Thursday, September 17, 2009

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

Saturday, September 12, 2009

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

Thursday, September 10, 2009

FUNERALS in 1933


Have you ever wondered about how funerals were held way back in the early 1900s? Well the photo on the left is of a funeral back in 1933. This was taken on Albert Street in Moncton. Where is the casket? Well if you look at the back of the buggy, you will notice a blanket draped over the casket. The casket held the body of my baby sister Loretta. My Mom is driving in the front next to the driver.This was in the month of December and they brought my little sister to the cemetery and they buried her then and there. There was no waiting for spring to arrive. My Mom and Dad tried in vain later to know where she was buried, they know approximately but never knew for sure, there were two babies buried on the same day. It is sad not knowing where our love ones are buried. Again, tombstones, crosses, plaques, markers are a must when our love ones die or perhaps years from now they will be forgotten.
Now why did I talk about Funerals? Well today I created a Children's Memorial Garden among my Memorial Garden on my website at www.acadian-roots.com ,
and the first little baby I have added is my sister Loretta. So stop by and say hello or even a little prayer . I do hope you like my memorial garden, I hope to add more names as I go along.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again one day soon.
Have a great day
Aline

Monday, September 07, 2009

SOLDIER'S COVE Cape Breton photo

These two young girls age around 13 or 14 lived in Soldiers Cove in Cape Breton NS. This photo was taken around 1928.
If you know them, please comment below this blog. They could possible be McLeods according to Mom. These two sisters were very close .
The reason we have this photo, is because my grandparents were in Soldier's Cove for a while . My grandfather worked there for a short while. My grandmother is the other one that you cannot see in the photo, she was pregnant for my aunt at the time.
On another note, I am not sure if I told you this before, but being on the Internet is sure great sometimes. I once told you I met a cousin a few years ago and we shared photos and stories and have been friends and in contact every since. Now a few days ago another distant cousin approached me. They are related through the sister of my great great grandmother. The sister moved to the USA ,married there and had eleven children. I am hoping that they can find some old photos to share with me and perhaps my great great grandparents may be among them.
Speaking of Old Photos, if you are on Facebook, check out Old Photos of New Brunswick, where I and others have posted a lot of photos. If you have old Photos of New Brunswick,such as Kent County,Westmorland County, of sceneries, of people, please come share them with us. By doing so, it might give others a chance to be able to see their ancestors. Remember , that the more we share our photos, the better chance of them surviving through the years. Some of us may lose our precious photos for numerous reasons, if we share, we have a chance of getting them back.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
Aline

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Petit Francois Contest and our Drive


First of all I will talk about our Saturday Drive. We decided to ask my Mom and brother if they would like to go for a drive somewhere, and yes they replied. So we left and headed for Bouctouche to get an ice cream. (Mom loves ice cream). We also stopped and bought some poutine rappee and some Rappure to bring home.
Then we decided to take Mom to see all the flowers and trees at the Irving park.
The weather was beautiful so we drove slowly through the park. We saw all these different kinds of trees, firs,spruce,weeping willows, maples, and then we saw a sign Elizabeth's Garden, so we went through the gate and we were among the flowers. Flowers of reds, yellows, whites. There were roses, carnations, black eyed susans, there were rock gardens and we can to the one in the photo above with the waterfalls. So very beautiful to see. We really enjoyed our day. Now what does Bouctouche have to do with Petit Francois? Well first of all P'tit Francois des Bois is a weekly article in the french paper L'Etoile. It is written by Everard Maillet and he has done a great job at writing little stories in French Chiac , and the story centers around Petit Francois who lives Au Fond de La Baie in Bouctouche and there is such a place as Au Fond de La Baie and the photo was taken at the park on the same road.I have added the articles on my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ and I have translated the stories to English, it may not be word for word but the story is the same. I had stopped for the summer months but had saved the articles and I have finished adding nine stories on my website. Also P'tit Francois has a contest going, it began the first of August and every month he will have a draw . The winner will receive a basket of soap from Oliver's Soap Ltd valued around fifty dollars and there will also be gift certificates valued at twenty five dollars. It doesn't matter where you live, they will mail the prize to you. The contest will run every month until Christmas, so if you don't win the month of September, enter again for October and so on.
Send an email to P'tit Francois with Contest in the subject line,
your name, mailing address, email and please mention acadianroots blog in your message to let him know you were here? His email is ptitfrancois@yahoo.com
Good luck everyone.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Obituaries from the French Evangeline Paper.

Why did I title this blog Obituaries from the French Evangeline Newspaper? Well as you know I do my genealogy research at the Centre D'Etude Acadienne at the University of Moncton. This genealogy center has a wealth of information. I have been going there since 1976 and I still don't know a quarter of what is there. When I was doing my own genealogy, I began looking through the French Evangeline Newspaper dating back to the late 1800s for anything I could find on my ancestors. Then I looked for obituaries for other folks that they had reqested.
When my late husband Gerry came down with Alzheimers and my time was limited , I could not leave him, I began cutting out all the acadian or french obituaries from the Moncton Times and Transcript. I would cut them out and paste them in a scrapbook.Why did I do that? I don't really know, all I know it kept me busy at home. I believe I did some from 1992 to 1995. I donated them to the Genealogy Center.
A few years ago, I decided to transcribe some obituaries from the Evangeline Newspaper, and since the genealogy center had up to 1931 indexed, I decided to do from 1935 on. I Did 1935,1936,1937,1938 and 1939. I had added them on a DVD, but decided on adding them on my site at www.acadian-roots.com also. I finished adding them last night. Now some of the obituaries are from so many different places, New Brunswick,Nova Scotia,Prince Edward Island, Maine, Massachussetts, Connecticut,Rhode Island ,New Hampshire,Quebec, Ontario,British Columbia, Alberta and more.There are around 1683 obituaries in all. I am hoping that by posting these obituaries I will be helping people from all over in finding their elusive ancestors.
Next I want to mention something else, on my webpages you will see a support my website and it will be posted on various pages, first of all, it was suggested to me that I add a support link on my website to help with the upkeep of my website and the travelling and the researching. It is not mandatory to do this. Even if no one does support my site, I will still keep on adding things to help others. Now I have added the url on various pages because sometimes people do not come into my website from the main page, some come in from doing a search in a search engine, so they come to the page they are looking for. So please do not worry if you see the little piggy or url on various pages ok?
Again getting back to my website, I want to also let you know very soon Petit Francois will be returning to my website. I have collected some of the articles which I shall soon be adding and translating into English.I will add an icon next to Petit Francois in the sidebar to let you know I have begun adding the articles again.
I have received good responses about my translations, so watch for the return of P'tit Francois.
Thank you for the lovely visit, do stop by again, and be sure to check out the new Obituaries on my website. You never know who you will find.
Have a great day
Aline