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
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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.
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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

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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
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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
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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
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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.

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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
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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
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