you run into Mathurin and Angelique then come join our group on facebook.
The group is called Williams dit Bristol.
Our acadianrootsclub room is growing also, I feel bad that I went and changed it to private invites because now it cannot be undone, but have no fear, if you join petiteacadienne group on yahoo, I then stop by and ask if you want an invite , if so, then I invite you in.
I haven't added much on my Acadian-Roots website lately, except updating P'tit Francois and translating it. P'tit Francois has a contest going for the month of November, then for the month of December, check out my P'tit Francois for more information at http://www.acadian-roots.com
After the holidays I will try and do more work on my website. But there is plenty on it at the moment that you will not get bored . Have you read about our seniors? Some lived to be as old as 113. Can you imagine? Well now it is Coffee Time. So take care, thanks for the lovely visit and
please stop by again, because you never never know what I will blog about next.
Have a great day
Aline

Acadians to Cajuns

Have you even wondered how the Acadians managed when they were exiled to other lands?
They had to have been terrified. They would encounter snakes for instance and not little garter snakes but poisonous ones. (Brr I shiver to think of it ) I am terrified of them.
Anyway we know that there were no Acadians deported or exiled to Louisiana, the Acadians choose to go, either to meet up with some relatives or to try and find a better life.
Now if you don't live in Louisiana, you must have seen lots of images or stories about the swamps and bayous. What were the Acadians thinking when they spotted these? It sure must have looked some different from the forest and rivers and streams of Acadie. Acadie had bears, deers,moose. They did not have possums and many little animals that Louisiana had.
There were also many different birds not like the ones they had left behind. Of course we know that they had to survive so they had to get used to all these strange kinds of foods.
But what was their reactions to what was lurking in the swamps, the snakes? Is that what I meant? No, I meant something much bigger and even more dangerous that lurked just beneath the water. Sometimes you would think it was a log floating on the water. I am sure many of the Acadians lost their lives to these reptiles. Yes reptiles and meaning the Alligators.
Now they have Alligator farming, but back then it was quite different. The Acadians probably learned a lot from the people that were there before them. Just like the Acadians had learned from the Native Americans that were there before them. These were all forms of survival, meaning that they had to learn many new things in order to survive.
Now I have added some Alligator products with some funny sayings on them in my store.
I have one in my Acadian/Cajun folder of Thibodeaux and Boudreaux. And in my Animal folder there is another folder called reptiles, there you will see my latest products.
I also want to add that I had made some Acadian and some Cajun calendars, they are on sale until December 5 at 10 % off each. These calendars have names of our first Acadian Ancestors for each month. You can check them out at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor* Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by , I do hope you will do so again.
Have a great day
Aline

ADDICTED TO WHAT?

Hello and welcome to my blog, today I would like to talk about an addiction. Addict means to apply habitually. It is something that you have a hard time to shake, you need it , you crave it. It keeps you from sleeping, it controls your mind. It sometimes makes a wreck out of you. It interfers with your housework. It is so habit forming. There are so many addictions out there, but I have the worst one, there is no known cure for mine. So I have decided to accept my addiction. Because of my addiction one day while my addiction was overpowering me, I had put in a couple of eggs to boil and would you believe the water had to evaporate and so this had to take me away from my addiction because I heard a loud explosion, yep my eggs had busted what a mess. They say that you cannot burn anything if you boil it. Not so! I know I've been there done that , and done it again and again. Then we have to go to restaurants and I don't like that because it keeps me from my addiction. OH I just realized because of one addiction I have developed another one. OH NO! I hope it doesn't lead to a third addiction, two addictions are all that I can handle..Have you guessed my addictions yet? Why are you smiling? Oh you guessed it? Well I can tell you first of all I AM ADDICTED TO GENEALOGY sob sob, no known cure, and because of my first addiction I AM NOW ADDICTED TO INTERNET....Please keep me in your thoughts and hope I can survive my addictions. grin....I am so happy I could bring a smile to your faces........
On another note, I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Next comes Christmas, some of my members have joined in a gift exchange this year again,which is nice. I have my tree standing in the living room not decorated yet, I shall do that next week. I have done some shopping because this year is very special for me, we are having my son and his family join us for dinner.
My acadianrootsclub genealogy group is growing all the time, I am pleased that I created petiteacadienne in order for people to join so that I can invite them to my main group which is set to private and I cannot reverse it. Our chat n brag room is also doing great , there we are like one big family sharing with each others either stories or photos or idle chit chat.
My zazzle store is growing , this week I have added stuff with antique cars on them, mugs with antique cars, shirts ,postcards and more, I also added a lot of baby outfits with baby first names, If you happen to go , the cars are in my Transportation folders, and check out my other folders, acadian,cajun, babies, animals, surnames, there are many items to look through. If you need stocking stuffers there are different keychains there. You can view them at the bottom of this page if you want to or go to www.zazzle.com/allicor*
I am having lots of fun with that.
Until next time, take care and thanks for the lovely visit
Have a great day
Aline

Just Imagine if

Imagine if there was such a thing as a time machine and we could go back in time, to the times of our ancestors and be able to watch how they lived?
What would we see? We probably would see the women hard at work either at home making meals and weaving and knitting and sewing or out in the fields helping their husbands.
The men would either be preparing their hay for the harsh cold winters by putting the hay in their barns ,or they would be out hunting for wild game to feed their families, or fishing for food. But after the work was finished what would they be doing? After a hard days work, maybe they sang songs? Or maybe they told stories? It would be so good to be able to know how they lived so we could return from our time machine and write all these things down.
What about the children? They surely must have had time to play. What did they do to play? What kind of toys would the parents have made them? Maybe they went out and played with the animals or perhaps played some sort of games together. Maybe they did some exploring and let their imaginations run wild.
When night time arrived, they would probably have gone to bed early, or listened to their parents tell stories by the fireplace or by the candle lights.
There must have been a lot of laughter at times in their homes, and other times a lot of heartbreaks. Oh yes, if only we could go back in time for just a little while, what a lot of things we would be able to see.
Did our ancestors dance? Did they play music,or travel to their neighbors house sometimes far away to listen to the music and maybe sing or dance?
Can you imagine our ancestors dancing something like a square dance ,while laughing and being happy for a little while? And what about when their daughters got married? Did they party? Did they make a Chavary back then? Imagine if only we could travel back in time. Would the children be peaking around the corner watching the dancing and listening to the music all interested? Or would they be in their beds in a sound sleep. All these things run through my mind, and I often think what a wonderful thing it would have been if some of our ancestors would have left us a diary of some sort, so that we would have known them so much better. Imagine too, the hardships that they had, they were living in the woods, well cleared but still surrounded by the forest, can you imagine the mosquitos, black flies, horse flies, sometimes they must have been bitten some bad, and I imagine that is why we read that they had their faces covered with ashes to prevent the mosquito bikes. Imagine if they could talk to us, what a story they could tell.
On another note next week is Thankgiving for some of you readers,I would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving day, and also to my cousin Eve and her family.
Now I want to add that I have been adding stuff to my Zazzle Store, and the latest ones are in my First Name Folder and my Birthday folder, so check it out, I also noted my prices were awful high so I have fixed that too. I shall be adding more as i go along. You can just go window shop if you want to at www.zazzle.com/allicor* or check at the bottom of this page and enjoy

have a great day
Aline

Acadian Life

I would like to share some parts of a book called A Land Discord Always by Charles D Mahaffie JR. I have only begun reading it and so far I find it to be quite interesting.
Here is a part I like:
To the people ,the long lasting Mathieu de Goutin was probably more important that the governors.Resolution of disputes is a governmental function that few societies can do without, and for twenty two years Goutin was their chief clerk and judge. His decisions could be overruled in Quebec but Quebec was far away, and de Goutin's judgement was usually final. Too,he married Jeanne Thibodeau daughter of an unusually prolific Acadian family, and in one way or another, he was probably related to a significant number of the litigants who appeared before him. Who ,after all would quarrel with Uncle Mathieu? There were less formal systems of justice as well. During Villebon's time, the Minas and Chignecto settlers elected panels to settle aruguments over farm boundaries, stray cows etc. And parish priests served as arbiters,often with the last word on any subject. Indeed they could if they wanted to brandish the ultimate sanction. It was a brave man would chance having the sanctions withheld.
Acadians lived simply but for that time they lived well. Pork was a favorite usually cooked with turnips and cabbage to make soups or stews. There was plenty of grain for making bread, fruit, vegetables, and milk were abundant. Maple sugar was a luxury, and another was beer brewed from firs and spruce branches boiled with molasses. They sewed,knitted,weaved,tanned.
According to Diereville he would bring a nice Bordeaux wine during his stays and found the food not unpleasant. Diereville said the following .
"There's nothing which they cannot do;
And by a hundred different needs inspired,
They make the things they lack; their wool
Is fashioned into Clothing,Caps and Socks,
They are no way distinguished by new styles,
And still wear hooded Capes; their Shoes
Of Elk and Seal skin are flat-soled
And made for comfort. From their flax
Linen is also woven, and thus by
Their industry, their nakedness is veiled."
There were things the Acadians wanted and could not produce themselves, such as guns, fancy textiles,modern tools or even something to make their homebrew more potent . They were suppose to get this stuff from France, but instead they got it from New England.
The book goes on , and is very interesting. So if you are interesed in reading the book , check online to see if there are some available , or check your library to see if they have them there.
Now changing the subject, I am getting ready for the coming holiday season, I got a little tree, since I am having company over this Christmas and I am very excited. I need to take out my decorations to see what I have and what I will need. Then comes the shopping.
Our genealogy group is doing very well, we help others if and when we can, everyone pitches in who can help. I am very proud of all my members, and our Chat n brag room is doing fine, it is a private group by invite only and it is something like Facebook but private. I am still on Facebook, and started my Williams dit Bristol group, our members have now reached 32, that is not bad for just a few days .Now there are Lirettes who branch into the Williams, there are Cormier, there Dambroise, there are Gautreaus,Myers, and many others. The hard thing is trying to find out which one descends from Mathurin. If you read this blog and you descend from Mathurin Williams dit Bristol anywhere in your line, I hope you will come to facebook and look for Williams dit Bristol group and join us.
So thanks for the lovely visit, I do hope you will stop by again, you never know what my next blog will be about.
Have a great day
Aline

Williams Dit Bristol

Mathurin Guillaume Williams dit Bristol. Who was he? Where did he come from?
Well according to legend, he was suppose to have been a young boy ,perhaps a cabin boy and he jumped ship when it docked at Cocagne New Brunswick. He was said to have hid in a hayloft and was found by one of the founders of Cocagne Joseph Gueguen, who asked him what his name was. This young boy could not speak any french but Joseph Gueguen was well educated and could speak english.
The young lad said his name was William and he came from Bristol. So Joseph Gueguen adopted the young lad and gave him the name Mathurin named after a missionary, and then Guillaume french for William and Bristol because he came from Bristol England. Hence the name Mathurin Guillaume Williams dit Bristol.
Now Mathurin married Angelique Gauthier around 1790 and had five children:
Agnes who married Hubert Lirette, Jean Baptiste married Madeleine Helene Bellefontaine, Elie married twice first to Adelaide Lirette then to Henriette Fournier, Thomas married Marie Surette,Joseph married Madeleine Boucher.
Mathurin Guillaume Williams dit Bristol died in Memramcook in 1829. Some of his descendants took the surname Bristol and others took the name of Williams.
What happened to all the descendants? I know there were some who went to the USA, there were some in Maine and Massachussetts,some were in Connecticut and I am sure other states, some probably went to other parts of Canada and some stayed in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I often wondered what I could do to try and bring this family together.And yesterday an idea came to me, why not start a group and call it Williams dit Bristol, and then let the news out for anyone who connects to Mathurin Guillaume Williams dit Bristol and Angelique Saindon, and when we are enough to share photos and stories with one another. So I have created a group on Facebook called Williams dit Bristol. If any of you readers have a connection to this couple, I do hope you will consider joining our group.At the moment we are 19 members ,not bad for one day.
On another note, tomorrow is Remembrance Day, I do hope you will take a moment to remember our fallen soldiers and all the ones who came back and say a little prayer for them. Lest we forget.
Thank you for the lovely visit, do stop by again and if you know of any descendants of Mathurin please let them know about the new group on facebook. You can access Facebook by going to www.facebook.com sign up , its free and find my group.
Have a great day
Aline

Acadians in Rumford Maine

In the 19th and 20th century people from New Brunswick ,Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia left their homes in search of better jobs.

And Rumford Maine was the target of many of these folks.
Rumford is situated in western Maine. The Adroscoggin River runs about 11 miles from west to east through the town.

In 1886 according to BB Russell, Rumford had three saw mills, a shovel handle factory ,a grist mill, a cheese and starch factory. It was also the home of the Oxford Paper Mill later changed to Mead Westvaco. Now this was a place to go to find work for the Acadians and French Canadians. In the 1910 census I did a fast search and I noticed some of the following surnames and I did not do the entire census. I saw some Blanchard, Boudreau, Trembley, Boulanger, Gallant, Perry,Poirier,Cormier,Legere,Deveau,LeBlanc,Myers,Mallet,Gagnon,Bourgeois,Boucher,
Richard,LeBel,Bergeron,

Soucy,Surette,Casey,Martin,Babineau,Landry,Desroches,Daigle, and there were plenty more surnames. The people in the photo above are left to right Dorothy Martin Bernard,Lorraine Robichaud Legere,Hazel LeBlanc Hodgkins and Robert Daigle and they have done something so very nice and special. They had been working on their project for a whole year. They raised money through fundraisers and decided to put the money to good use. They wanted the Acadians who went to their River valley to be remembered. Since many Acadians did settle there and many worked for the Oxford Paper Mill in Rumford so they decided to have a placque made in their honor.The placque is now mounted on a rock near the Rumford Public Library. The ceremony was held Oct 31 2009. The Rumford town Manager Carlos Pouiia gave a speech. His mother was an Arsenault. The president of the Mexico Historical Society Bob Daigle gave a short speech on the Acadians. Terry Richard who's mother was a Richard and her husband was Dr Ed Martin the founder of the Acadian Heritage Society in the Rumford-Mexico area said that it was important to remember the Acadian families that populated their valley in its early days and that the dedication of the placque in their honor was a great thing.Lorraine Legere read a poem she wrote called A Tribute to the Acadians in the River Valley. Refreshments were served in the library and an old video of an old Acadian Heritage meeting which featured remembering Christmas in PEI in 1890.

So to Dorothy, Lorraine,Hazel and Robert I say to you, congratulation on a project so well done. That placque will be seen over and over again and parents can tell their children about their Acadian Ancestors.
Thank you all four for allowing me to post this on my blog and to share with all my readers.

Have a great day

Thanks for the visit

Aline

Like Mother like Daughter

When I sit and talk with Mom, I never know what I will learn. This morning I went for my daily visit and we were talking about all sorts of things. I began by talking about the chances we took when I was young and I did not know the danger. We used to go to the National Park and to get there we would go over and under some boxcars. There were many of them all side by side. Now we did not know that they used to shunt those boxcars ,we could have been seriously hurt. Mom jumped in the conversation and said yes when I was newly married I went with my brothers in law and they climbed the boxcar and Mom said so did I. I was a tomboy she continued. Then I began laughing because I too was a tomboy when I was young and I was very hard on my clothes, a tear here and a hole there, dirt here .I said to Mom. "Mom were you hard on your clothes too?" Mom replied " I was always dressed nice, and yes I would rip my clothes. " I replied "AHA, now I know who I take after. grin. We both laughed.
Now Mom also shared with me things that just might interest some of you. She said when she was young, a couple could not live together unless they were married. And if a girl got pregnant Oh that was something terrible, the neighbors could not know that the daughter got pregnant. So Mom said the Mother would start wearing loose dresses, and pretend she was pregnant and the daughter was never to be seen during all that time. Then all of a sudden the mother had a new baby boy or baby girl. How exciting. Now I imagine some of you have come across that the daughter is really the grandaughter, because if you check the ages sometimes the mother is pretty old to have a baby. Mom also mentioned that if a woman had a mental child or handicap child, that child was always out of sight.
Mom said everything was always a secret , or hush hush. Shhhh don't tell anyone!
On another note, I have been busy creating mugs in my store , I have added a lot of our first ancestors and some of the wives . I even made a mug for the Steeves who were Stiefs . I have mostly our Acadian Ancestors at the moment ,but my mind is always thinking of something. You can go to my store and click on Surnames folder or url it will take you to the mugs and surnames by going to www.zazzle.com/allicor* or at the bottom of this blog you will see a slide show you can also go to the store that way. You don't have to buy, just have a look , I am sort of proud of my idea. You can also leave me a comment if you go there to let me know if you like my idea or not?
So until next time have a great day, thanks for the lovely visit.
Aline

Got a taste who what our Ancestors went through

Well it is true I got a taste of what some of our ancestors went through. It began last night around ten pm. I was minding my own business, really involved in adding some cemetery transcriptions on my website ,when poof, off goes my computer, and I was in the middle of putting all the names on my page. Oh no! I lost everything? Sob sob. (so I thought). Wonder what happened? Oh well, the power must have gone off, but we still had lights. Then no computer but the television was still on. So onto the sofa we went. Oh a good story. All of a sudden POOF , no television ,no lights and it was pitch black, and I mean pitch black. Where are my flashlights? Oh I have a spotlight, here it is. Where is the on button? I cannot find it. Oh never mind I will go get the other flashlight. So here I am in pitch black darkness, feeling where I am going, in front of the sofa, now to find the wall in the hallway, oh there it is, now there is an open door I have to pass, there it is. Now where is the closet door knob? I felt and found it.
So no lights at all. I opened the door to the hallway outside, pitch black. Now I felt as if I was back in the sixteen hundreds, with no lights, only darkness. I am only glad we did not have an outhouse. Clumsy as I am I dread thinking what would have happened had I had to go out to it. grin. The power was off until around noon today, I believe lightning may have hit a transformer, because last night it was very very windy. And we heard thunder. Another thing we had those portable phones, and they are plugged into the wall socket so no phone. Guess where we went today? To walmart and we got a corded phone, now if the power goes off again we will at least have a phone working.
I hope you had a much better day than we did. grin.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
Aline

HALLOWEEN

Tonight there will be ghosts and goblins everywhere. So before I begin my story, please drive safely tonight, the kids sometimes dart in front of you to hurry to get to the house across the street. Some have hard time seeing with their masks. I personally believe masks should be avoided and do a face painting. It is safer. I mean to trick or treat. At parties , masks are fine.
Now my mind is going back to some Halloween's fun I had when I was younger.
I remember wearing my father's clothes and leaving home with a pillow case. We were usually three or four of us and no matter what the weather was like, it was exciting going to houses that we knew the folks and they not knowing us. We would walk and it seemed like forever. Oh let's go there, there are other children there and they are giving out something. Oh it's fudge! I love fudge. ( the fudge never made it back home I ate it along the way). By the time I got back home, my pillow case was full. We had tons of apples but today I am leary of the apples, there are some unsavory characters out there these days. It was safe back in my time, today it isn't. That is a shame because Halloween was for the children to enjoy and a lot of it has been taken away. When my son was growing up, I went out with him, he was older when he went on his own.
I think the parents going out with their children is also a good thing.
Now I want to share a story and I may have told it before, it is about my late husband Gerry.
He was a good sport and one Halloween we decided to go to a Halloween party at our local club, we used to go there often with our group of friends. So Gerry got dressed up like a hockey player, picture it, he was a small man. At the door, someone said " I think I know that person, there is something about him but they did not say who they thought it was. So it came time to be judged and Gerry and I pranced around that floor, walk, walk, walk, all of a sudden Gerry stops, takes out his hankie (back then there were no Kleenex) and he blows his nose. All of a sudden the ENTIRE hall yells "GERRYYYYY) , grin. That was something you would always see Gerry do is blow his nose. We sure got a laugh that time.
Aww Memories are great. I remember another Halloween we got dressed up as Cave people, we were two couples, and we went to a second hand shop, bought some old fur coats, and my friend sewed the costumes we got some long wigs, a plastic bat, buck teeth and we all looked great, we had a good time that night and one of our party won for the funniest costume or best one, I am not sure. Last night we stopped in at a dance and some were dressed up and how I longed to be one of them, it is the kid in us I guess. I do hope you all have a great time tonight.
Happy Halloween Everyone
Aline

Soldiers who died and more

Hello everyone, first of all as you know Remembrance Day is drawing near and on that day we should all remember the men and women who gave their lives or fought in the wars for their country. I have been sent some cemtery photos for Gardner Massachussetts, which I have a lot to add on my website, but I decided to separate the soldiers on my page this time. So I have added all the ones I have so far on my Gardner MA cemetery page. Some were in the the two wars ,some in Vietnam ,and Korea. Some received medals, there is one who received the purple heart. So please check them out on my website at www.acadian-roots.com .
Now changing the subject, have you ever wondered why you cannot find a certain son of daughter of some of your ancestors? Well last week I was contacted by a lady out west who came across my website and found her great grandfather Onesime's obituary. Now her grandfather ,the son of Onesime did not stay in New Brunswick, he first went to the USA ,then he did like many young men did, he went out west. He stopped in Ontario, married twice and had a big family. This lady who shared all this with me, sent me some photos of her grandfather and of her great great grandparents. Onesime Gautreau and Bibienne Bourque. I was curious to know more, so I checked and found Onesime had a son Amedee, a daughter Melande and Wilfred, I came across a marriage of an Onesime son of Onesime and Bibienne marrying in St Paul but I haven't found his birth so far. But what I really wanted to say was that we lose track of people, because they move, or go where the work is. This lady shared with me stories about her father being a journalist and he wrote articles in various newspapers. Her grandfather worked for the railroad . All nice little tidbits to have. And to end this, there are two of her lines who branches into mine, a Cormier and a Landry line that I have found so far.
Now I would also like to add something about my website that I forgot to mention,I have a little support my site sign ,with a little pig , you click on the writing not on the pig and I in turn give you a gift . This is not an obligation it is a choice.
Thank you for the lovely visit, and please stop by again soon.
Aline

Acadian Pierre

I want to share this little poem I came across in a book I found at a used store. The book is New Brunswick Stories ,it used to be a school book I believe. Hope you enjoy this little poem.

Pierre was a young Acadian lad,

He was ot very good ,and not very bad.

A little like you; but he was alive

In sixteen hundred and nine-five,

Poor Pierre

Perhaps his home was in Miramichi,

Nepisiguit,or Shepody;

I'm not quite sure, but this is true;

He hadn't a home like you-- or you,

Poor Pierre

There was never ice-cream on his plate,

He hadn't a ski or a roller skate:

He didn't drop in at a movie show---

there was no such place in the world to go

Poor Pierre

But Piere had an old, old Indian friend,

Who showed him the kind of wood to bend

And bind, and lace with deer-hide strips:

So he made snowshoes for wintry trips.

Clever Pierre

And Pierre could paddle a bark canoe,

All alone, like the Indians do;

And he knew the birds and trees by name,

And animal tracks, and stalking game

Wise Pierre

And Pierre was as happy as any lad,

With all the wonderful things he had.

In sixteen hundred and ninety five

He was one of the happiest boy alive.

Lucky Pierre

I couldn't let this little poem slip by without sharing it with all of you. Now this would be nice to read to your children or grandchildren, maybe as a bedtime story? There is no author to this poem but whoever he was, I am very impressed, and the book mentions Jessie I Lawson and Jean MacCallum Sweet and the book was for use in schools.So possibly they were the authors of the books, I wonder if they were the authors of the little poems too?

Now changing the subject, I am working at adding more names to a cemetery on my acadian-roots.com website. A friend has sent me a DVD with lots of tombstones, so since I am doing this by myself it takes me a while to copy the names on all the stones with the dates and then alphabetilize them on my website.

I will keep you posted when I am finished. I still have more names to add to my Chartersville Cemetery, again another project to do and these take time to do.

My genealogy group is going very well, we have folks from all over as members, some from Louisiana, USA,Canada,England, so if any of you would like to join us you can come to petiteacadienne URL on the sidebar and I shall invite you to our main group from there. We are a friendly group which I intend on keeping it so, and they are all ready and willing to help others if and when they can.

Thank you for the lovely visit

Have a great day

Aline

Acadian Transportation

Have you ever wondered how our ancestors travelled from Acadie to Lower Canada? Lower Canada being Quebec. Well again I am reading a book called the Road to Canada, and it is quite interesting. During the French period, the main route ran between Riviere du Loup Quebec and Fort Beausejour. The secondary routes led towards Old Mission Point,on the Bay of Chaleur,the forts at the mouth of the St John River,Prince Edward Island,Cape Breton, and Port Royal.
When the first people arrived in what is called New Brunswick today between 6000 and 10000 years ago they found a system of interlocking rivers that was well suited for transportation. The central feature was the St John River. Rising in the northern part of Maine, the St John River flowed around 725 kilometres to the Fundy Bay with very little obstacles. The first obstacle was the Reversing falls at the mouth of the river ,which could be used at high tide or bypassed using a portage.There were rapids at Meductic, so the only other obstacle was at Grand Falls where the St John River plunged 22 metres and rushed through a two kilometres gorge, they also used a portage there. Then once the rapids at the mouth of the Madawaska River at Edmundston were passed the way was clear up the Madawaska to Lake Temiscouata. Then two series of rivers and lakes led to Trois Pistole on the St Lawrence River.Later a portage road was cut from Cabano to give a direct route to St Andre and Riviere du Loup. All total the route from Riviere du Loup to St John was approximately 515 kilometres where 435 kilometres was by water.
The natives of the region built birch bark canoes and were ideally suited for the travelling.
When the french explored arrived in the 17th century four main groups of Native people lived along this system. Archaeological evidence show that this route was used for trading,hunting,fishing and war. At that time probably the french traders, missionaries or travellers used that route.
Joseph Robineau de Villebon commander of Acadie kept a daily journal . He arrived in Acadie in 1690 to find that Port Royal was captured by an expedition led by sir William Phipps. Villebon went to Fort Jemseg and explained the situation to the natives and acadian settlers there.
He then went to Quebec on this same route (called the Communication Route) then on to France. That is the first mention of the Acadians using that route, not necessary that it was the first time, but Villebon's journal mentions the route in his journals. Phipps had also captured supply ships in Port Royal and some of those supplies were meant for the native american, so Villebon arranged for more supplies to be sent to the natives from Quebec. This was the first recorded mention of supplies being moved on this route from Quebec to Acadie.
Now all the while that I am typing this, I am also imagining it being so. I can see the natives going up and down the rivers, and the trappers, and hunters, and Acadians.
Later on the Loyalists made use of this same route and how many others did too?
Now changing the subject, did you notice at the bottom of this page I have a store I created? I made two different Acadian Calendars, and one Cajun Calendar. The cajun calendar is green with an alligator on the front, the Acadians ones are red and blue. Now that Christmas is just around the corner, I hurried and made different things that may be nice to give your friends or family.
If you cannot see the store at the bottom, go to www.zazzle.com/allicor .
As soon as I have more ideas, I will add more stuff.
So thank you for the lovely visit, do stop by again.
have a great day
Aline
I hope you enjoyed todays blog. I have been wanting to do this one for a while now.

On a Mission

Well this morning we awoke around eight oclock, we had something so very important to.
What does the weather say? Overcast, oh no! We don't want rain today.
The plan was to go to Mom's and leave from there for our Mission. I live a few doors over so it didn't take us long to go. We were to meet around ten o'clock. Oh here comes one of my sisters, and a brother. My youngest sister phoned, she will meet us there. That is good. Now two more brothers to go. Oh another one is meeting us there also. One more brother to go and we can go on our Mission. We phoned and he is going to pick up one of my brothers, Mom is driving with us. We are all set to leave. We put Mom's walker in my brother's truck and Mom in my car.
So off we went. The leaves on the trees were beautiful colors as we drove . Some orange, yellow mixed with the greens. Lovely scenery. And so far, still no rain. That is fine. I hope my brother remembered to take the shovel and a measuring tape. Oh Mom said he had them in his truck. Whew. Arriving at our destination, I noticed my youngest sister already there, and there is another brother. That is great. So we all arrived a few minutes behind each other.
So now Mom decided she wanted to walk without her walker, so I walked beside her so she would not lose her balance . The grass was nice and green, and walking along a path, on each side of the path were tombstones, some white crosses, some black tombstones, even saw some crosses my grandfather made so very long ago. Finally we all arrived at our destination.
My brother began digging a hole , we needed it a little over four inches deep, and then he laid some gravel on the bottom . Our mission was nearly done. We laid a lovely placque down in the hole, took many photos ,cleaned the stone off. We laid a stone down for my Dad and seeing he is buried with his grandparents who both had no stones, we had their names added on the stone.
After we were done and took our photos, all my siblings, Mom and myself, it began to sprinkle a little bit and we said. There Dad is cleaning off his stone. A very nice feeling for all of us.
Dad waited five years for this. Mission Accomplished.
Have a great day
Aline

Acadian Roots

Have you ever stopped and thought about, back in the times of our ancestors how did they do this and why did they do that? Since I have been reading about my ancestors and everyone else's I have come across some interesting stuff.
How did they light up their homes back then? They did not have electricity, nor lamps for a long while. It sure must have been some dark during the night times. Picture yourself, in the woods, surrounded by trees with no lights on around ten o'clock in the evening. It sure would have been scary to me. Imagine, just pitch black and you hear the sounds of animals out there. A coyote, wolves. BRRR. So what did some of our ancestors do? Well many of them had fireplaces in the middle of a room, that would heat up their homes which usually were one room houses with everyone sleeping in one corner of the room, the kitchen also in the same room. So the fireplaces would heat up the house and plus, it would give them some lighting. So they would probably read if they read by the fireplace, or knit and sew by the fireplace.
Now in Sainte Anne de Kent, they would put Codfish oil in a saucer they they would soak a rag or a piece of wool into it and they would light the end of the rag or yarn which would give them a little bit of light. Many times instead of using a saucer they would use half of a turnip with the inside all cleaned out, and they would sometimes use a piece of lard and light it and this would be a better light than the one I mentioned before. Sometimes they would take the turnip and make two holes ,one big enough to scoop out the turnip and another small one, then they poured the fish oil inside with a wick and light the wick and voila, there was light. We have to aknowledge that our ancestors were survivors, they made something out of nothing.
Now totally changing the subject but yet still regarding our ancestors. I have created a 2010 calendar called Acadian Roots Calendar 2010. On the page of each month I have added one of our acadian ancestors, and just a little bit about them. I have added the following names for this first calendar and I am preparing another calendar with different names.The following are in this calendar: Pierre Arsenault, Michel Boudreau, Robert Cormier, Jean Doiron, Francois Gautreau, Michel Hache dit Gallant,Michel Forest,Daniel LeBlanc, Barnabe Martin,Etienne Robichaud and Pierre Surette. You can find the calendar at www.zazzle.com/allicor , or you can go to the bottom of this page and you will see my store and the calendar and I created the cover in a pretty blue.
Thank you for stopping by
Have a great day
Aline.

What was something nice that happened?

Well I will repeat the same story as I posted a long while ago. I was doing research at the genealogy center one day a long while ago. I was sifting through land records and deeds, and Regis Brun who is a historian and a very nice man, asked me what I was looking for. I told him "My parents lived in Gallagher Ridge they told me, and in order for them to keep the land ,they had to clear so many acres, and my Dad and Mom did so. So I wanted some written proof of all this. Regis Brun looked at me and said, "what year would that have been?" I replied, I would say in the late 1930s. He replied , well we have an old movie taken around that time, and we cannot identify the people in it. Would you look at it? I said "sure but I doubt if I will recognize anyone. So Regis Brun and Ronnie Gilles LeBlanc took me in the back room and Ronnie set up the movie for me to watch. Well when I saw these faces, some of them looked so familiar to me. And there was this young woman, I thought was beautiful. Anyway I said , I don't recognize anyone but my Mom might. And while we looked at the movie, there was this cow at the window of a log cabin. We all laughed at seeing it. Before I continue, when I told Mom about the movie and the location, I had not mentioned the cow, she said to me, we were the only ones there with a cow, and that cow would come to our bedroom window and mooo, and Dad would say 'she's calling me, gotta get up.". Anyway Ronnie Gilles LeBlanc came with me and we picked up Mom and my brother, and back to the genealogy center we went. Well ! My Mom has a very good memory , at the time she was around 85 and she started naming some of the people, the old lady was my father's grandmother, and the beautiful lady that I first notice was my Mom, around the age of 17 , can you imagine the feeling I got when I seen her walking in the movie? And then there was this man, that we saw briefly, it was my Dad he was around 21 years old.

The best thing that happened was that Ronnie Gilles LeBlanc and Regis Brun had the movie transferred to a DVD and they gave it to me, who in turned had a copy done for all my brothers and sisters. So I will always remember Regis Brun and Ronnie Gilles for giving me such a treasure. My parents in a movie long before I was born.

Have a great day everyone

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Aline

Acadian Ancestors and This and That

Transportation in Sainte Anne Kent County was probably like many other new villages in the times of our ancestors. They had no roads so they travelled through path's in the woods or by boat up and down the rivers by canoes or Dores. The folks from Sainte Anne would travel via the rivers to attend Mass in Bouctouche or Richibouto Village. And when they travelled through the small beaten paths in the woods, they would do so by horse and wagon and in the spring they would get stuck in the mud and mire and can you imagine the times that they had? Some of the men laid down logs or pressed them into the mud in order not to sink any deeper. According to one of the elders , the men would travel though the woods or by water as far as Memramcook to meet the ladies. To them it was an everyday way of living. . In the winter times they would use snow shoes made of animal hides on the snow so that they would be able to stay on top of the snow and not sink in. The other day I was visiting Mom and they showed this native american making snowshoes and Mom said to me "My Dad used to make those, and he would make a small pair for my mother because her feet were so small. "She continued saying he would lace them up with the rawhide and then wet the rawhide and it would shrink and make the snowshoe stronger. It is so interesting to me, just listening to stories about long ago or reading about it.
Because our ancestors did a lot of those things that is talked about.
Now on another note, I have added more names from the 1940 Obituaries in the Evangeline French Paper which I translated to English on my website at www.acadian-roots.com Click on Evangeline obituaries. I have also added a new page on Genealogy Resources, if you are looking for a webhost, or for anti virus software or genealogy software of any kind or genealogy links check out my Genealogy Resources while you are at acadian-roots. Some of the links are subcriptions and some are free.
Well a few days ago I bought an exterior hard drive and I decided to save some of my information so that I don't lose them. Anyway I am not too smart on this part so I wanted to save my files on Acadian-Roots, so I downloaded a program called Zilla and I fiddled around until I found a way to download my files from Acadian-Roots, if you have ever been there you will see I have a huge photo gallery along with my site. Anyway my tranfers started, and it kept going and going and going , I saw these files being transferred, 1000, 2000 ,3000, Wow 'What is being downloaded anyway?" Well would you believe it also downloaded every photo that is on my photo gallery? I have over 6000 files transferred or saved. WOW. That is a lot of files. So now if ever my computer crashes I have all that stuff on an exterior hard drive.
I would suggest if you have a lot of things on your PC that you do not want to lose, to buy an exterior hard drive, you can get different amount of Gigabytes, mine has 320 GB. Should last me a while huh?
I would also like to mention that this week Petit Francois will announce the winners of the contest he is running, and if you want to enter for the month of October, send him an email with your name address email and mention Acadian-Roots or acadianroots in your email to
ptitfrancois@yahoo.com

Thanks for the visit do stop by again.
Have a great day
Aline

Sainte Anne Kent County New Brunswick

Do you have ancestors who lived in Sainte Anne de Kent at one time or another? A few days ago, I went to a second hand store looking for books for my friend who was in the hospital. While browsing through the books , I decided to go look at the french books, and to my surprise, I saw a book on Sainte Anne de Kent by Anselme Chiasson and Arthur Poirier. Of course I picked it up right away to add to my book collection.
The pioneers of Sainte Anne came from Memramcook New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Minoudie, and elsewhere. They settled on vacant lands that later on the acquired. It is hard to pinpoint an exact time when they began settling there but there were some settlers before 1800. Some names of the first settlers according to land grants. Before 1900 Sainte Anne village included Caissie Village, St Martin,St Gregoire, St Francois and St Gabriel. Usually the families would live on the land for a long time before applying for land grants. And many times a group would apply for land grants and divide the land between them.
In 1805 in Caissie Village we find Jean Pitre, Simon and Laurent Richard,Sylvain and Laurent Babineau. In 1815 in Caissie Village we find Antonin Boucher,Josue, Olivier and Pierre Caissie, Dominique and Placide Richard and Charles Maillet. Fidele and Raphael Caissie got their lands in 1821. Other names who settle in and near Sainte Anne including Choqpish were Simon B Richard, Simon and Celestin Maillet,Laurent and Belonie Leblanc they were in Chocpish. In Saint Edouard we find Felix Leblanc and Moise Bastarache.
There were also english settlers such as Michael Harris the first english settler in Sainte Anne. He arrived in Richiboucto from Ireland. Later a young man from Escuminac named Martin Nowlan came to work for Mister Harris. Martin Nowlan married Polonie Robichaud of Bouctouche and had three sons. In nearby St Pierre we find Ken ,Neil, Norman Bowman and Archie McIntosh,Jim and Isaac Carter,Roberts, Johnsons, John Butler, Elliot McDonald and John McDonald. Maxime, Lucas and Charles Daigle later arrived in St Pierre. And then five brothers Maxime, Andre,Thomas,Jude et Dominique Boudreau arrived from Beaumont New Brunswick.
The first pioneer of St Gregoire was Gregoire Richard ,the one from St Francois. Lamand Maillet came from Memramcook. Honore Caissie was the first one of Belair later St Raphael ,Honore came from Richiboucto Village. Later followed by brothers Calixte and Amable LeBlanc.
Saint Maurice was named after Maurice Arsenault who came from the Cap Pele area and was from Prince Edward Island. Pierre, Louis and Olivier Savoie later settled in Saint Maurice. St Oliver was founded by Maillets and Allains from St Norbert. Au fond de la Baie was founded by Edward Jaillet who left his name is St Edouard. The Jaillets were Swiss Huguenots. Arriving in Memramcook with a friend Armand Surette he converted to the Catholic Faith. Perry Road had Pierre Perry from PEI as the first settler. In 1900 Sainte Anne and St Pierre amalgamated bringing the population up from 70 families to 90. In 1985 Sainte Anne's numbers rose to 400 families with a population of 1500 people.
The pioneers of Sainte Anne did not bring a fortune with them only courage and hope of a better future. First of all the men came mostly through the paths in the woods and on foot.They came from as far as Minoudie,Prince Edward Island , Memramcook and surrounding villages. On their way they would stop and rest at the homes of Acadians in Bouctouche and Cocagne. All they took for belongings were a pouch of flour, probably rope, a musket and an ax. The first arrivers would take land near the water and brooks in order to be near water for drinking and bathing and also for fishing.
They chopped down trees ,pulled out the tree stumps and cleared their land. Then they built their home , they built log cabins and insulated them with Moss. Then the men went and got their families. Can you imagine the courage of these women, leaving their homes to go to live in the wilderness. But they were going to land that would belong to them, they would not have to work for Desbarres of Minoudin and Memramcook. They wanted their own homes and land. In the beginning they had no matches so the native americans taught them how to make a fire by rubbing stones together or two sticks together.
In the book I am reading it says that they would take a turnip and take all the inside of it out, then add some cod fish oil inside and a wick and light it and have lights so they could see. Then they learned to make candles. Imagine being there and having to really work hard and to do without lots of things that we have today. But these pioneers were determined to make a better life for themselves and their families. They cleared their land and built homes. They hunted and fished for food, and gardened and picked berries and so on. They had to endure our harsh winters. We are so so very lucky, don't you agree?
Have a great day
Aline

What is Genealogy?

Definition of Genealogy is "descent traced continuously from ancestor,study of pedigree. To me it is so much more. It is a hobby, it is a challenge, it is keeping a part of our history from being lost. It is about knowing who we are and where we come from. It is exciting at times, especially if we find out some of our ancestors were important or even if they were scoundrels. No matter what we find we should always remember, we are here because of them. A very important thing to remember , because of them, we continue to live and have children who have children and so on. Today I went to the genealogy center as I quite often have done since the bug hit me in 1976. When I go , I feel right at home and I can relax among the old records and microfilms and censuses. The time goes by so very fast that I am always dissappointed that I have to stop what I am doing and leave. Today I looked for some obits and information that was asked of me to find, no luck today, but tomorrow is another day. I also worked on obituaries to add on my website, I have copied the obits for January, Feb, March ,April and May , so when I return I shall do the month of June. It takes a lot of time to do the obits, since many obits are hard to read so I can only add what I can read. But even if I add just one or two names, those names may be very important to someone else who is doing genealogy. A sister, a brother, a location, a date , one of these has to help someone out there. So I keep on doing them hoping that my efforts are worthwhile. And when I go to the genealogy center, I know a lot of people there, some who have worked there for a long time, some who are doing genealogy just like I am. And it is alway nice to hear Hello Aline how are you? Or like today someone said "What are you working on now?" Obituaries I replied. grin. So when you hear the word genealogy remember what I have written in today's blog. It is more than tracing our ancestors it can be very frustrating , or dissappointing or exciting and for me it is just plain FUN. Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
Aline

Peddlers, how many of you remember?

Peddlers were people who would pass the houses to sell their wares. Most of the times they were strangers. A lot of the times the people would be glad to see them, it would save them a trip to town or to the store. In the book of Saint Mary is a sentence regarding peddlers "It would be easier for them to find a job than sell from door to door. "In the book it also mentions in 1905 or around 1905 some villagers remembered a man going from door to door with a bear all dressed up and he would perform and they would donate money. Also some peddlers sold hooked rugs from door to door, another sold pots n pans, another sold clothes, and some native americans would go door to door to sell their beautiful baskets.

A certain Michel Caissie would travel door to door on his bicycle to sell lottery tickets, combs,and whatever he could sell. This Michel weighed around 200 pounds and he would stay over whenever the villagers invited him in.

Some sold religious things such as statues, crucifix,image and so on.

The peddlers that I remember were the ones who came by my home and sold all sorts of fish and shellfish, (boy their trucks sure stunk)grin. I also remember someone coming by selling pots and pans and silverware. Mom bought some of those. I remember Watkins dealers coming to our home, Mom used to buy their medicated ointment and their fruit drinks and spices. My mother in law once told me that during the Depression she would go pick oysters, shuck them ,put them in bottles and go sell them door to door. I myself remember picking blueberries and going door to door selling them for ten cents a quart. I worked hard for those ten cents. grin. And I remember selling door to door for Regal's. Especially during the Christmas Season. My sister sold for Avon. Do you remember the milkman came to the door,or the ice man used to bring big blocks of ice for our ice box?

We sure have come a long way since then, now we have internet, and deliveries, so we pick up the phone order our Pizza and poof it has arrived. But again maybe they too are peddlers, did they not come to my door with the Pizza? grin.

Then we had the photographer with the pony coming by to take photos of the kids. I think everyone or nearly everyone has a photo of someone on a pony.

These are all part of our past, if you enjoy reading today's blog,think about your great grandchildren reading about peddlers of our times. I think later on down the road all these little stories we share will be appreciated and enjoyed by someone. I personally feel that memories are to be shared ,photos are to be shared, our history is to be shared and most of all our life should be shared while we are still able to think ,to write,to talk, now is that time to do it. For our descendants some of whom we will never know, but they will have a piece of us to remember.

Thanks for the visit, do stop by again .

Have a great day

Aline