Good morning, the sun is shining, the rain has stopped. So I am in the mood to do more genealogy, grin. Speaking of genealogy, I must share this with you because I feel it may be important to many of you. Lucie has told me, she now has images of the tombstones of Shediac, Haute Aboujagane, St.Anselme, Barachois and Pre D'en Haut.Now this is a great thing. I know I want to go and look at the Barachois cemetery, I had walked through it but never jotted anything down.Also Lucie said she should soon be having more cemeteries such as Memramcook, which I am anxious to browse through. So be sure to check out her site, I really believe she has a great site. http://www.acadian-home.org . Well done Lucie.
On another note, I shall be adding the old Shediac Road Cemetery on my website which is located on the Lewisville Road in Moncton, it is an old cemetery, used before the Chartersville Cemetery, they have since stopped burying there.
Now changing the subject, as you know Christmas will soon be here, so what can you ask for as a gift? Why not ask for stuff for genealogy? you can now order many censuses , or genealogy related books. And for you to make someone happy on Christmas morning, why not buy a toy for a boy and a toy for a girl and drop it off to some organization? Even if they do not know who gave it to them, you will know you have brought joy and laughter to some child. Just a thought.
Have a great day
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Well another day has come and gone, so much to do and so little time. smile.
I would like to share something with you today, that may be of help to you later on. As you know I have met a long lost cousin, and some of her family, and at the moment we are getting to know each other day by day. It is so nice to be able to share .
Anyway when I first began my genealogy, I didn't have a clue how to go about it, so I began writing to various places, churches, relatives ,friends, genealogy societies. I would get clues from my mother, my aunts,and so on. Well there was only one great uncle left on my mother's side, his name was Larry. Now Larry was up in age. So yesterday I wanted to share one of his letters with my cousins, and I began reading it, he was 91 years old when he wrote it. On the letter he spoke about his family and cousins, his letter was so interesting I hadn't noticed that he gave me information that I had not noticed. For instance he told me he had an uncle and an aunt that I never knew existed. wow... He goes on to mention a little about each family. I am keeping this letter , to me it is important...He told me his great uncle died in PEI, hmmm another place to search. He also mentioned St.Bruno Quebec could he have meant St Bruno Van Buren? More to check out.
My point to you is, look at old letters from your relatives if your mother had any, or if your aunts or uncles have any. You never know what you will find in old letters.......Did your relatives move to the USA? Did your relatives go out west?
Where did the letter come from? Can you see the stamp on the envelope? These are all more clues to use in your genealogy research.
Do you now have relatives away? A grandparent? A great uncle or aunt? Maybe you could write to them, say hello and ask them questions about their family and do they have any information to share with you about their parents?
I hope I am making sense to you in my blog. Genealogy is like being a detective, and my moral is seek and you just may find.
Have a great day
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Hello and thank you for dropping in again, if you are new to my blogs,please come in make yourself at home. The sun is finally starting to show. We had lots of rain but I would really prefer rain to snow. I love to see snow on christmas eve. I find it adds magic to holidays. Then after the holidays, the snow can go away. grin.
Well I am having such a great time sharing with my new found cousins, I have so much I want them to know.Now my brother who also is into family history,is just as excited, if my cousins send me photos, I send them to my brother. He hasn't got all the photos yet, but we are going to go and have them finished together.
And this gives my mother information too, since my cousins are on her side of the family.
Now many of my mother's family lived in or near Saint Paul in Kent County at one time, that is where my mother told me so many stories of when she was little, that I passed on to my grandaughter, so I have decided to put my Saint Paul Cemetery transcriptions that I did on my website at acadian-roots.com , I am going to try and add some unmarked graves. I began my page last night, hope you like it.

On another note I am going to add this , just in case some descendents, or relatives may be reading this blog. I am looking for photos of the family of Lucien Bristol married to Anne Landry, they had a big family two of whom are Domithilde and Salome, then they had Paul, who had many kids, then Mary,and Betzabee, so if any of you out there have photos of any of these people,please let me know

And if you have descendents of Jacob aka Jake Williams and Osithe Leger who lived in Notre Dame and in Moncton, I would love photos of them, Jake is on my paternal side.

You can contact me by going to my website acadian-roots.com and go to the sidebar.....hope to hear from someone on these photos.

thank you
Have a great day.
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Two little boys, ages 8 and 10, are excessively mischievous.
They are always getting into trouble and their parents know all about it.
If any mischief occurs in their town, the two boys are probably involved. The boys' mother heard that a preacher in town had been successful
in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys.

The preacher agreed, but he asked to see them individually.

So the mother sent the 8 year old first, in the morning, with the older
boy to see the preacher in the afternoon. The preacher, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy
down and asked him sternly, "Do you know where God is, son?" The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open. So the preacher repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God?!" Again, the boy made no attempt to answer.

The preacher raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "Where is God?!" The boy screamed & bolted from the room, ran directly home & dove Into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?"

The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time."
"GOD is missing, and they think we did it!"





Hello everyone, thought that I would make you smile today, I found the above little joke very cute and I hope you do to.
We are having rain again, so now is the time to catch up on things I didn't get around to doing.
I was looking through my big big family tree book, and I noticed that it is getting very full, so I am going to buy another big binder and divide the book into two parts. As you know I recently connected with some distant cousins, and we are really going to town with exchanging info and photos. I am savoring every tidbit that they send me, and I believe they are doing the same. For having found each other to me it is opening another door in my genealogy search.
Now you may ask me, do you have a genealogy software? No, I do not, I did have one but I wasn't too impressed with it, but perhaps later I shall get the family tree maker. you see I started before computers, or before I knew about them, I wrote everything down by hand, I wrote to churches, in Quebec, in England, in the USA etc. I received many copies of Baptism and marriages. Now this is on different branches of my family. I have three huge binders full, and still finding more. I would really like to organize all my info and make a book. But for now I keep digging and writing it down. I know it is easier to have a program, but one day my grandson or grandaughter might say, my memere wrote all this down herself. And on the other hand maybe no one will understand my handwriting. smile.
I have added a few more names in my Margaree marriages, still have a few more to add. I am not sure if I told you, but for christmas I am giving my two grandchildren each a photo 8x10 of my great great grandparents. that would be ten generations for them.......... I am blessed with being to see a photo of my great grandparents, so if my grandchildren take care of those photos, maybe other generations will be able to enjoy the photos.To end todays blog I would like to say, Hi Eve and Cindy and Terry my new found cousins.
Have a great day
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Well, as I told you I made my grand debut in the movie black eyed dog, but don't ask for my autograph before you read this. grin. Last night we went to see the movie, that my brother, my nephew and I were in. It was shown at the crystal palace in Dieppe. So my friend and I sat down, my brother and his friend came in, my brother sat on one side of me, so we could try and identify each other.

The movie began, and we watched for local sites since it was filmed in Miramichi , Moncton and Hillborough.

The story centered around this waitress , and her family and friends, and surrounding it, was a murdererer at large. And Halloween was near so we were suppose to be in the Halloween scene. Of course when that scene came on screen, our eyes were glued to it. Oh this is where we were entering the hall. Nope couldn't see any of us, but of course that shot was a fast shot, now we are into the hall , and here comes the part that I walked behind the actor (yes the shot that my wig got caught in the workers tool belt) haha. Oh yesssssssss there I am walking by, like a shot of lighting, if you would blink your eyes at that moment I would be gone.But you do see me with my long wig . My brother was suppose to be in a shot playing pool but he wasnt there. But the storyline was quite interesting, so if ever that movie comes on DVD, I will pick it up for sure. I enjoyed my evening very much and I wanted to share it with you.... Guess I will have to wait for a bigger part to give you my autograph haha.

Well if you check out my website you will notice I have begun my Margaree marriages, I was going to put a photo of Margaree at the top, but I sort of think the bride and groom are cute and the page is regarding marriages. Hope you all like it.

Have a great day

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Hello , and welcome to my blog. I notice I have a bigger audience than I thought, so that must mean that some of blogs are not bad. smile.
Today it rained most of the day, so I decided to go to the genealogy center. I looked through some parish records that someone had asked me to look at.
Then I wondered what I should add now to my website, I had been asked to add different things, so today I extracted some marriages from the Margaree Nova Scotia parish records. There were lots of LeBlanc, Chiasson, in the records. Next I shall make my webpage and add the names on it. So for you who have ancestors in Margaree Nova Scotia, check to see when I add them.
On another note, I am not sure if I told you this or not, but a year ago, i was an extra in a movie called the black eyed dog. I was in a Halloween scene dressed as a witch. My brother and I were on the set at 730 am, and we stayed until nearly ten pm. I was in three scenes, the first one I was in I was sitting at a bar, and my cue was to walk across the room, which I had to do three times, one time my long wig got caught in a worker's tool belt. grin. Then another scene I was standing outside the hall (which is really our local legion) and talk to a few people while we were waiting to go into the dance. A police runs into the hall at the same time.
And the last scene was inside the hall and I am sitting near the stage and a policeman comes and makes a speech that a murderer is on the loose.
So guess what? Tomorrow the movie is playing in our theatre and I am going to see if there is a glimpse of my brother and I. If I am discovered I will give you my autograph . haha.......I really doubt if I will be seen but you never know. I will let you know in another blog (that is IF I am in the movie.) But it was so much fun when we were all in the hall waiting to be called to do our scene, everyone was having a great time, I knew a lot of the people because they were in my dance class. yes I took dancing lessons, and hope to return next fall. I took jiving which I have always wanted to do, and I took some cha cha but didn't stay . Now I want to go and learn the jive all over again. It is a good work out and it is a place to make friends.
Have a great day
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hello, nice to see you again.If this is your first time,make yourself at home, grab a coffee, tea, I have some soda or even hot chocolate.
I have been busy sorting out photos today. I have received so many new ones, of some of my relatives. It is so nice to put a face to names on paper is it not? I always seem to look for resemblances, does he look like my father,does she look like her grandaughter? As I have mentioned before, now is the time to collect these old photos, do you have kin that is in a senior home? Or a nursing home? Why don't you drop in for a visit? View their albums, ask them questions. And to add a few more words, make sure you have a system to identify your photos, years later some of your descendants won't have to ask "Who is she?".Notice the backgrounds in the photos. Where was the photo taken? Sometimes there are great stories behind a photo. For instance my grandfather Rosimond and Grandmother had a double wedding in 1915. Well they had their wedding photo taken with another couple who married at the same time. I had thought that the couple with them were their witnesses but my brother went to the church and found out who they were.
Regarding my website, I will keep adding new things as I find them. I have a few ideas on what to add next, but you will have to check off and on to see if and what I have done.
I would like to end this blog today by saying ,saturday is rememberance day, so it is time to remember all those men and women who fought and died in the wars, of the ones who fought and returned to their love ones too. They did it all for their country. And to you all the veterans " Thank You and God Bless You."
have a great day
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A picture is worth more than gold to me, and I want to share this with you, because two angels have been sent to me. Let me explain. About two years or so ago, I had posted on some message boards, asking if anyone had photos of my grandfather's sister and her family. I had totally forgotten I had posted. Yesterday, I received a reply to my post and it was from one of my distant cousins. What a wonderful surprise. She is the grandaughter of my grandfather's sister, and I am also in touch with her daughter. They have and are still sending me the pot of gold. Photos, and information of my ancestors and kin. Remember I showed you the photo of my great grandmother Domithilde Bristol? Well they have sent me a photo of her with some of her children, and she is much younger. They sent me photos of one of my mother's cousins that Mom used to write to all the time.I am going to make a calendar for my mother with her photo on it, and not tell my mom, so she will be very pleased. I in return am sending some info that I have and some photos that I have. My mother returns from a trip tomorrow, so I am going to share this with her. There are photos that are unknown, so maybe my mother can identify them. So now I have found some of my relatives that I am going to get to know better. I just wanted to share this with you, because I am so excited, and they are also excited. smile. Oh and they sent me lots of photos of my grandfather's sister and her husband and kids. What a great day I am having.
Have a great day
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Hello, well I am hoping your day is going fine. I have been into my photos, and I just saved them to a CD. Some of these photos are important to me, such as the one of me taken in my great grandmother's apple orchard that she started from seed. Another one is of my great grandfather's brother 's stone I stumbled upon while doing the Richiboucto Village Cemetery. He was the one who would go to the city with my great grandfather once a month, to buy their groceries and pay for them the following month. He later settled with his wife and most of his children in Gardner USA. But one of his daughters married a Richard and settled in Richiboucto Village, after his wife died my great grandfather's brother moved with his daughter . He died in 1944.He was born in Van Buren Maine in 1845, my great grandfather was born in Van Buren in 1846. So it is nice to have photos to go along with their stories.
I am still adding marriages to my PEI marriages. I have a few from Egmont Bay and Tignish, and more of Rustico. It is nice to see my website growing, and to know that some of you may benefit from my site. I keep trying to find information that is not already online and to add it, so that you will have lots more places to search and not always find the same information everywhere you go. So this is all for this time.
Have a great day
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http://alineskee-winterdiary.blogspot.com/

Yes this is the url to my winter blog, i hope you will bookmark it or add it to your favorites and drop in once in a while. I have a feeling that where I am living now will give me a lot of information to share with you regarding my winter.
Changing the subject, I have added a DNA link to my website, in case any of you are interested in DNA . I had never heard about DNA until a famous trial on Television talked about it. Honestly I did not understand one thing about it. All these words they were using were words I did not understand. But since then, I have heard a lot about Genealogy and DNA. And it opens up a whole new world. Through DNA the scientists can trace our ancestors way back. The DNA tests can sometimes tell you if you have other bloodlines such as Native American, Europeen, maybe even Anglo Saxon and so on. As you know in the past, many records of our ancestors were destroyed, either by looting and burning, or the parish churches burning, or court houses destroyed and possibly other reasons. So DNA opens a new door for Genealogy Researching.
My maternal lines goes back to Perrine Bourg born around 1626 married twice , first to Simon Pelletret and then to Rene Landry. I wonder how many of you descend from the same lady?
Something to think about.
Have a great day
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Today is a chilly day, this morning it was minus 2 with the wind chill factor. I have a feeling that I shall be telling you a lot of stuff about my winter days in my other winter blog.
I have added all the PEI marriages that I had extracted on my site. I shall be going to the genealogy center soon and look for marriages in Tignish, Egmont Bay and other villages on PEI.So I would suggest you check my website often to see when and what I have added. I added a new link , to the Northern New York American-Canadian genealogical Society. I have spoken via email to a lady who said she has Acadian Roots, and looked at my site, she was impressed, and is adding a link to her site.
I also want to mention that Lucy LeBlanc Consentino is working quite hard on her site also. She is adding information on Restigouche and Carleton, I believe she has finished Restigouche. So check her site often.
If you have any suggestions on what we both can add to our sites to help others, or what you would like to see on our sites regarding genealogy please send us an email. If you go to http://www.acadian-roots.com click on the photo, then on the sidebar you will see how to contact me.
I also have been to the New Brunswick Provincial Archives, they have added new stuff. One that I am impressed with, is Dan Johnson's vital statistics he had taken from various newspapers. He has since passed away, but the Archives have his books. I went and tried it, I looked for a surname first to see if it was listed, and yes there was a listing so I clicked on it, and lo and behold it had the short obit of my great great grandfather (who died in his bed in 1893 at the age of 84).
They also have some cemeteries listed, there are some catholic and some protestant ones. It is worth going to have a look.
Have a great day and Happy Hunting for your Roots.
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Hello, thank you for stopping by,I haven't posted in a few days , so I thought I would do so today. The weather is changing, evenings are getting cooler.There has been snow reported in Ontario and parts of the USA. Soon it will blanket my part of the country. So I decided to start a winter blog, sort of like a diary, it will probably be very funny at times. I shall begin the posting the first part of November and I will give you the url later, I do hope you will come share my winter blog.
This morning I have finished drying my summer savory herbs and I put them in bottles. For the ones who do not know what summer savory or sariette is, well it grows like a bush, once it has flowered you pull the plants out and hang them upside down somewhere to dry.( I had mine in my computer room in the corner with some white paper on the floor in case some of the plant fell.) Today my plants were real dry so I stripped the dried leaves from the plants, crushed them and voila I now have some summer savory. I use it for chicken fricot, and for my turkey stuffings.
Now on to genealogy, yesterday I went to the genealogy center and I extracted some marriages from some PEI parish records. I am going to add them to my website, but some of the records were so hard to read, some of the records looked as if they had been chewed by mice so you get a word here and a word there.
I was having a nice conversation with Mister Stephen White and he told me that
the first records of Tignish were lost, there are no records before 1832.
So I will do my best to write them as correctly as I can, but you need to verify the information that I am adding for instance Drouin and O'Coin and Aucoin, the ones that I thought were Drouin could be Aucoin because the writing was hard to read. I shall add some marriages from Rustico and from Miscouche to begin with, and when I go to the genealogy center I will extract more when I can.I hope by adding these marriages , some of you will benefit.
Have a great day
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Well, it has been a while since I have posted so I decided I had better get busy.
We had a power black out a few days ago, no lights anywhere around where I live, and we took a drive into the nearest village, all was pitch black. The power was off for around 3 and one half hours. I returned home from the Bingo it was so dark, and I then had to find my candles. The two dogs were underfoot , while I was fumbling around, good thing I did not trip over them .(smile).But I found my candles . I am going to buy these little lights that look like a lantern but is run by batteries and have some around the house....
I am still working on my Minoudie Parish Index, I am now at the Melanson's so it is going fine.. I was thinking this morning, what could I add to my website, that others will find some of their information. Should I add Bathurst? Should I add Pokemouche? Even just adding the index gives you a clue to where your ancestors were. I would like to add something that others do not have in order for all of you to benefit.So I shall think about it some more.
Now I am also into the Christmas Spirit, on Christmas Eve all my siblings are meeting at my mother's home. She is now 88 years , so we want to be together. We are also exchanging names, so I know who I am buying for.
I would love so much to do something for someone to make them happy for Christmas, it would be nice to just buy something or fill a box with food and sneak up to a house, drop off the box in the middle of the night and run away, no names , no clues. Can you imagine how some faces would light up the next morning? Hmmmmm. it is an idea.Maybe some of you could do the same in your neighborhood.
I don't know if any of you remember reading or hearing about this couple who gets a gift every christmas about the 12 days of Christmas? They got a partridge in a pear tree, turtle doves etc. And they do not know who is sending the gifts. So the mystery goes on.
So now I hope you have a great day, I hope you find your missing links if you are into genealogy. See you next time.
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Hope you brought yourself something to drink, while you are visiting. Remember I told you I would post little tidbits I find in the paper once in a while? Well today i will post one, and then share another one of my stories with you.
This was in the Evangeline newspaper August 31 1886 page 3, column 3.
Translated:: Haute Aboujagane(NB);
At this same moment we hear of a terrible accident that happened in Haute Aboujagane, two horses harnessed to a hay wagon bolted. Mister Damien Bourque ran in front of the horses to stop them and he tripped and was seriously hurt. Three children who were in the wagon received light injuries. Doctor Belliveau arrived in no time and aided Mr. Bourque who suffered from a brain concussion.

On a lighter note: As I have mentioned in one of my blogs, I have made a story book for my grandaughter on the young days of my mother. So the other day, Mom said to me, "Did you tell her the story about the moose? " I said I am not sure, so I phoned my grandaughter and she replied no. So I made her another page to her story. Here is the story, but in her book I used different names and I told her who they really were.
One day after a snowstorm, my mother and her brother who lived in the country, overlooking a meadow looked outside through their window. The snow had formed a nice shiny crust. Looking towards the meadow, they spotted something that was caught in the crusty snow. So they put on their winter coats and hurried out to see. Well my mother's brother who was around11 or 12 at the time, was not afraid of anything, so he ran ahead, my mother following behind, and came to this big moose, it could not move fast since it would sink each step it took, so my mother's brother walked up to it, and jumped on its back, Mom said he never stayed on for very long, but he did end up on the back of the moose. I can picture this happening and how they would look , since I have photos of them at that age.
So as you can see, the children of long ago, had their own kind of fun. But this could have had a sad ending had that moose revolted or fell on my uncle, so I would strongly advise anyone out there don't try it......
Have a great day
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Hello again, I just noticed that this makes 100 posts. I didn't think I could think of so many things to say. (smile).
Well instead of thinking of the snow that will soon be here, I would like to share with you a little story that happened.
This happened a long time ago. My husband and I had a camp, next door to my sister-in-law. My brother in law had a sports boat, and we all decided to go for a sail . We went way out in the ocean, the weather was really hot, I remember I got this huge sunburn. Anyway we decided to try our luck at fishing, and it was the time that the Mackrel and the Cod were in full force. So we started jigging, and we started catching Cod. I am serious , we had the bottom of the sport boat full of Cod. The smell was something else haha. And the boat was a sport boat not a fishing boat. What a mess in the boat. So we went to shore and we bottled some Cod, and ate some Cod, and salted some Cod, and then we had to just give the rest away.... This was my first try at jigging and I really loved it, since there were no worms to put on the hooks haha...
On another note; I finished adding my Richibouto Village Cemetery to my site, now I am in the process of adding some names from the Minoudie Nova Scotia Parish Records Index Book. I am going to add some names taken at random for now, because there are lots and lots of names, I want to put all the Acadian surnames on my website, but I won't add all the children of each person.
So that way, maybe some of you will see a certain name and know that that is where they where....The records are from 1849 to 1918.....
Have a great day
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Hello, thank you for stopping by. I wanted to share this photo with you. This photo was taken yesterday. The weather was beautiful, it was a great day for going for a drive , and taking photos.A few blogs back, I showed you a photo of my great great grandmother Domithilde Williams dit Bristol, and I believe I also told you the story about her planting an apple orchard. Well yesterday , I decided to go see the apple orchard, which is planted near Saint Paul. I had my photo taken among the trees. If only she could see the fruit of her labor, she would be so pleased. I later phoned my mom, and told her that I was at the apple orchard and took photos. We counted the trees, well not exactly the correct total but there are at least 30 trees. My mother told me that Domithilde planted that orchard from apple seeds, she saw them come up ,but never lived to see them bear fruit. Notice how nicely they are spaced? It was a very good feeling standing there ,where my great grandmother had walked and worked. The orchard was planted in the field next to her house.

On another note, I finished the Cocagne Cemetery, and have now started the Richiboucto Village Cemetery, if you find some of your ancestors in the Cocagne Cemetery, perhaps I may have more info on them in my book,since I did not add the entire info on some . And I told you that I had did the names up until the 1980s in Richiboucto Village, well I noticed I have a few newer ones as I add them to my page. So I do hope some of you find someone you are looking for somewhere on my website.

Have a great day

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We are already in the middle of October, my time sure flies. I remember when I was a young girl and it was Halloween, the weather was always cold or rainy. I remember we used to put heavy clothing under our costumes. Then we would pass the houses for treats. I remember taking my son out to pass the houses, we would both dress up, I would wait for him at the road, then I remember taking my grandkids out. (Gee, I feel old) (smile). My grandaughter was always eager to go, but my grandson who was around 2 or 3 at the time would want to go home. Back during my time, we used to take pillow cases instead of bags and we would usually have them nearly full by the time we finished. It is not the same today, there are so many people out there who do not realize how dangerous it can be. Just a reminder that if your children go out, make sure you check their treats, I would not let them eat apples, or anything not sealed. I would not even let my kids go out alone .Many places have cancelled the passing of houses but they do make parties in community halls for the children.
On another subject, yesterday the weather was beautiful, and guess where I went again? Yep, back to the Richiboucto Village Cemetery. The Cemetery was divided in two, so I did the left side, which took me as far as the 1980s, I did all but three rows on the left side. I am very glad I did, it will give me more names for my website and it will probably benefit some of you. Then we went to see the old cemetery that now has a monument, but it was too muddy and wet , we could not enter. Although the weather was nice, you could feel the fall weather, nice but not really hot, and the mosquitos still greeted me, I was in a hurry to get as many names as I could before having to call it a day and I kept saying to the mosquitos, "leave me alone I am busy ". smile.
My cocagne cemetery obits in my website is coming along real good I am now at the Richard's, so soon I shall be finished. Then I start adding the ones from Richiboucto Village.
Have a great day
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Well for you living in Ontario ,Canada, I seen on the news that you have received some of that white stuff, the stuff that comes down looking like cotton balls, but are really snowflakes. Yes you have received some snow, and that means it soon will come my way.I have created a winter blog, which I will give you the url a bit later. I will begin doing it , in November. My aim is to make it funny at times and real at other times. I know it will bring smiles to your face when you begin reading it everyday. For the ones of you who do not have snow, this is a chance to read about it .
Well I am still working on my Cocagne Cemetery, I only do a few pages at a time, today I am up to the surname Goguen, and there are lots of them, seeing that one of the founders of Cocagne was Joseph Goguen. He is the one who is said to have adopted my Williams Dit Bristol ancestor.
The story is that a young cabin boy on a ship that landed in Cocagne or sailed near Cocagne jumped ship and hid in a hayloft. Joseph Goguen found him and the young lad could not speak french, so Joseph Goguen who could speak many languages asked him his name, the boy said William and he was from Bristol.
Joseph had him baptized by a missionary and gave him the name of Mathurin (for the missionary that baptized him) Guillaume (which is french for William) and Bristol for where he came from. Some of Mathurin's children later took the surname Williams, some took Bristol, some even took the name Bill.
My great grandfather was born Jacob Bristol, he married under the name Jake Williams. That sure was hard to find at the beginning of my research.
It would be a great find if we could trace Mathurin's ancestors in Bristol England.
All we have is either his first name was William or his last name was Williams.
Not much to go on.
So now I must go work on my Cocagne Cemetery a bit more.
Have a great day
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What a beautiful day, so how do you think I spent part of my day? Well I decided to go for a drive, but where to? Headed up towards Rexton New Brunswick, from there I decided to go towards Richiboucto Village. It is a lovely drive, the leaves are so gorgeous. I used to work in Richiboucto Village around 20 years ago, so as I was driving along, I noticed that not much had changed in that area. Arriving in the Village , I made my way to the church, and yes behind the beautiful church, guess what was there? Yes , a cemetery. Now there was no way I would walk away and not go into the cemetery. I had taken my book and pen along with me and my camera, just in case . So I began walking through the cemetery, it was a bit chilly but I looked at the stones, and I found the brother of my great grandfather. So I took a photo of his stone. next I took out my book and began jotting some names down. I copied around 150 or more names.I did not even do half the cemetery, but I did about one third of it. I began with the oldest stones, my some of the people died at a young age, 17, 22, 35 etc. I omited the young children, maybe I have a few but not many, in order to do more of the cemetery. Then it was getting chilly so I decided to quit and go home. I also noticed there were lots of Richard's in that cemetery .
I will add these names in my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com as soon as I can get my other projects finished so check out my site often to see when I am going to add the cemetery.
If every I get the chance to go that way again, I will copy more names.
On another note/ I opened my trunk earlier today, looking for something , and I came across a school picture of me when I was in grade 7 and age of 12. Now my grandaughter is in grade 7 and she is 12, so I have decided to give her the photo for christmas for her to keep , but you should see the picture. I have a cardigan sweater , it has a hole in the sleeve, it is buttoned the wrong way, that was very typical of me, I guess I was never a little lady back then, I was rough and tough haha.
Have a great day
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Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you are having a great day. I shall be going to dinner at a friends house today. The weather is so beautiful, the leaves are all in full colors of orange, yellow, reds and greens. Now is the time to take those fall photos. I have ordered my calendars, I picked the best photo from a group of photos I took. Calendars for christmas giving is a great idea. If you have a love one in a nursing home, a photo of yourself and your family on a calendar would certainly be a great gift to hang in their room or set on their bureau don't you agree?
Came across this tidbit in a book I have on Sainte Marie
Jean Baptiste Girouard son of Marin Girouard of Sainte Marie was known for his nervousness.When he was young he decided to go to the USA with his brother Olivier. On the boat he took in Saint John,he slept near the kitchen,and in the morning he heard someone sharpening their knives.They spoke english and Jean-Baptiste could not understand them since he spoke only french,so he imagined that they were going to do away with him. Olivier had a hard time trying to stop him from jumping overboard.His trip to the USA was short lived.
The english had put a scare in him so bad that when election time came and the english would enumerate, Jean Baptiste looked for a hiding place and found the ideal place, in the church steeple where the bell was.Father Ouellet who wanted to help him even made him a bed there.
Have a great day
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Hello , thank you for dropping by. The weather is getting colder, so I moved my bird feeders to the back of the house, where it is more sheltered. The bluejays are coming in large numbers. They love sunflower seeds. I fill two feeders up and in two days they are empty. But I love watching them, they are such a pretty bird.

I am still working on my cocagne cemetery, I have a long way to go, since there are so many stones. And I went to the genealogy center and I found some news from various villages .I am going to add them in my blogs once in a while. Here is the first one I am entering.
Meteghan Nova Scotia January 8 1920;

We have lifted the ice these last few days for our Buttery.The farmers have showed up very cold. And we have hope that this industry will double in size from last year. Mister Andre Robichaud has promised us that he will make good butter, and with the experience we know he has, we are certain he will not dissappoint us.
So brave farmers tend your cows, enlarge your herds and you will become rich.

Have a great day
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What a beautiful day it was yesterday, but we had rain overnight so today it is a big overcast. As you know there is going to be an Acadian World Meeting (Congres Mondial) held in Caraquet New Brunswick Canada in the year 2009. There will be Acadian Descendents coming from all over the world. If you decide to go, you will meet other Cormiers,LeBlanc,Arsenaults,etc. At the moment there are already meetings happening to organize the trips etc. I would suggest in booking your hotels motels camping areas etc about at least one year ahead not to be dissappointed. I am hoping that I can attend, I haven't gone to the others but my heart wanted to be there. While you are in Caraquet you can also see the Acadian Village (Village Acadienne) that is like stepping in the past, seeing how our ancestors lived. There will be lots of talk about the World Meeting in the months and years to come.
Now on another note, I am not sure if I have shared this story with you but here goes.
When my grandaughter was four years old, Barney was a very popular show, and she used to watch it regularly. So her birthday was coming and I decided to play Barney. I went to a party store , rented the Barney costume,including big shoes.
Now this was in the month of June. I got some helium balloons to take to the children that were attending and a special balloon with the number 4 on it.
I remember parking the car on the road , getting dressed near the car (it was a really hot day). So my daughter in law had the kids outside on the veranda. I walked up the pathway to the house, and I remember hearing the kids "Barney , there's Barney" and they were all so happy looking, Now I saw my grandaughter and she was looking at me, with a different look, she ran to her mother who picked her up. I gave everyone their balloons and we all went into the house,. My grandaughter began to cry,(did I ever feel bad) my son said "Honey it's only memere dresssed like Barney. So I slowly slipped out, went to the car and took off my costume, returned to the house. She was playing with the other children, she gets up, walks up to me and said" Memere , why did you pretend to be Barney?"
I replied "Because Memere wanted to make you happy". She replied Me don't want you to be Barney ,Memere ME happy already". I gave her a big hug and said Memere loves you.
This is something I treasure.
Have a great day.
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Today I went to return a book I had borrowed in Cocagne, at the same time I took some photos of the Cocagne Cemetery. The weather was perfect for taking photos.
So when I returned home, I decided to go out again and take more photos with all the fall colors. A friend of mine suggested I go to Bouctouche and she explained where to go. When I arrived there I was overwelmed with the beauty of all the trees and the walking paths and the benches to sit on.
Walking through the paths, I stumbled across an old cemetery, of course I could not go by and not go see. So into the cemetery I went. Some of the stones were very old, there were many different names, but the one that caught my eye was Irving.
And then I realized I was on the property of KC Irving. His homestead was converted into a park , of all kids of trees, there were chestnut trees, weeping willows, spruce , fir, rose bushes , flowers, maple trees and too many to mention.
There was even a little private chapel on the grounds. I had some photos taken of me among the trees, and I will have some calendars made for Christmas to give to my love ones.On my way home I stopped near a brook, and there also the view was breathtaken with all the colors of fall. I took a few more photos.
In ending I would like to say, that if ever you go to Bouctouche New Brunswick especially in the summer or fall, be sure to drop in to that beautiful garden of trees. I am certain to return there as often as I can.
Have a great day
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Well it has been a few days since I last posted so today I am going to talk about our ancestors again. First of all I just finished talking to my mother on the phone, I usually phone her to pick her brain (smile). Today I asked her how her mother made Lye Soap, since it was very popular back then. My mother told me that my grandmother used to buy the Lye already in tins or cans, and she melted the fat from the slaughtered hogs and made her lye soap, she had to let it harden and my mother said it was a very strong soap. Now I found an article regarding lye soap online and some exerts from the article said Lard was saved from the hog kill which usually took place at the time of the first hard frost in the fall. Lye was made from the ashes taken from the wood stoves, they would pour water over the ashes and siphon the liquid lye (so my grandmother took the easier way by buying it already done). To make the soap Lye and Lard were mixed together on an open fire and stirred for hours with a wooden spoon or stick , it was said that when the spoon or stick stuck straight up the soap was ready. Then the soap was put in a metal pan and allowed to dry and harden which sometimes took from 2 weeks to a month. Lye soap was used for everything from bathing to laundry to cleaning.
So now I am going to make a little story about Lye soap and my mother to give to my grandaughter to add to her Adventure Book that I have created for her.
On another note, I would like to add that I am adding the Cocagne New Brunswick Cemetery to my webpage, it will have the names of the person, either the parents or the spouse and the date of death. some dates are not available at the moment but as I get them I shall add them. If you find a name with the spouse and you need the parent's name , contact me and I may have their names also.
http://www.acadian-roots.com
have a great day
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It is raining today, so looking through some of my books, I found something I would like to share with you. Shoes? What did our acadian ancestors wear? What did they wear in the summer and in the winter? Well I read different articles. I learned that many of our ancestors were barefoot in the summer, some wore mocassins in the summer and in the winter they wore a higher boot type mocassin. I also read that the early Acadians used to wear their moccasins, in the summer and for dress up, and when they worked fixing their dykes, and on their boats they wore wooden shoes, (des sabots), These wooden shoes were made from the willow tree. Here is an exert from History and Acadian Traditions by Anselme Chiasson.
To prepare cut and sew shoes from hide was an art.The animal hide was stretched out on the floor,hair underneath,this was stretched as much as they could and nailed all around to dry out.Once dried the skin was scraped on both sides with a knife to remove the fat and hair. Then the hide was tanned by hand.In order to cut a shoe one had to place the foot on a piece of skin, the skin was then cut all around,2 inches from the foot,just enough so that the raised piece would make the height of the shoe. On the toe and the front of the foot a tongue was placed which was sewed all around the skin,while pleating it, it made a nice foot like the mocassins of today.The heel required a vertical seam and another horizontal seam. These hide shoes were comfortable indoors and outdoors.In the winter they made their mocassins a lot higher.They never used laces, but a pleat was made behind the calf and attached to the top with a string. Can you imagine the work in this, especially if you had a big family.
Have a great day
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Today I will tell you fishy stories (smile). I am certain everyone has some of those.
First of all, I have four brothers, two older than me and two younger ones. My oldest brother used to go fishing at a brook called Champ A Zeke, I remember that brook, I used to go there also as a young girl. One day my oldest brother decided to go fishing with some friends, and my younger brother who is but one year younger than me, decided he wanted to tag along. So off they went to fish, now in those days my brother did not have an up to date fishing pole, so he would throw in his line, wait a sec then pull it out again, to toss it further in the brook.This paticular toss, my young brother moved behind my older brother ,and when my older brother pulled the line back to throw it further , the hook caught my young brother in the ear lobe. No one could remove it, so they all returned to my parent's home with my young brother hooked to a fishing line.Then my parents took him to see the doctor and had the hook removed. Later at school , the teacher gave the students home work to do an essay on what they wanted to. So my brother made his essay and titled it " The biggest fish my brother ever caught".
Now another little story: My late husband used to go fishing in a river which was near a camp. The owner of the camp was a retired trackmaster, and the only way at the time to get to the camp was by Trolley, the trackmaster would pace his crossing according to the train schedule, since they had to cross a thistle,and I remember crossing it, the trees below were so small it seemed. Anyway this special trip, my husband and his friends decided to take their sons along. Now my son had never fished before and he was around ten years old.So they were fishing in the river but my son wasn't catching anything, so one of my husband's friend went behind a bush and took my son's hook out of the water and attached a fish to it. Well now my son had a bite, was he ever excited, so he pulled and he caught the big trout that he thought he really caught.We never told him for a long time what had happened because he was a very proud boy when he got home from his fishing trip.
have a great day
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Today was a beautiful day, so I went to a park in the city, it is called Centennial Park, it has a little island in the center of a pond. I went on the side of the park where there were lots of trees and picnic tables. I wanted to take a photo among the fall colors. But I think I shall return in a week or so when the fall colors are at their peak. I had a photo of me taken, with a few trees behind me. There were lots of ducks nearby. You could tell they were being fed, since they were not going anywhere, but soon the people will have to stop feeding them so they can fly south.
Now the reason I wanted a photo of me among the fall colors is because I want to have calendars made for Christmas to give as a gift to my family. I have been doing this for many years now. One year I had a calendar made of my grandchildren. Another year I had one made of my mother when she was 18months old.So this may be a idea you might like to try for the holidays? I have friends on line who live in Scotland, and I met them online around 7 years ago. One year I toured the city and took photos of where I lived, and sent them a 12 page calendar, they really enjoyed seeing Canada through my eyes.
Now as for genealogy, I finally finished adding my cemetery of Grande Digue New Brunswick in my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com There are many names listed, and also the names taken from a war memorial monument in the same cemetery.Now that that project is finished, I have to think about what to add next on my site. I know that there are many people coming into my site, and reading about my acadian words, and our recipes, and I am hoping many will come in and share some of their memories about their ancestors on our family memories forum.. I also would like to mention that Lucie LeBlanc Consentino has her own blog, I know she looks at mine and I drop in to read hers, I enjoy her blogs since she is a newbie at blogging and she is doing a super job, her blog is at http://acadian-ancestral-home.blogspot.com/ so I shall end on this note , keep reading our blogs, and a comment now and then would be nice, for both Lucie and I . Have a great day
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Looking through a book on Bouctouche I had loaned from the library, I came across the photo on the left of this little gothic church. For the ones of you who know Bouctouche, you should recognize the area, it is towards the Bouctouche Bay or Fond De La Baie in french, on the left you can see the old Bouctouche Convent which today is converted into a museum. Notice the road wasnt paved.

Now the church you see in the photo, was built around the late 1890s, notice the gothic design, I find it was very pretty. It was situated on the former property of Jacques Cormier who married Osite Pothier in 1770. They called this area Pointe a Jacquot (Jacquot Point).I don't know who Jacques passed the land to before the building of the church, I have not searched for that info yet. The church burned in 1921.So they decided to build a new church in the village of Bouctouche, the foundation for the new church was built in 1926. So for the ones who have ancestors born, married or died before 1921 this would be the church where their services were held.

I have a few ancestors who were in the Bouctouche area, so this gives me a sense of knowing a bit more of the past.My late husband's Cormier line came from Bouctouche, his line descends from Jacques Cormier and Osite Pothier.My grandmother's line descends from Amand Cormier brother of Jacques.

Hope you enjoyed today's blog. Have a great day

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First of all I want to share this joke I received with you.
Birth control thru the eyes of a child A six-year-old boy told his father he wanted to marry the little girl across the street. The father, being modern and well-schooled in handling children, hid his smile behind his hand. "That's a serious step," he said. "Have you thought it out completely?" "Yes," his young son answered. "We can spend one week in my room and the next in hers. It's right across the street, so I can run home if I get scared of the dark." "How about transportation?", the father asked. "I have my wagon, and we both have our tricycles," the little boy answered. The boy had an answer to every question the father raised. Finally, in exasperation, his dad asked, "What about babies? When you're married, you're liable to have babies, you know." "We've thought about that, too," the little boy replied. &nb sp; "We're not going to have babies. Every time she lays an egg, I'm going to step on it!"

smile.
Well I am still working on my Grand Digue Cemetery in my website, I am nearly all finished adding the names that were in the cemetery. I am hoping that through all my work that it will benefit someone. Yesterday I met someone I went to school with during my first 8th grades, and we were saying , it is good to share memories, and preserve them, he is collection old photos and going to donate them to the genealogy center, I think that is a great idea. Years from now, someone will know what our times were like , what their ancestors looked like. He created a book, with lots of photos of his family and stories and he gave them to all his siblings. I thought that was so nice and to some I am certain the book is very precious.
Last month I went to my grandson's birthday party and I created a storybook for him on his dog Fluffy because Fluffy is old and they nearly lost her, so I created the story as if I were Fluffy tell ing the story. And I had already given my grandaughter a book I made about my mother's adventures when she was little. My mother told me another little story so I made the page up and brought it along to the party. I gave it to my grandaughter and there were lots of her friends there, but she took the page, and ran upstairs with it to put it in her book. That made me feel so good. My daughter in law told me that she is really taking care of the book that her memere made for her.
Have a great day
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Hello, today I would like to share an old story with you that I found in the Moniteur Acadian, which is an old french newspaper. First of all I found a little tidbit about my ancestor Narcisse Chase, and it mentioned that the article was in the moniteur, it gave the page and the year.
So while I was at the Centre D'etude meeting Lucie, I browzed through the microfilm, to the date that I had. Well I found it, it was all in french so I am going to translate it for you the best that I can. The date was August 8 1879. (That was a long long time ago). Headline read
Terrible Tornado (Cyclone in french) in Bouctouche. (New Brunswick Canada).
Wednesday around 6 o'clock at night a thick cloud appeared in the south and headed towards the north. A storm was announced but the clouds continued their way and it seemed to pass us except for a rain that lasted only a few hours.Yesterday morning a dispatcher from Bouctouche put all our town in awe.The announcement was that the storm that passed here at six pm had struck there as a tornado.It struck the church, rectory and 80 homes, sweeping the normal harvest at sea, destroying part of the large bridge and killed four people. It was a disaster like nothing we have ever had on our shores. Our correspondents headed for the disaster area and returned with his report.
At Rivere des Hache Joseph LeBlanc =barn destroyed.Aime F Robichaud =barn destroyed.
Ls B Allain= Barn and House lifted and damaged. Anselme Leblanc =barn destroyed, David PH Cormier=house and barn completely destroyed and an abandoned house lifted.
Ls Denis Cormier =barn destroyed and one side of roof destroyed (this abandoned house belonged to MM Bourque. The 7 or 8 buildings of McAuley destroyed.Powell's tannery =crushed.
The new Bouctouche school built last year with desks costing more the $1200. destroyed.
Trees were uprooted. Roofs of the mill blown away.A brand new barn being built, destroyed.
Alexis Roy,his house, two barns and other buildings destroyed along with his equipment.
Jean-Baptiste Marin Girouard=house demolished. Narcisse Chase house totally swept away, All around him is a scene of debris some wood as deep as six feet in the earth.
Ls Meunier =barn destroyed. Simeon Allain =barn lifted and put back , kitchen swept away, house nearly crumbled.Anselme Allain =nice house newly finished last year, his old one and 2 barns completely destroyed.His trees uprooted. Philip Cormier=new house garage and barn destroyed. Meleme Cormier=barn destroyed ,kitchen damaged and part of his house destroyed.
Clement Cormier =barn destroyed. Francois Bastarache-barn and house levelled.
David Hubert Cormier= house and 2 barns completely destroyed.Olivier LeBlanc =barn destroyed.The ones who perished were the wife of Etienne Duplessis who was bedridden was found dead in the rubbles of her home, An indian lady Jeanne wife of Thadee Nicolas crushed by the chimeny Bricks, A child of Alexis Roy age 2 died. The injured were Alexis Roy in grave condition, Mrs Jean Baptiste M Girouard fractured skull, Narcisse Chase carried with the debris of his house received serious concussions along with his wife and two of his daughters.
Anselme Allain sick in bed was rescued from his home with cuts and bruises.A grandaughter of Philippe Cormier burned her foot on the stove.Two daughters of Thomas Ward broken legs.An indian widow of Marin Nicelas fractured skull,broked wrist, several fingers in serious condition,two young indians fractured arms,a child of Nita Girouard died.

Wasn't that terrible? So years ago there were tornadoes, hurricanes and bad storms. For the ones of you who's families mentioned above are your ancestors, save this article. Mention who your ancestors were, I have Narcisse Chase in my line he was my fathers great grandfather, he was married to Marie Martin.....
Have a great day.
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Well yesterday I went to the centre d'etude Acadienne to say goodbye to Lucie LeBlanc Consentino. When I arrived ,there were quite a few doing research. Lucie was looking at some records. We chatted a bit and decided to go to Fort Beausejour and to the Beaubassin site. Lucie told me each time she comes to New Brunswick she does her Fort Beausejour pilgrimage.

Arriving at Fort Beausejour, we looked over towards the water, the water was a rusty brown. It was very windy. Looking down from the Fort I thought to myself ,this is what the acadians at the fort probably saw as they looked out from the fort. Just to walk where our ancestors walked so many years ago is something I think very special.

Later we left Fort Beausejour and made our way to Fort Lawrence, formerly the village of Beaubassin. As you know Beaubassin was the first major settlement outside of Port Royal. That is where one of my ancestors Thomas a Robert Cormier settled, he became one of the most prosperous men in Beaubassin.

There is a monument erected in memory of the acadians who lived in Beaubassin, but the names are of the last acadians who were there, Thomas Cormier was not listed on the monument so he must not have been there at the time.

Beaubassin would be an ideal place to create a sort of replica of Beaubassin, something like the village acadien . People in old acadian costumes, some houses, church ,etc. It could be possible in the near future, as I am sure many of you would agree.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog.

Have a great day.

Last night we went to dinner at a lovely restarant called the CREEK, it was the first time I had gone. My friend and I arrived around 5.30 pm, the dinner was at 6 pm. We sat in the front near the bar, and waited for our party to arrive. The first ones to arrive were Francis LeBlanc and his wife Norma, so we chatted a bit, it was the first time I had met Norma, but I had met Francis at the CEA. I remember the first time I met him, he was working furiously on his laptop, and some researchers were asking him questions on the LeBlancs, so I at the time could not find what I was looking for, and I asked his help, he is a very nice person and a nice sense of humor. Norma also was very nice to chat with.
Next to arrive were Lucie LeBlanc Consentino and a friend of hers who came down with her named Marcel, now Marcel is a very nice man also, he was interesting to listen to, he also came down to do genealogy. And as for Lucie I don't have to tell any of you how nice she is, because you all know it. She was fun to be with. But that was not the only people at our dinner, because Lucie invited Stephen White and he accepted, and it was very nice having him with us.
Of course you must all know that the biggest part of our conversation was in some form of genealogy (smile). My friend asked each one of them how they got started in genealogy, and everyone had their own story it was very interesting to listen to.
As I listened to each of them tell their story, I could see the love for genealogy each one of them had. They are all totally addicted to it.
I even told them the story about the old film I saw at the CEA and about seeing a cow at a window of this old tar papered house, which turned out to me my parents house and their cow.
And how Ronnie Gilles made me a copy ,which in turn I copied and gave to all my siblings for a christmas present.
This was a very very nice night, I hope you like the photos above, of Lucie and I , and Stephen White and I.
Have a great day.
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Have you ever seen the TV sitcom the Beverly Hillbillies? Or have
you ever heard the song "come along and listen bout a man name Jed ? Have you seen Granny Clamplett?
Well it is said that we all have a lookalike somewhere. And I believe Granny Clampett has a
lookalike. The lady in the photo above is my great great grandmother Domthilde Williams dit Bristol.I find she does look a lot like Granny Clampett, what do you think? She was born around 1849 (according to the census) daughter of Lucien Bristol and Anne Landry, She married Ferdinand Bergeron D'Ambroise in Cap Pele on February 14 1871
(valentine day). They lived in different places , in Marshalltown NS, in Mattawonkey Maine, and finally settled near Saint Paul NB.
My mother told me that Domithilde lived next door to my mother, and she had lots of flowers around her house, plus her apple orchard, yes she is the one who planted the apple orchard that I told you about earlier. Mom told me that she used to have gooseberries near her farmhouse.
And every time she made preserves she would give some to my grandmother. There was a certain kind of berry that used to only make a small batch of jelly, and she would give a bottle to my grandmother to use as a treat when someone was sick in the family. It was her special remedy. I have in my possession some of Domithilde's old china, they are not in perfect condition, there are cracks here and there but to me they are worth a lot, since the china was used by her way back in the early 1900s. She died in 1929.
I had been trying to find Ferdinand's death, for a long time, would you believe since 1976? Well not too long ago, I finally found it, through the NB Provincial Archives, he died in 1933, my mother told me that after Domithilde died, he had dementia and used to travel among the neighbors with all his possessions, dishes etc. He died in the Shediac Hospice, but I do not know where he is buried, wish I did. Before he died they amputated both legs, wonder if he had diebetes? Hope you liked today's blog. Now I need to concentrate on tonight's dinner with Lucie and others.
Have a great day. Keep the comments coming, it gives me incentive to keep on going .
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I have been a busy lady lately, but that doesn't mean I have forgotten you reader. I have finally met Lucie LeBlanc Consentino.
Yesterday I awoke early and wondered what should I wear? Should I dress up? Or just be me, so I just went as my old self, jeans and a t shirt. Arriving at the center, I saw Mister White talking to a lady (I knew it was Lucie although I had never met her before).
So I went over and Mr White told her who I was. Then others were talking with her and I waited a while before we chatted. What a nice lady she is. I returned to the center today and Lucie arrived shortly after I did. She even took the time from her busy schedule to help me with my website. I had not added certain codes, and she found them.
So tomorrow we are all having dinner together at a restaurant, I told Lucie, I am getting my hair done and intend on taking photos . She said "sure".
While we were at the genealogy center (CEA) another lady was sitting there doing research, I had seen this lady there before , but took no notice of who she was. I found out yesterday that she was Zella Robichaud who has a website online, and I had received permission from her to add one of her census to my website. She too is a nice lady.
I spoke to Mister White, and gave him all the hello's I was asked to pass along to him. I always enjoy talking to Steve, yesterday we talked about when I first began my research, he remembered that it was my son who got me started and he told me I had come a long way, which is true, from 1976 when I first began to now, I sure learned a lot, and found a lot . I said to Steve (Mister White). I love what I do, I love genealogy and never get tired of it. There are always other avenues to look into with genealogy.......
Remember I told you I had transcribed the Grand Digue Cemetery? It is quite a large cemetery, well yesterday I was told that the old cemetery is being transcribed all the ones before 1900. I spoke to a Mister Leger who is in the project, he told me they would be putting the list on a CD. I sure hope I can get a copy of it when they are finished.
I have been given permission to add the Cocagne Cemetery on my website today, so that may be in the near future, if I do, I shall let you know.
A little footnote: I would love to hear from you to let me know if my blogs are interesting enough , if you like them, or if you have something to add on the subjects. Click reply or comments and let's chat.
Have a great day.

I was going to blog yesterday, but instead I decided to take a trip to Cap Pele. I wanted to find certain tombstones in the cemetery. Arriving at the church, the cemetery was not there, so I looked across the street and there it was. What a huge cemetery. I began walking through it, and there were lots of old stones. I found two Williams stones, one was Isaie and one was Madeleine. There were lots of Leger's, LeBlanc,Landrys. I looked for Bristol, never found one.
So then I decided to go to Barachois, found the cemetery, and I walked through it. Looking for Dupuis, never found one .
Next I decided to go back towards Cap Pele and try and find an old church and cemetery in Saint Andre, but I guess there was none.
I did find lots of mosquitos tho, here we are at the end of September and boy talk about mosquitos.
Now I want to try and get back up that way and check out the Shemogue Cemetery. Not sure when I will do that.
So as you can see I am keeping busy with my cemeteries, my website at
www.acadian-roots.com , my blog, my research.

Lucie arrives tonight, will be meeting her tomorrow.
Have a great day.

What could I talk about today? I was going to add my great grandmother's photo today, but I have decided to do it another time , so instead I picked up a book I have here on Saint Marie de Kent in New Brunswick written by Emery LeBlanc. I find it very interesting and I really wanted to see what it would say about a LeBlanc family ,since I am looking for an elusive lady.
Inside the book I came to a story I want to share with you, it is a humorous story.I shall translate it for you since it is all written in french.
Felix LeBlanc father of Jacques Leblanc always worked barefeet when he was out clearing his land. Boots were quite expensive during those days so he would use them as little as possible to make them last as long as he could. So when the weather was nice , he would go barefeet.So each day Felix would go work on his land barefoot. His wife would go with him.One day Felix twisted his foot, the pain was unbearable , he had a hard time to walk. His wife told him, Felix if you are not better tomorrow go to see the doctor in Bouctouche.Next day Felix could hardly walk, so he washed his sore foot as best he could ,he could not rub it since he was in so much pain nor could he scrub it.
Arriving in Bouctouche he showed his foot to Doctor Landry;
I think your problem is your foot is too dirty, said the doctor, I have never seen a foot so dirty.
Listen Doctor replied Felix, I work out clearing my land, and for your information my foot isn't that dirty, I have seen dirtier feet than that and the people walk just the same.
Doctor Landry continued, I am sure there is not another foot as dirty as this foot of yours.
Felix replied Do you want to bet five dollars?
Sure I will bet you five dollars said Doctor Landry.
Felix shows him his other unwashed foot and takes the five dollars .

have a great day.

Well today I woke up to a cool morning, and I decided to go to Grand Digue and do more on the cemetery. I left here around 7.45 am. I took the scenic route ,through Cocagne , then to Grand Digue. I drove in the cemetery road, it is just a dirt road, and I stopped my car near the row of stones I had to begin at. The row was from the monument to the back that you see on my webapge at http://www.acadian-roots.com in the cemetery Grand Digue on the sidebar .
I thought that I would have to return quite a few times to finish the cemetery. Well it was cool at when I first started, but the sun came out and it became quite warm. I worked steadily at copying the names on the stones, there were some made out of wood , and the writing was all eroded away. Working my way from one side to the other then from the other side on the next row to where I began, it was going very well. Later on I looked towards the back and I noticed I had but five more rows to do, So I decided that I would finish the cemetery. Arriving at the last stone, I thought to myself, I am finally finished. But looking at the cemetery I noticed that there are about 25 or so stones on a little hill nearby, but I think they are the latest ones that died .
So I shall return at a later time and complete that section, but the biggest part of the cemetery is finished. I shall add it to my webpage in hopes that it may help someone in their research.
Have a great day.

The nights are getting cooler , this morning we had a white frost. So many things I want to do before the snow flies. One project I want to finish is the Grand Digue Cemetery transcriptions. I live about a half hour drive away from the cemetery, and I have gone twice already. I now have 10 rows done. I am not half done yet.
Walking along the rows of tombstones, I see some sad things, one of the tombstones really touched me, all it said was the family of so and so died in a fire and the year. Another one there were two girls possibly best friends died in an accident. I wonder how some of our ancestors died? Did they die tragically?
A couple that I know very well, had three sons, one went to school with my son.
The one that went to school with my son,got married had a baby girl, and they lived in a trailer, it caught fire due to hot grease on the stove, they all perished, then one year later another one of their sons went to this swimming hole, and one of his friends got in trouble in the currents, he dove in to try and save his friend and he drowned. That family was devastated. I felt so bad for them, although when God calls us , we have to go.They were so young.
A song I hear a lot on the radio is very touching the name of it is If Tomorrow Never Comes.... Listen to the words to it, sure makes a lot of sense. We should maybe treat each day as it were our last and tell our love ones we love them .
Now on a happier note, soon I will be meeting Lucie, I am anxious to meet her, at first we will meet at the Centre d'Etude Acadienne, that is the ideal place to do so , since we both love genealogy. Then we have other plans, and I am hoping we take lots of photos. I shall be seeing Stephen White, I see him most of the times I go do research, he is a very interesting person. He takes time to talk with me or whoever approaches him, he has a tremendous memory. He is working on his second set of Dictionaire Genealogique des Familles Acadiennes , I would encourage all you genealogist and researchers out there to order your set as soon as the order forms are available, I know I plan on getting the set. I have his first 2 volumes and I won't be without them.
Have a great day.

Today I would like to chat about old photos that your parents may have. By looking at photos they can tell you stories about your relatives.

The lady on the left is my great grandmother's sister her name is Marie Williams dit Bristol.She was the daughter of Lucien Bristol and Anne Landry.

Notice her clothes, the long dress, or skirt and blouse, that was the acadian way of dressing back then. I find it very interesting .Now notice the tree, it looks like an apple tree to me. I wonder if this could be a tree planted by my great grandmother Domithilde? Perhaps it was.

My mother told me that her grandmother Domithilde Williams lived next door to Mom's family and she planted an apple orchard all by herself near Saint Paul. But Domithilde never lived to see the orchard bear fruit, she died in 1929.

I decided to go for a drive one day , my mother had told me where they once lived, and would you believe the apple orchard is still there? It is an abandoned apple orchard. But I have seen the orchard that was planted by my great grandmother .What a sight to see.

Do you have old photos? See if there are stories behind that photo, where was it taken? How old were they? Make some kind of scrapbook with the stories to go with the photos.... Another great project for you to do.

Have a great day.

What a lovely day, the sun is shining after a night of rain. It is a sight to behold, since we have had a lot of rain lately and cool nights. Looking out my window I notice the trees changing colors already, the maples are turning red and some other trees are a yellow and orange.
I love to go driving when the fall colors are here. Especially on an old dirt road that all you see along the side of the road are trees of different colors.That is when my digital camera comes in handy. My late husband and I once took a trip on the train from Moncton to Halifax in the fall and the scenery was breathtaking.
If we could look through our ancestors eyes, and see what they saw, I wonder what we would see? Would we see their children playing ? Would we see their garden growing? I am sure we would see a lot of tragedies during their times. My mother told me that when she was young , the neighbors helped each other, they helped build homes, barns, dig wells and much more. It would be nice if that were happening in our generation, but since times have changed that is not always possible is it?
Sometimes I look in old newspapers for articles written about my ancestors, little tidbits, and when I do find something it is very exciting. It gives me more information about them than I already had. I went to a funeral parlor one day and inquired about an obit of my grandfather, they found it, and I copied it, it said he died of Lupus, I did not know that , my mother told me he died of kidney disease, but when I looked up Lupus it is a disease of your organs. Now my nephew has the disease. So it is possible that he has it because of my grandfather having it.
Now I would just like to add a little more to this blog, I would be interested in your comments by answering here instead of sending me your comments by email. Someone else may enjoy your comments also. So please click the comment at the bottom of this page and let me know you are reading these and let me know if you like my blogs or have a comment to add..
Have a great day.

Today I went for a long drive with some friends. We decided to take some back roads, not knowing exactly where we would end . We saw cows grazing in the fields, saw some Jersey cows and some Holsteins.
I noticed old abandoned farms, and I wondered who would have lived there long ago. If those houses could talk , what a tale they would have to tell. Some of the houses in those back roads were large. So I figured they must have had big families back then.
And churches, we saw beautiful churches, one was a baptist church and it had four steeple on it. What a beautiful building.
Finally we came to this lovely brook that you see in the picture above. I took a few photos of the brook and my friend took the one of me at the brook. From the other angle I saw a little rapid running down. It was so peaceful, you could only hear the sound of the water gently flowing and the little birds chirping in the trees above. What a lovely day it was.
Now a little bit about genealogy and what would be a great idea for some of you. If you are just beginning your genealogy, and you have love ones in nursing homes, and who can remember a little about their youths, two good things could come from a visit from you to an aunt or uncle, or cousin, or grandmother etc one you could make them very happy to have a visit from you , and two you could bring a little notebook with you, start having them tell you stories about their past, ask them " Aunt Jane what was Grampy like? Was he tall? Did he smoke a pipe? Did Grandma tell you stories about when she was little? Can you tell me about them? Were any of your family born in the USA or CANADA? Questions like these can bring you much infomation to pass down to your children, through a book , a diary, CD or however you want to.
I remember when I worked in a nursing home, and there was this little old lady , who seemed so sad, and I noticed she had no visitors at all, and I mean none, so on my break I would drop in to see her, her name was Mrs Osanski and I would just go sit and talk with her, one day I asked her to sing me a song, she sang me a song of her motherland, and from then on I would just enter her room and she would smile and begin singing her same little song....Now had she been my aunt or relation, I would have jotted that song in a book and saved it and tell my children this was a song she always sang for me. I remember one song my grandmother used to sing. One day I went to her home, as I was climbing the stairs, I could smell brownies cooking and I could hear her sing the song "why do treat me as if I were only a friend" So each time I hear that song, I remember my grandmother.
Have a great day.

Thank you for the approval of my poem , this means that you are reading my blogs, and that encourages me to keep on blogging.
So today I shall talk about old acadian words, that I remember saying and I still do at times. Now Chiac is a form of acadian slang, it is very unique ,it is not perfect french, some of the language is part french , part english. Perhaps it was that way because in New Brunswick, the french and english got along very well, and in order for the french to talk with the english they had to learn a few words.
For example, " J'ai prit le canal et mon car a un flat tyre.J'assaie de haussez le car pour arranger mon tyre.. ( translation) I took the ditch, and my car has a flat tire, I am trying to raise the car to fix my tire.
"Mon pere va m'le bailler quand j'mon va. "My father is gonna give it to me when I get home." Some words we used to say were, Chicanner (scold), mon jeu " my god" guenille "rags" assayer "tried". These sound better when they are being said. It is a shame that lots of these words and saying are being cast aside for the modern french. I speak to some well educated people, who has the paris french for instance and my chiac stands out. To others I may seem odd, but to me that was the way I was brought up.
Where I live we have a golden age club, and every saturday they have a dance and a band, well when I began going there I was hipnotized to the music, it was mostly all acadian music, and there is one paticular song, I forget the name but some of the words were j'ai passer le speed limit , je connait pas ca la metric. " and the entire song was all Chiac.
To end this I want to share with you , since we are talking about language that
when my grandaughter was barely talking, maybe 2 or three? I took her to the pharmacy behind our home, It was a cold day, and I had her bundled up very nice and toasty warm. Walking through the snow towards the pharmacy, I began singing to her :Baby it's cold outside" Then she took over and started
"Baby brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr side......... haha........have a great day.

IF I COULD TALK
If I could talk , would you listen
If I could talk would you care
If I could tell you about my past
Could you imagine being there.
What if I told you I helped your kin
What if I told you his name was Tim
He had a brother who lived not far
In those days there were no cars.
I was on the wagon that special day
We left his home to make his hay
On our way we met his brother
He said come Tim it is our Mother
She is not well, she will not heal
And right now we need a Wheel
We only need it for a bit
Doctor Melanson is in the ditch.
Tim said no problem we are on our way
You can use my wheel anyday
The doctor made it there in time
Because of me Tim's mother's fine.
When you see a wheel like me
Ask yourself what did it see
Did it help my uncle Dan
Did it get stuck in the sand
If it could talk would you listen
If it could talk would you care.

composed by Aline Cormier

five minutes ago. (smile)

Memories, what are they? Well to me, they are things that are very important. They are what stories are made of. Long ago , when there were no radios nor televisions nor computers did our ancestors tell stories to their kids?
Well my mother told me that her aunt was a great storyteller, where did she get those stories? Maybe she added some of her memories into her stories. Whatever it was, my mother told me that my father used to go there along with others to listen to my great aunt. This leads me to memories again, my mother told me about her aunt.So these were my mother's memories.
My mother told me how she met my father, and how she was very young, and my father was nine years older. She told me that when they decided to marry, the priest would not marry her because of her age, she was barely 14. Can you imagine? So Mom told me how she would meet my father on a bridge nearby and make plans. They would take a train to Moncton and get married by a justice of the peace, so that day arrived and they did take a trip to Moncton and got married in a baptist church. They were married no matter what. But their marriage lasted a few days only when there was a knock on the door. It was the parish priest, he told my mother to go home, and told my father to go home too.
But my parents were determined to remain married, so the priest wrote to the Bishop asking permission to marry them Catholic, and the Bishop agreed and they were married in the Catholic Church. Mom says she has Two marriage certificat, and Dad would say, she is the only woman I married twice.
Now once my mother is gone, these memories had she not shared with me would be gone with her. My dad has passed away, he could not tell me..
Wouldn't it be nice if we had memories like these passed down by our ancestors? There is nothing I would like better to be able to travel back in time, and see how they lived, see their happy times, I am certain they must have had some good times.I wonder what their favorite foods were? Did they like music?
So to me I honestly believe that sharing your memories with someone is the way to go. If you have no one to share them with, make some kind of diary or book.One day someone will enjoy reading about us.And we will not just be a name and a date, we will have had been living persons who loved, cried, were hurt, laughed and had dreams...... Share your memories you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain in the end.
Have a great day.