In the old acadian houses there were chairs. They were wooden chairs made by our acadian ancestors.The following exherts and photo are from an article by Dr Ivan H Crowell in the Societe Historique acadienne book." One of the needs in the homes of our early settlers was chairs. The Acadians built chairs with the same simple tools that they used in building their houses. Where they got their designs is not known ,but it is suspected that they might have come from ecclesiastical sources in their homeland. These skilful pioneer recalling what they had seen, built chairs which over the years had developed certain variations, yet has remained a distinct style.Four variations of the Acadian style are recognized . In the first two, the parts are made by simple edged tools such as the axe, draw knife and spoke shave.It is very easy to see the marks of these simple tools on chairs in these groups.In the Acadian chair there are no nails, or screws or glue holding them together, they are held by pegs. The early Acadians used two to four kinds of wood in their chair, Birch,Maple,Pine and Ash were the most popular.The Acadian Chairs were painted red or green or not painted at all.

Now changing the subject a bit, I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but what did our ancestor do when they were sick? How did they treat their illnesses? Well I have added a page on my website at www.acadian-roots.com called Old Remedies , I hope you will check it out. I know there are many more old remedies and later on I may add more of them.

Today we went to my Mom's place, picked up a Tim Horton coffee and took it over, Mom enjoyed it. I had also made some Banana Bread and brought over a loaf. She was in good spirits today and feeling better. I felt better when I left knowing she was ok.

All is well at our genealogy group room, we are now trying to organize a meeting at the Congres Mondial in August, which would be very nice. I do hope you have made your accomodations if you plan on staying the night, because the accomodations are getting harder to find, I believe the closest places are now Miramichi and Bathurst. I am anxious to go and attend various reunions and also I want to attend the Louisiana reunion on the 21st of August in Tracadie-Sheila. I was told if we go we might be given some Mardi Gras beads.

I am looking for a two room tent for our stay there, we have a one room tent, but we find it is too small. So we have plenty of time to shop for a bigger one.

Thank you to the ones who have left comments on my blog, and to my followers, I do hope more of you who are reading my blogs will be a follower too, all you need to do is click on follow my blog, register and click the orange button I believe, it is all free.

Well thank you for the lovely visit, hello to cousin Eve .

Have a great day

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ACADIAN HOMES . Have you ever wondered about the way our ancestors lived? The photo on the right is about 200 years old, I found it in the genealogy center along with an article on old Acadian houses by Father Anselme Chiasson. The article includes extracts from document of when they talked about the Acadian houses. So here are some of them.In Menneval Memoirs in 1688 he says, Port Royal is an area that has around 20 awful looking houses of mud and wood. There is only around six houses and the rest far from one another about 6 or 7 lieus all along the Port Royal River.In 1731 Robert Hale wrote the following: They have but one room in yr houses besides a Cockloft,Cellar, and sometimes a closet. Their bedrooms are made something after ye manner of a Sailor's Cabin, but boarded all round about the bigness of ye bed, except one little hole on the foreside, just big eno' to crawl into, before which is a curtain drawn and as a step to get into it, there stands a Chest. They have not above two or three chairs in a house and those wooden one, bottom and all. I saw but 2 Muggs among all ye French and ye lip of one of ym was broken down above 2 inches.When they treat you with strong drink the bring it in a large bason and give you a Porringer to dip it with. Desbarres's papers in 1795 describe the homes this way: The premises of every one seem to be a house from 18 to 25 ft long and as many in breadth without porch or partition but the outer door opening immediately into the sole room. There are generally two doors, the one being that which is used . The chimney of which the lower part is stone and clay wrought upon cross bars of wood beneath a wooden frame is in the remotest part from the door.The Beds are on both sides of the house from chimney to the doors. In the end of the house opposite to the chimney, the pots and water vessels lie on the floor, and the Milk and Milk vessels are disposed of on shelves, together with their bowls, muggs,etc. As they all sleep ,eat, cook,smoke,wash etc in this house or room, I need not say it must look black and dirty enough particularly as the houses are now old. Behind the Chimney on the out side is an oven of clay, the opening to which for bread and fire is on the In side back of th chimney. The oven rests on a square wall of Loggs or stone around an appartment three or four feet in the square, where a few pigs enter on the out side, and lie warm from the heat of the chimney and oven. In their barns they are more sumptuous. They are from fourty to fifty feet in lenght, from twenty to thirty in breadth and from ten to fifteen hight, the lower story destined for the cattle and the upper for the corn,hay,and threshing floor; At a distance they sett off the whole place. I had almost forgot to mention that their houses have a cellar under ground for the roots to which they descend from a trap door in the floor.

An old house in Memramcook in 1846. In June 1846 ninety one years after the Grand Derangement, in an old log house situated near the Cran a Ben on the east side of the Memramcook River around 3 miles from the church lived happily an acadian family Amand Landry and his wife Pelagie Caissie, four children, the youngest named Pierre age one month, also living with them was Allain Landry widow and Natalie Landry.

This log home was poorly built, not much lighting and not comfortable in the winter. In the center of the house was a huge Chimney made with stones poorly assembled. The house was divided into two parts by a wall of boards. During the winter they only used the southern part of the house that only had two windows one south and one west. Near the chimney was the door to the cellar where they would go by with a small ladder. This cellar was but a hole where the light did not shine in because there were windows, and the house would get cold because of the cold cellar.One side of the house was one big room that held the kitchen, dining room,bedroom. Around the room, there were three bedrooms which could be 7x10 feet each with no windows. The guest room was in the attic ,the floors were wooden and in this room there was a wooden bed. A cradle of rough wood, three or four chairs, three or four Chests and a table was all the room contained. A large square stove adorned the humble and frugal abode. They had five arpents of land, about 15 arpents of meadow, a barn ,four or five cows, hens, geese,turkeys, ducks and pigs. (written by an elderly man in Memramcook named Landry.

Now you have an idea what the houses were, and you must also notice that our Acadian ancestors were not rich, they survived the best way they knew how. They were a strong people , the more you read about them the more you will realize this, they had hard times, shed a lot of tears I am sure, and did not give up.

I hope you enjoyed this blog, I got this information in the SHA=Societe Historique Acadienne.

Have a great day, thank you for the visit. Just a note to say, Mom is doing pretty good, she still cannot walk but my family is all praying that she will do so soon.

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Hello everyone, today I will not be doing my usual blogs, but I did not want you to think I have abandoned you. My mom had an accident, she tripped on her boot strap and fell on her floor, she was taken to the hospital by ambulance yesterday, they took xrays and her pelvis has two broken bones, one on each side. She is in quite a bit of pain. The doctor released her, Mom did not want to stay there anyway. So she is back at home.
Please check in once in a while to see if have added more blogs ok?
Have a great day
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The destruction of Sainte Anne Village today Fredericton New Brunswick in 1759 was a terrible thing for all the villagers . The following is part of a letter written from Fort Frederick,St John's Via Boston, from the SHRSJ booklet that I have.
April 2 1759.:
The fifth of March, Lieutenant Hazen of the Rangers came in from a scout of fifteen days with a party of sixteen Rangers, up the River St John's, he brought in with him six French scalps and six prisoners. Lieutenant Hazen reports that he had been up to St.Anne's which is 140 miles up this river from Fort Frederick, where it was expected he would have found a strong garrison of the enemy,but on his arrival he found the town evacuated which he set fire to, burnt a large Mass house with a bell of about 300 pounds, a large store house and many valuable buildings amounting in the whole to 147, to-gether with a large quantity of hay, wheat, oats etc. killing 21 horses about 56 heads of cattle, a large number of hogs etc, and that he took the prisoners and scalps with eleven of his party on his return near Grimross, and that the inhabitants of St.Anne's are chiefly gone to Canada, the remainder scattered in the woods. He was pursued by thirty or forty of the enemy but not overtaken and that he found a large new schooner up the river which was taken lately from Capt.Grow, he bought one horse with him to Fort Frederick where he arrived in good health without the loss of one man/
As to what Acadians were in Sainte Anne de Pays Bas in 1759, I do know that in 1739 the census taken by Jean Pierre Danielou (priest) mentions the families of Pierre Bellefeuille, Louis Bellefontaine, widow Angelique Bellefontaine, her son Bonaventure, her son in law Michel Saindon and family,Pierre Laforest, Rene Valcour,Charles Boisjoli,Jean Laforest, Francois Roy his family ,and son Francois and his fiance,Barthelemy Bergeron, St Aubin,Augustin St Aubin, Jean Dugas, Beausejour Joseph, Michel st Aubin, his mother and their children.So this was twenty years before the massacre, in twenty years more children would have been born or grandchildren etc.
The SHRSJ, (River St John Historical Society) is planning an event in Fredericton New Brunswick to commemorate the massacre by Hazen and this event will be held the same time as our Bergeron-Damboise reunion July 18/19 2009. The more descendants that attend this event held by the SHRSJ the better it will be. They are hoping to have the location of the old St Anne des Pays Bas church, rectory and cemetery declared a historical site. I do not know their schedule . I think they have something planned for our Bergeron-Damboise reunion, and we have a hall for the second day. If you have any Bergeron-Damboise somewhere among your ancestors and you would like to attend our reunion, the Bergeron Association is asking for a twenty dollar fee each adult to have with the cost of the reunion. You can join our Bergeron-Damboise group at bergeron-damboise@googlegroups.com
On another note I have added another obit on my seniors 101 and over page at http://www.acadian-roots.com/

Thanks for the visit and do come again.
Have a great day
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Hello, no the above are not outhouses,grin they are shanties, and they are used in the winter time by fishermen. They are little huts, hauled out onto the ice. Inside them ,the fishermen drill holes in the ice for fishing. They can have little heaters inside to keep warm. I remember my late husband going ice fishing , it was really cold, and Gerry and his friend used a truck to drive onto the ice, I don't think I would want to take a chance. They had gone smelt fishing. Some men use spears to catch them, others use lines. In the early spring the men have to remove their shanties off the ice before they sink into the water. I came across this photo while reading the newspaper at the laundromat. The photo was taken on Shediac Bay. Here is a little bit from the article; It's pretty hard to spear smelts by sitting in the open on the ice. You need a dark shack sothat you can see the fish in the water from the light that filters through the ice. In the dark shack, they show up really good, not so good if you are out in the sunlight.Dozens of smelts can be speared in a single day.
What about our ancestors of long ago? I don't imagine they had shanties, so if they went ice fishing, it sure must have been cold for them. And making a hole in the ice must have been hard to do back then. But probably they were used to the cold, and back then ,roads were not that plentiful, so many of our ancestors used the rivers to travel. In the winter with horses and sleds in the summer by boats. Take Prince Edward Island for instance, there were no bridges or ferries back then, so they had to cross the strait the best way they could, again by sled in the winter and boat in the summer. And what would our ancestors have fished? Well Cod was their most important fish, then probably they fished Herring, Makerel, Trout,Smelts,Gaspareaux. One thing for sure if they could fish, they would have plenty to choose from , plus the lobster, crab, and shellfish. And the ancestors who were not near the water, hunted for wild game to feed their families, Moose, Deer,Bear,Rabbits,Porcupine,Beaver,Partridge, Duck,Pigeons, oh yes they ate all of the wild game they could catch.
I was reading when the Acadians were led to safety through they woods, and the article said, they lived on Beavers,Rabbits, or any animal they could catch, depending on the time they travelled, Berries would have been plentiful too. But there came a time, some of our ancestors were fleeing into the woods to avoid being captured and during the cold winter months, there would not be any berries, and the snow would have probably hindered their hunting, can you imagine walking in the deep snow in the woods, trying to hunt? I only walk from our steps to the car and if there is a lot of snow, I get really tired. That is why many Acadians died in the woods, from the cold and from starvation. So very sad. If we only stop and imagine how awful it was for them, we would be so grateful for what we have today.
Well this is it for today, hope you enjoyed my blog and will come by again.
Have a great day.
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I want green green grass, but we got snow,seventeen centimeters of the white stuff. We had flurries all day long. Now I would like it to just dissappear.

Now on another note, I would like to say, never ever let a man do the cooking. This morning George said to me Aline I will cook breakfast. Oh boy! Sure I said , that would be nice, while you are cooking the bacon and eggs I will take my shower.

So I was in the shower and after a while I kept hearing beep, beep,beep. What is making that sound I said to myself. So I opened the bathroom door. I could not see a thing. There was smoke everywhere. I had to feel my way down the hall. Just as if I was swimming. grin. By then George had taken the frying pan off the stove, he told me he liked his bacon crisp, crisp? It was charcoal black. I don't even think there was any bacon left. I said what happened? He replied I was on my COMPUTER and I forgot all about the bacon. The beep beep was the smoke alarm. Open the windows, open the windows. Phew what a smell, we even had to leave the apartment the smoke was so bad, we went down the road to a restaurant and had breakfast. The meal was the special of the day , bacon and eggs ,fries and toast for 3.99. Thats good , very cheap we said. We ordered each a cup of tea, when we got the bill, it was 4 dollars and twenty cents extra for the tea. We were gone for quite a while, when we returned, it still smelled smoke, so I used some plug in scented oils, it helped. But to be honest, it is a good thing that the alarm went off, because the pan was onfire. Worse things could have happened. So be very careful, grease is so very dangerous. We had a cover to stop the grease from flying it is a good thing.

Today I did not do too much, I found some information for two of my members. One of the names I was looking for was Kearney, well I found three different spelling , Kearney,Carney and Quarny. So sometimes when we cannot find someone, try another spelling that would sound the same.

I am happy that I did find this information, even if it is only one marriage, that is another part of the brick wall tumbling down.

Well that is it for now, I have banana bread in the oven, and I don't think I want another smoke filled room.

Thank you for the visit, do stop by again.

Have a great day

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Time is slowly creeping by, soon spring will arrive , the tulips will pop out of the ground,BUT not now, our weather man is calling for fifteen centimetres of snow, we are having what they call a northesterner. So for now I will only dream of the tulips and the crocus. According to the groundhog, we are suppose to have six more weeks of winter. I think he is right. grin.
For the ones who haven't made their reservations for the Acadian World gathering in Caraquet, and surrounding areas, some of the hotels and motels are already all booked. Do not wait too long. If you cannot find accomodations close by, try Bathurst .
Do you have children who like to read? I have added some children books on my website ,and I am trying to add some that are Acadian related, they are not all Acadian related but some of the stories are set in the times of the Acadians, some are fiction but if you read the stories it has things that could have been possible. Such as a Mister LeBlanc had to leave his home and, this little girl befriends a little Acadian girl who is a LeBlanc. I think these stories would be nice to give our children or grandchildren to read. I keep on looking for more such books to add to my book corner. But the books I love most of all are the ones I wrote for my grandchildren. One I made into a book on my Mom and her two brother's adventures, of course my Mom gave me all the stories and I wrote them.
One of the stories was that Mom and her two brothers went fishing, and my grandmother made a fishing net and gave it to the younger brother, who had a cripple arm and when they went fishing Mom and the older brother fished at one end and the younger one decided to go further down river, and all of sudden they looked up and he was coming towards them with a really big fish caught in the net. And another time, Mom said they went picking berries and the youngest one who was always getting into trouble was carrying a stick and he saw something on the ground and before Mom could say Don't touch it. He poked it and it was a bee hive so they ran for their lives. I made it so that it would be interesting to read.
That book is in my grandaughter's possession, for my grandson, I wrote two books, one was about his Papa, his late grandfather. So he would not be forgotten. I wrote about him being little and he wore thick glasses and they boys would call him four eyes, and when his younger brother heard them tease him, he ran after them. And I also mentioned in the book how much Papa loved him and his sister. The third book I wrote was about Fluffy their pet, and I was talking as if I were Fluffy, that I had been a happy dog and now I was in doggy heaven and I seen Papa and another dog that I knew. I added photos of the dog in the book. My grandchildren have both saved those books. These are really what we should write about. It would be just like history books, but it would be history books that are personal. Even if you don't have children, write them down for your nieces ,nephews, or for whoever you think would appreciate them. Now is the time if you have parents grandparents aunts and uncles, ask them questions, write down what they say.As I said before, once they are gone, so are their memories. I would love to have been able to sit and talk with my grandmother, because Mom said she had a really good memory.
My dad's side , I don't have many stories because Dad did not have a good memory, and the grandparents were gone by the time I got interested in genealogy. But dad told me one story once, that when he was really young, he had his father's truck and was going down Main Street and lost control of the truck and landed through the window at Woolworths right among some Kewpie dolls. grin. Do you remember what Kewpie dolls were? I seem to remember seeing some at a circus long ago.
Well I hope you enjoyed today's blog. It pleases me to remember things and to share them with all of you. I hope you will stop by again.
Have a great day, stay safe
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Noel Doiron was born around 1684 son of Jean Doiron and Marie Anne Canol, he married Marie Henry daughter of Robert and Marie Madeleine Godin in Boston around 1705 and his marriage was rehabiltated in Port Royal Sept 24 1706. They had the following children: Louis Mathieu married to Madeleine Pitre,Marie Madeleine married to Michel Pitre, Marguerite married to Claude Pitre, Paul married to Marguerite Benoit and then to Francoise Bourg, Pierre married to Emilienne Thibodeau, Francois married to Madeleine Tillard, Joseph married to Marguerite Tillard and Marguerite married to Amedee Blanchard. Everyone but the two Marguerites and Pierre died in the sinking of the Duke William in 1758. Think about it, all of these couples and their children . There were only four survivors I believe or should I say only four Acadian survivors plus the Captain and his crew and the priest Father Giroir. Alexis Doiron was on the lifeboat and survived. Stephen White has this note in his DGFA; We count Noel Doiron his wife, five of their children, more that thirty of their grandchildren and many great grandchildren among the Acadian families of Prince Edward Island who dissappeared without a trace after 1758. After a long study on the subject, we are led to believe that Noel Doiron was the old leader of the Acadians of Pointe Prime mentioned in the Journal of Captain Nicholls concerning the sinking of the Duke William. So many Acadians were lost at sea during the Deportation of the Acadians, if not by drowning then by sickness.
I have added another article that you can access through the Duke William page on my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ regarding Noel Doiron, where he was before he was on PEI, it is a very interesting article and it was what the documentary on CBC radio was based on. Hope you will enjoy reading it.
Changing the subject, isn't the internet a great thing sometimes? I just received an email from a distant cousin who is living in Stockholm on my Williams dit Bristol line, we are not directly related until we reach Elie Bristol, but it is amazing how many I have met since I came online .
On Facebook I have started a group called Old Photos of New Brunswick, where my hopes are to have many photos posted there again in hope one day some of my relatives may be in the photos. You never know. See there is a method to my madness as the saying goes and also by having that group ,pictures posted may also be photos of their ancestors, so it is good for everyone.
Have I told you that I added more books in my book corner? In my English Books I have added the Cajun Odyssey 11, and Escape from the Guillotine. One is about the Landry family's Journey to Louisiana. I added the book Deportation of the PEI Acadians by Earle Lockerby , and also a nice story for a young girl called Lightning and Blackberries in my Children Book page.
Our Bergeron-Damboise Reunion being held in Fredericton is coming along very well, we have a hall for one of the two days, having a Mass said for all the group, having some VIPs attending, so all in all, I am pleased. We have someone attending to the luncheon and we have someone decorating the hall. So if any of you readers have Barthelemy Bergeron dit Damboise somewhere in your direct line ,such as the Godins,Bellefontaine,Bellefeuille, Roy,Pare,Saindon, Beausejour, and if you want to join us, let us know. We have a Bergeron group
Bergeron-Damboise@googlegroups.com . Speaking of reunions , as you know the CMA2009, Congres Mondial or Acadian World Gathering held in northern New Brunswick around the Caraquet area will soon be here. Now is the time to reserve your accomodations. We have reserved ours, from Aug.11 to the 24th. If you wait too long you might not be able to get a place. We will be in a tenting area, oh my, two whole weeks in a tent. groan. grin. So mayby after the CMA is over I may show you photos of my mosquito bites. haha.
Thanks for the visit. Do stop by again.
have a great day
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Duke William was one of the many ships that were used during the Deportation of the Acadians. In 1758 the Duke William and the Violet both left around the same time with their ships filled with Acadians for destinations elsewhere. The two ships lost touch for a while and then met up again. The captain of the Violet contacted the captain of the Duke William and discussed the bad weather and the condition of his ship. On December 12 the Violet sank into the ocean. The Duke William was also trying to save their ship. Even the Acadian passengers pitched it and worked feverously to try and pump the water from the boat, but it was no use. On December 13 the day after the Violet sank, the Duke William sank into the cold waters of the Ocean. Many Acadians were lost at sea during the Deportation, and we will never know what their last moments were like, BUT we can read what happened to the Duke William. The Captain and his crew escaped in a lifeboat, and the captain "Captain Nicholl wrote a jounal about that fateful day and the loss of the Acadians. I have been given permission to add the Jounal on my website, and I have done so. My special thanks go to Ken and Shawn Scott. As one of them said to me "The more people that reads this Jounal, the more that will know what happened that fateful day in December on the Duke William.

So now I have added it to my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ ,click on the url next to the lighthouse. I do hope you will read it and learn about the tragedy of all those who lost their lives.

Now I want to change the subject,and share with you what Mom shared with me today. I always love talking with Mom, because when she tells me about long ago, she makes it so interesting.

Today we talked about my grandfather, Mom told me that my grandfather was a very strict man at times and other times he was fun to be with. He was a teacher part time, and he believed strongly in his children being educated. Mom said night after night, he would have the children sit on the steps or around him, and he would read to them. And then he would make them read what he had just done. I said to Mom were they school books? Mom replied "Dad had all kinds of books, but he loved Robbie Burns and he would read poetry to us by keresene lights." Mom said because of my grandfather reading to them, at school their marks were very good.

Then Mom continued talking about him, she said she remembers when he worked in the woods, he also was a saw filer, and Mom said that she remembers him coming home ,night after night carrying two logs one on each shoulder for firewood. And she said, that she saw him being so tired that he could not take his moccasins off, he would ask Mom to do it. Mom said , she would unlace the Moccasins and pull them off. Then she said to me, Granny too worked hard, when Grandfather was away working , she had to tend the animals, and do the rest of the chores but Mom said we all helped her with the chores. See what I mean about memories, and sharing them and writing them down ? I intend on writing what she told me today in my book.Well thanks for stopping by, please be sure to go read Capt. Nicholls Journal, and remember he wrote this in the late 1700s. Have a great day.

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Marriages of long ago, were not like those of today. Today we get married any time of the month or anytime of the year. But long ago in many communities you could not get married when you wanted to. In the summer months more important things than marriage took place, the planting and harvestion of the crops. Then the church had regulations, cannot marry during Lent or Advent,Christmas ,Good Friday and Easter.So they had to plan their marriages before or after these restrictions. And even then it was sometimes not easy to do, especially if they did not have a priest at their disposal all the time. A priest would come into the villages and perform a lot of marriages the same day.One Father Girouard went to Cheticamp and on the 9th of January 1872 he married twenty couples. And the priests also had to make sure the couples were not closely related (consanguinity).
I have mentioned this before, possibly in other blogs of mine, but when my parents got married, my mother was barely 14 and my father was 9 years older than her. My grandfather was very strict,( but can you imagine what he would he thought of this) but he was away working, Mom knew he would not let her marry my father, so my parents to be used to meet on a little wooden bridge in the middle of nowhere and make their plans, when the time was right, they took the train ,went into town and went to a baptist church and got married. So they thought they had it made ,grin. When the parish priest found out they were not married catholic, that was not accepted so he went to where they were staying, told Mom to go home, and told Dad to do the same until he got permission from the bishop of St John to marry them catholic. The priest received permission and married them. When my granfather returned and found them married , he was not a happy man.
So my parents had two marriage certificates to show of their marriage.
Now the beginning of my blog was partly taken from the genalogy book of Cheticamp ,the Poirier family.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading today's blog, and stop by again, you never know what I will blog about next.
Have a great day.
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Hello and nice to see you again. Well I do know some of you reading my blogs are not in my genealogy group nor in my Chat n Brag group. Some of you are possibly on Facebook tho. So I want to share what I already shared in my group.
Sunday morning with the suggestion of one of my members I turned my radio on to CBC at 8 30 am. The topic was Noel Doiron and the sinking of the Violet and Duke William with all the acadians on board.
Ken Scott and his brother from Nova Scotia did a lot of research on the subject, They did a wonderful job,and Stephen White and George Arsenault also spoke.Sometimes hearing the words is much better than reading. And did you know that when the Duke William sank there were 300 or more Acadians on board? I believe only four survived. When the boat started taking water, the acadians and the crew both pitched in to try and pump the water out, but the water was coming in too fast. They did not have many lifeboats back then ,and the oldest Acadian on the boat was Noel Doiron . The captain later wrote a journal about the event and he said there were tears shed by both the Acadians and his crew. And I believe there were children on the boat and as Stephen White said, a whole generation of acadians were wiped out.
Noel Doiron son of Jean and Marie Anne Canol his wife Marie Henri daughter of Robert and Marie Madeleine Godin, their children Louis -Mathieu,Marie -Madeleine,Paul,Francois,Joseph, wives ,children, all died in the tragedy. Stephen White in his book DGFA says there were more than 30 grandchildren. One of the four survivors was Alexis Doiron a descendant of Noel. But it is sad to hear of so many losing their lives, and another boat full of Acadians The Violet also sank .Both boats were in the Atlantic at the same time and they even communicated with one another.If all those Acadians would not have perished think about how much bigger the Acadian population would be today.
So on August 15 2009 there will be many many Acadians in Caraquet and also many for the Congres Mondial. So if you are Acadian, and Cajun,even English,if you have even one spark of Acadian Blood, come celebrate Acadian Day and the World Gathering. I also must add that Louisiana is vying for the 2014 CMA to be held there, that would be great seeing that many Acadians settled there and known today as Cajuns. I am anxious to meet some of the Cajuns in Caraquet or Tracadie.
For any of you wanting to join our genealogy group, go to the right side you will see a link , the name of the group you first join is petiteacadienne in yahoo groups , from there I will send you an invite to our main group.
Well I hope you found this blog interesting.Until next time.
Have a great day
Aline

Can you imagine your son or daughter wearing clothes similar to the clothes in my photo? This couple are my great grandparents, and everytime I look at it, it reminds me of granny Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies. grin. She ( my great grandmother) died in 1929 and he died in 1933 so this photo had to have been taken in the early 1900. I wanted to show you a photo with the clothing our ancestors wore in those days. Imagine working with these clothes? His clothes looks like he is dressed for Sunday Mass, perhaps hers was too.

Nevertheless, her dress must have been warm, this looks like the early part of the summer. Can you imagine working in the garden with a long dress? Or going picking berries, seems to me, the thorns and bushes would catch in the material. And notice the apron, it is quite long ,it covers nearly all of her dress. That was the style back then. I remember one of their sons, he used to wear woollen pants held up with suspenders and I was reading an article about Acadian clothing and it mentioned suspenders ,some were colored and some showed lines in them, to make them strong they were made wide and back then they were fastened with buttons. They were never out of style, the stores still sell them today. She must have been wearing a petitcoat under her dress to make it stick out like that. Anyway I can tell you, there wasn't much showing, long sleeves, high neck, no legs showing. I bet you the flies and mosquitos got discouraged trying to bite her. grin. Some of my members and I have been discussing the CMA2009, and if any of you do go, I would recommend to go to the Acadian Village in Tracadie, I went and it takes you right back to the days of our ancestors, well to a period back then anyway. The staff are all dressed in costumes with the long dresses for the ladies, and the men also dressed in Acadian costumes too.For more photos of what our ancestors might have worn ,look at old photos of your ancestors and notice their clothing, look at some of them in my photo gallery and again you will see their styles.Well thank you for the lovely visit, and do stop by again. Have a great day Aline.

CONGRES MONDIAL or CMA2009, some of you may not know what this is. I am sure you have heard that there was a Congres Mondial being held in Northern New Brunswick Canada in 2009. Congres Mondial is a World Gathering of all the Acadians that can attend. If you have ancestors who were Acadians, this is the place to go. And the countdown is on. According to the CMA 2009 website we are down to 197 days. The excitement is starting to build. Plans are being made. I went on their website a short while ago. The CMA is from August 7 to August 23.
There will be parades, there will be guided tours, there will be Acadian food served, there will be arts and crafts for sale or on display, music,bingos, bird watching tours, boat tours,bright colours everywhere. Houses will be decorated for this big festival with vibrant colors. There will probably be something for the children also. Can you imagine all the people that will be attending? The family reunions are planned at different intervals , for example the Leger/Legere & Trahan reunion is being held August 11 and 12, the Cormier reunion will be Aug 20. I would like to attend both but we are not sure if we can do so since they are far apart.
Now is the time for you to reserve your motel, hotel, campground, it is not too early. I made my reservations for the Leger/Legere/Trahan reunion Aug.11 and 12 th. We are tenting and will be at Colibri Campground and Motel in Bertrand ,close to Village Acadienne. The price isn't too bad for tenting. Twenty five dollars a night with two services water and electricity. If you reserve now ,well where we are going you need to put a down payment. We had to pay 25 dollars. This is because the World Congres is going to bring so many visitors in that they do not want to take reservation and the person doesnt show up and their rooms are vacant at the last minute.
My greatgrandmother was a Leger from Cocagne, on my father's side. As for my mother's side I could have attended the Cormiers,Boudreau,Vienneau, but have decided it would be Leger and my friend is a Leger. We are also attending the Bergeron reunion in Fredericton in July.
I am looking forward on meeting some cajun cousins, and many of you while we are there.
When the CMA was held in Louisiana, I really wanted to go, but could not make it. So this year God Willing we will be in Caraquet and Tracadie. Also the Cormier reunion isn't totally ruled out for me, we may still be able to make it. For more information and schedules for the CMA go to http://www.cma2009.ca/
Thank you for the lovely visit,
Have a great day
Aline

For the children; Once upon a time, in a little village called Beaubassin,lived a little boy named Pierre Cormier. His father's name was Thomas and his mother's name was Marie-Madeleine. Pierre was not the oldest in the family ,he had three brothers and two sisters older than he was ,and he was not the youngest because he had younger sisters too.
Pierre loved hearing stories, he always asked questions.One day, he asked his father about his grandfather. "What did granpa do .Papa? Grandpa was a carpenter, replied Thomas. But I thought you were a carpenter Papa? I am one also Pierre ,said Papa Thomas. Let me tell you a little story ,continued Thomas.
Grandpa Robert lived in a country way across the water called France with Grandmere Marie, me, and my little brother Jean. When I was around eight years old, Grandpa got a job as a carpenter and to get to his new job we had to cross a big ocean to a place called Cape Breton, and he worked at Fort Saint-Pierre.
It took us a long time ,and I remember looking at the ocean when we were crossing. I saw some big fish, they were really big, today I know they were whales but back then I did not know what they were. Then I saw lots of birds that I had never seen before. Sometimes the waves were really big and the boat would move a lot, and some days it rained and was windy and it was scary at times.
Living in Cape Breton was very different than living in France, and there were not as many people as back home.
Did you play,Papa in Cape Breton? Yes, I played, and sometimes I would play with the little native americans there. What are native americans Papa?
Native Americans ,replied Thomas were people that lived there before any white man did, and they helped us .When we were sick, they showed us what plants to use to get well, when it started getting cold, they showed us what to wear, they were really good friends. And we would play together sometimes.
Pierre was starting to yawn and Thomas saw that he was getting sleepy. Ok Pierre, go to bed now, we will save some stories for another day. Goodnight Papa! Goodnight Pierre!
I am not sure if you liked this little story since I just made it out of my head just now, grin but imagine your children, or grandchildren listening to your father or mother tell them stories about their youth? I once mentioned in one of my blogs about me writing my mother's adventures when she was young and giving it to my grandaughter. And one about my late husband for my grandson. A part of Mom will remain and a part of my husband. "Their Memories".
Now why did I start with a children story? Well I have added a Children Book page on my website at www.acadian-roots.com in Aline's Book Corner page, go to the drop down menu. The books I am adding there, are the ones that I would choose for my children and grandchildren. I shall be adding more of them, and I have added a few more in my English books with more to come.
Thank you for the lovely visit, please stop by again If you want to follow my blogs ,click on Follow my Blog on the right side in blue. Register with your email and password and click follow in orange.
Have a great day
Aline

Acadian Books, Cajun Books there are so many out there, but once in a while you get one that really makes you want to read more. Today I opened one called Lost and Found in Acadie by Clive Doucet, I want to read it to you , well this part anyway. It is about when he was young and going to church on Sunday, I found it to be comical in this chapter. Here goes.
"I'm about 12 years old and I'm standing in front of the station of the cross in the old church at Grand Etang. The priest has given me 10 Hail Marys and two Our Fathers for my penance.( He repeats the Hail Mary) I am saying them as fast as I can, he continues which is very fast having invented a technique for speed reading. I start off with Hail Mary full of grace so that God can easily disern my good intentions before segueing at light speed to blessedisthefruitoftywomb,Jesus and then the rest. Cheating on my penance is a low thing to do but I want to go out and play. What were my sins? I can't remember.Old standbys like being disobedient to my parents weren't available,because my parents weren't there. Taking the Lords name in vain was handy for a good basic sin but outside of the school yard was not frequent. Had I wilfully entertained pure thoughts? was difficult for a backward 12 year old with only vague notions of what impure thoughts might be. Yet I must have had some sins because I was standing in front of Jesus carrying his cross. I wouldn't understand until later that I was in training for sins to come. Another part he is at the Mass , he writes" I was not distinguised by my piety but I knew the various stages of the mass so well that I could follow them in perfect harmony without ever paying the slightest attention. I mostly looked around as if at the theatre with the lights on checking to see who was there and what was going on. Gerard a Levis's sisters were awful pretty and I found it very easy to look at them over the top of my missal. And his story goes on. I have added this book in my Book Corner on my website www.acadian-roots.com . I would recommend it.
Did this bring back memories ? I remember going to church and we had to wear something on our head, if we did not have anything the nuns would make up put a kleenex or a hanky on our heads. I remember going to confession, it was a big thing to me. I remember I felt I really needed to confess , I was not very old at the time, so it was not time for the confessions, and we were told by the priest if we had done something bad, it was ok to go get him at the rectory. Well lo and behold , here I was at the rectory. "Knock ,Knock, " The priest answers the door, many of you may know him, "Father Pellerin". Yes? I need to go to confession I said. Ok he said let's go to the church. I confessed, and I think the sin was disobeying my mother. grin. So he had to leave the rectory ,go to the church to hear that. I did feel good after tho. grin.
Again, see how interesting that was? Wouldn't you like to pass some little stories like that for future generations? I remember how quiet it was in church, you could hear a pin drop, and someone would sneeze. Then everyone would burst out laughing. I am sure something similar must have happened to some of you.
Anyway I am glad I posted this today, because as I was typing I was laughing.
So again, thanks for the visit, do come again.
Have a great day.
Aline

Cemeteries can be a very good source for researchers? Did you know that? Tombstones sometimes are very interesting also. Some tombstones tells us stories about the person. Does the tomstone have a guitar on the face of it? Hmm, possibly that person loved or played the guitar. Does the tombstone have a man fishing? His passion may very have been that he enjoyed fishing. I have seen one paticular one, with a truck and the name of the company he worked for. So the tombstone can hold clues .The dates of birth and date of death, when you find the date of birth, or the year , you can look up his baptism or birth, date of death? There you can go in your local newspaper and look up his or her obituary. And then you are on your way . Obituaries can tell you a lot also, they tell you where they were born, who their parents were, their ages, their spouses and children, and where their children lived? Sometimes you don't get all the information but even the slightest clue is a bonus. I remember when I transcribed my first cemetery it was the old Shediac Rd cemetery in Moncton, and would you believe I was in the cemetery at 730 am? Yes, I was, and I remember someone later on asking me what in the blazes was I doing in the cemetery that early? Well it was a fairly big cemetery to do. I did not finish it alone, my brother came later and helped. This too is a good idea, transcribing the stones I mean, because some of the older stones are really deteriating and getting so very hard to read, soon the writings will be all gone, so now is the time to preserve the names on the stones while we can.
Why am I talking about cemeteries? Well as you know I have lots of cemeteries on my website at www.acadian-roots.com , now the Chartersville Road Cemetery or the Notre Dame du Calvaire in Dieppe is a huge cemetery, I do not have all the names but I have a lot of them and when I have time I add a few more on my Chartersville Cemetery page, last night I had a little bit of free time so I added names from four more pages , I still have lots to go but slowly I am getting there.
And as I write the names down, many of them were people that I knew or knew their children. Some are sad stories, some bring back good memories of them.
I have also added a few more books to my Book Corner.
So now you have heard an entire blog on Cemeteries. grin. But my point is to say, cemeteries are an important resource for researchers and genealogists.
Hope I did not bore you today, thank you for the visit. And please stop by again.
Have a Great Day.
Aline

Follow this blog at the upper right hand side is confusing some of you. I checked on it, since it is a new thing recently out and new to me also. Anyway what you have to do is when you click on Follow this blog, you might have to register with google, it might ask you to create a blog you don't have to do that if you don't want to.But register with them. I clicked on Follow this blog and it opened a window with options to either follow anonymous or publicly.Then you click the orange button that says Follow. You don't have to do anything else. And if ever you come across another Blog you want to follow, you click on their Follow this blog url and so on. Sounds confusing but it isn't.
Yesterday I talked a lot about genealogy, I also wanted to mention something that may be important some day for our descendants. One day I went to a funeral parlor for something and while I was there, I was allowed to look at old records and I was really looking for my great grandfather but did not find him, but I found the death of my baby sister and of my grandfather. On the death of my grandfather the cause of death was mentioned, I wrote down the name and came home and looked it up and found it to be Lupus. Now my nephew has Lupus, so I believe it could be heriditary. So I made a note of the cause of death of my grandfather in my book. Also if someone in your family has diebetes or MS or Parkinson, or any other illness, it might be a good idea to jot that down and add it into your genealogy. It could be important to someone one day.
I am still adding books to Aline's Book Corner on my website, and have more to add.
There are so many interesting books out there, some are full of history, some are great fiction books, and some have lots of genealogy in them. At home I have a bookcase full of books, my friend Maria sent me a big box of them, some of them are shown in my Book Corner, I received a good one from Paul also another friend ,I picked some up at yard sales, and second hand stores. You never know what you will come across at these places. Am anxious for the yard sales to begin again. grin.
Today it is bitterly cold, the schools are all cancelled, the temperature with the wind chill is minus 43 celsius. and I don't think I will even attempt to go to Tim Hortons. grin. Wherever you are , whatever you do, if it is cold, dress warm, and do not take any chances. Stay safe.
Have a great day.
Aline

Genealogy in case some of you readers do not know what the word means,the dictionary says genealogy means "descent traced continuously from ancestors; pedigree,or study of pedigree. The words "family tree" is the same principle. We trace our parents, our grandparents, great great grandparents,until we can no longer find anyone else. But the fun of it ,is not only getting the names of them, the best part is knowing little tidbits about them, were they heros? ,if not, it doesn't matter, the hero that they should be to us, is because of them we are here. I know we must have some unsung heros among our ancestors, something that wasn't written in a book, this is why I believe now is the time for us to jot down about an uncle who saved a little cat from a fire, a father who is a fireman, a brother who is in the police force, these folks must have little stories, something good that they did. Did your grandmother win a pie contest? Do you have her recipe? Write it down. Did anyone win any contests, beauty contest, lumberman contest, did anyone meet someone important or present a gift to a VIP? I just came across some photos of my late husband taken with Henri Richard and Yvon Lambert the hockey players for the Montreal Canadians,way back in the 1960s or so, and my son did not know I had them, he is a fan of the Montreal Canadians and so is my grandson, can you imagine how they felt knowing they have a photo of their dad and grandfather with these stars? I have a photo of my grandmother sitting at a spinning wheel and yes she knew how to use it. Ah all of these things are so important , we must write down all these things, we must share our parents and aunts and uncles, and grandparent's memories for future generations. I believe we all have a purpose in life, in my heart I know that this is MY purpose, to search, to find, and to preserve for my descendants and kin down the road.
Another thing I want to mentions also, we cannot make our genealogy all nice and rosey, there are skeletons in our closets, that is still history that is still the truth, we cannot deny it. Should our grandfather have done a crime, no matter how big or how small, it is the truth, we cannot hide it, we should not hide it because it happened, it happens today, I am not saying to be proud of it, I am saying it happened and we cannot paint a beautiful picture , mistakes were made in the past as well as in the present. No matter who or what ,the most important thing to remember is because of them, we are here and our lines continue .
I have a book in front of me called Searching through the old records of New France a translation of Father Cyprien Tanguay's A travers les registres and he has little stories this is why I did today's blog this way. here are a few things mentioned in a book to give you an idea why I believe our descendants would enjoy what we pass on to them.
"Jan.1705;The burial of Mathieu Bosselet dit Jolicoeur age 40, soldier in M. de Beaucours' company who was found dead on the ice."
"Jan.1707;The baptism of Joseph Stover, the son of Jean and Abigail from Cape Vadick, between York Maine and Wells Maine. Born in 1690 and kidnapped by the Abenaquis in 1706 he was later ransomed by Francoise Domitilde, an Abenaquise woman who lived among the french and sent him to Montreal.
April 1758; Hilarion Landry the husband of Marie Taphorin was attacked and killed by the Indians while returning by boat from the Riviere aux Boeuf to Fort Duquesne. He was about about 1152 feet away from the Fort. Widowed with 3 very young children Marie married Louis Charlan. (Quebec Registers).
I hope you understand why it is so important for us to keep records ,write down stories, and write down what we find about our ancestors so our followers won't have to search as hard as we are doing. And if something regarding your families comes out on the newspapers save the articles.
I hope you have enjoyed today's blog,and will return again. Now I am still looking for more followers to let me know they are reading these blogs. Please click on the blue "follow this blog" upper right. If you do not want to give your name, sign as Anonymous. I would like to reach at least 25 followers can you help?
Have a great day.
Aline

Saint Louis de Kent ,is a nice little village in Kent County New Brunswick ,Canada. Now I know there are many of you who have ancestors who came from this little village. I had a brother in law who was born there, and through him and my sister in law I became familiar with Saint Louis. My sister in law and her husband married around here and relocated in Ontario. My brother in law worked in the mines up there. And as everyone usually do, they want to return home. So first of all they bought a take out restaurant in Richibouto Village, and I worked there taking orders, I loved it, and my late husband was the go fer, meaning go fer this, and go fer that. grin. After a while they decided to sell the take out and build a camp in Saint Louis, so we all pitched in to build the camp. I was even on the roof nailing it down, I would ask of course, where do I put the nails? grin. The camp was a one room camp, with four bunk beds ,one each for them and one each for my husband and me. We had so much fun at that camp, so many memories.
So that is when I got to see how beautiful the village was, we would go to the wharf and go for a boat ride in my brother in law's sport boat. We would go to a sand bar way out in the water and wade in the water picking up Bar Clams.
The people in Saint Louis were so very friendly, I met Cyriac Brideau who was related to my brother in law, and he was a comedian, a master of ceremony and he had a love for genealogy and the history of Saint Louis. Around this time, I was beginning to get into genealogy, and Mister Brideau's brother in law gave my mother in law the book Histoire de Saint Louis by Cyriaque Daigle who was the uncle of Cyriac Brideau. Well I read the book, it was very interesting, it is in French and I have added it in Aline's Book Corner at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ , but that is not all, today a friend named Lorraine alerted me that the book can be read online. She gave me the url and so I have posted it in my book corner, if you can read French, read the book, it talks about the colonization , the Native Americans,the arrival of the Irish, the Acadians, the ones who left there to create Acadieville, interesting little tidbits,photos,and even a genealogy section at the back of the book.
Well so far we did not get the snow that was predicted, so that is a good sign.
I do hope you all enjoy my book corner, and the rest of my website. There are so many little tidbits hiding in acadian-roots to read.
I see I have six followers (not bad for the second day). If you don't know how to be a follower, just click on Follow this Blog, on the top upper right in blue.
Have a great day
Thank you for the visit.
Aline

Snow is on its way tonight, for the ones who do not have such a thing, well it is something white like feathers floating down from the sky, it can float down lightly or come down like falling flour. It is cold to the touch, in the beginning when it falls like flakes, you can stick out your tongue and let the flakes touch your tongue. Some people love the snow, they can go out and build snow forts, or have snowball fights, and make snow angels. ( I did all of these grin). By this time the snow has fallen on the ground and the ground looks like a big white blanket.
Oh but then sometimes more snow is predicted, what is going to happen to the snow on the ground already? Here comes the snow and oh we have some wind with that too. It is blowing, we cannot see ahead of us. If you are driving ,pull over until the visibily is clear. Oh time to do shovel our driveway, I do not have what they call a snowblower, all I have is a shovel. Puff,Huff, gee this is hard work. What is that coming up the road? Oh no, it is a snowplow, oh please ,please don't put the snow in my driveway? I just finished shovelling? Splat, yep he covered all my driveway again. Boy a Tim Horton coffee sure would go good right now. I will take a break and rest before I shovel some more.
I remember when I was little, that we had snowstorms on top of snowstorms and at that time we had no school buses ,we walked, and the schools were not cancelled back then, I even remember the nuns in their long black dresses trudging through the snow in the school yard. I remember walking to see a movie with my brother and we walked on the main road on top of snowbanks that I honestly think we could have touched the wires (do not even think of doing this).
Have you ever wondered what our ancestors did way back when it snowed? They must have had terrible weather back then. I remember reading but I don't recall in which book I read, that some of our ancestors used to tie a rope from their house to the barn, in order to get back and forth to do their errands, when the visibily was very bad, they would hold on to the rope and follow it to get their eggs, or feed their livestock, or go to the well if they had one. It must have been hard for them if they had no well and had to go get water in a stream, the stream would have probably been frozen, they would have had to walk in deep snow and punch a hole in the ice to get to the water. BRRR.
Now how bad is our weather tonight suppose to be? Well so far we are expecting ten to fifteen centimeters of snow. And seriously to all of you out there, who have snow and storms please be careful, dress warm, never ever go out not dressed, I heard on the news recently this young man decided to walk home in cold weather from a dance not dressed for the cold,and he never made it home. Please do not take any chances,do not let your children play near the road , nor slide on hills near the road, be cautious during snowstorms .
Well I did not expect to write a novel haha... I sort of really got into this snow thing. grin.
Well to end today's blog, I wanted to mention about something new on this page, to the right of this blog at the top, you will see Followers, I would really like to see more of my you who read my blog to let me know that you are stopping by and reading them. I have a quota that I set to begin, I would like to see at least 25 followers, so let's see if I can achieve that number? Are you ready? Get Set! GO.
Have a great day ,thanks for the visit.
Aline

Books,books and more books. Why are they so important? Well to begin with, some are very educational, some are funny, some are sad. Without books, we may never know about history, and geography, we would not know how to read. And we would not know about little things about our ancestors, our cities and towns.Let me give you an example. The following is from the book of Cheticamp by Anselme Chiasson about the weather. Quote" I t can be readily understood that in a place like Cheticamp where work parties are most often held outdoors and where the men made their living on the sea, forecasting the temperature assumed great importance for the people. Thus Cheticantins in general, and fishermen in particular have a well developped flair for forecasting the weather. For these latter especially, the sky is an open book that they can read and predict the temperature and winds of the next day.Without recording all the good and bad signs of weather, we do however give a partial list below.
In the evening :When the sky is clear in the west but to the north of the sun=beautiful weather.
When the sky reddens in the west and to the north of the sun=beautiful weather.
When the sky reddens to the southwest of the sun =wind and rain.
Ring around the moon=bad weather. It is from the same side that the rings begin to break up that the bad weather comes. When there is a bull's eye on each side of the sun=bad weather. The wind will come from the side where the bull's eye lasts the longest.
In the morning; When the southeast sky reddens=wind and rain are forecast.
At any time::: When the sky looks like a mackerel skin=rain. When horses yawn=bad weather. When spiders are active and agitated=bad weather. When hens remain outside in the rain=the rain will continue to fall. When cats are playful=it will be windy. A rainbow in the morning =sign of good weather on the way. A rainbow at noon=brings on rainy weather. A rainbow in the evening =brings on nasty weather. Now did you know all this? I didn't. Now you must know what I mean about the importance of books and reading. Now getting to the reason why Books are the subject of todays Blog is because I have created ALINE'S BOOK CORNER on my website at www.acadian-roots.com , I have listed some books in my possession at the moment and will be adding more, I have some English books on History, Genealogy,Poetry,I have some French Books also, so far they are ones that I have at home, and I have described briefly in English a bit of what the books contain and where if possible they can be bought or borrowed. I do hope you like my Book Corner and return often to see if I have added more books.
Velda, this is one of the two things I had mentioned. grin. I would also like to say at this moment a thank you and come again to all of my faithful readers, and to all you newcomers just accidently stopping by.
Did you know you can subcribe to my blog? I am not sure how you do it, but Velda is one of my followers maybe she can post a comment on how to do it. And anyone can leave a comment at the bottom of each blog. Just wanted to let you all know.
Have a great day everyone.
Aline

Crepe Rappee or Potato Pancakes are a delicacy among many of the Acadians .

So this morning I decided to make some for breakfast , as you can see they turned out great. I took seven potatoes, peeled them, washed them, diced them and put them through my food processor ,first I clicked the chop dial then the grate dial. Once I had them all grated, I added some flour, a little salt, and just a tad of onion powder. I did not add too much salt, since salt is not very good for you. Then I poured some oil in my electric frying pan and poured my batter the size that you see in the plate . Browned one side, flipped them over and browned the other side. I love mine with sugar. George likes his his with butter, others like salt on them. No matter what your preferences are, they are delicious. Why don't you try some? If you notice the date on the photo, pay no mind because I need to set the date on my camera.

I have added another page on my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ it regards our Bergeron-Damboise Reunion in Fredericton, so I do hope you will check it out.There is a lot to do when planning a reunion, there are halls to rent, halls to decorate, audio to set up, speeches to prepare. Our Bergeron-DAmboise association has decided to ask the ones attending if they can to send twenty dollars each adult to help pay for whatever will come up . We will be keeping receipts of what we buy, or pay for. So far everyone agrees that it is a good idea.

We have begun making our hotel reservations also ,mine is done. I am really hoping for the reunion to be a big success ,since this is our first one. In case you do not know, the Bergeron-dAmboise families settled mostly in parts of Quebec, Louisiana and parts of the USA, there were some in Digby Nova Scotia, some in parts of Maine and MA, New Hampshire,Vermount, some in Ontario, so it is going to be nice to meet all of these folks who descend from Barthelemy Bergeron-DAmboise at the place where Barthelemy spent his final years (Ste Anne de Pays Bas) Fredericton New Brunswick Canada. All the ones connected to this family such as the Godin,Bellefontaines,Bellefeuille,Valcour,Roys,Pare,Saindon,etc are all welcome, and the Societe Historique de Riviere St Jean is also having a comemoration of the massacre at the same time, I know I have mentioned this before and I shall probably mention it again, in the future months. So if you have ancestors who were in Sainte Anne de Pays Bas today Fredericton, come to Fredericton July 18 and 19th 2009.

Have a great day

Aline

Hello everyone. To begin, I would like to say thank you for stopping by, in the last few days again, I received emails saying that so and so enjoyed reading Aline's Blogs , that is a good feeling ,knowing that my blogs are being read.
I do things on impulse, I have always been that way, so one day I may write about a certain subject, another day I will change the topic alltogether.
Well yesterday I went to the genealogy center, an outing I really enjoy, while there I had a little chat with Stephen White, he always ends up making me laugh.
For instance I asked him about Havre Boucher Nova Scotia, meaning where are the registers, he grinned and said Havre Boucher? That is about a three hour drive , grin. George and I laughed. I enjoy chatting with him, be it for genealogy or other subjects.
While I was at the genealogy center, I got the list of prisoners who were held in Fort Beausejour (Fort Cumberland ,they are one and the same place) in 1763.
I have added them on my website at www.acadian-roots.com , so if you want to know if your ancestors were prisoners there, check it out.
I also did some lookups and verifications for some of my genealogy group at acadianrootsclub. If you are interested in joining our group, we are over 450 members and growing, you can do so by joining petiteacadienne and I will invite you from there. But if you join, please let me know a little about you, not personal stuff but things such as what names you are doing and if we can help you with anything or if you just want to help others. I would love more members from various areas who can help others , such as northern New Brunswick ,Nova Scotia, PEI, Any part of the USA where the Acadians and French Canadians went, Quebec, Ontario, BC etc so if you live in any areas where the Acadians and French Canadians settled, and want to help, let me know. And if you are new at doing your family tree, we are more than willing to give you a hand , to maybe guide you how to do it. Again to join go to petite acadienne group in Yahoo. There is a url to get there on the side of my blog.
I also have a group on Facebook called Old Photos of New Brunswick, that group is for sharing photos of Moncton,Parkton,Georgetown, Kent County New Brunswick, Westmorland County in New Brunswick,so you are welcome to come share your photos there too.
Well time for coffee, hmmm Tim Hortons? grin. So thanks for the visit, drop in again when you can.
Have a great day.
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Scattered to the Wind is a book I recently received and I have been reading it. It is about the Dispersal and Wanderings of the Acadians 1755-1809.
If you haven't read it, I would recommend it. I am going to post a few exherts from it to give you an idea of some of the information in the book.
"Some St John Acadians (New Brunswick) evaded a second British attempt to capture prisoners in Nov.1756 but many of these fugitives were forced to migrate to Quebec when the British troops destroyed their homes and crops. Only the most stubborn and determined Acadians remained along the St John River, reoccupying their devastated farmsteads. On the night of January 28 or 29 1759, a band of British Rangers attacked Sainte-Anne, the largest remaining Acadian settlement along the St John River, and set ablaze all of their homes there. More than 25 prisoners were taken, and those prisoners who refused to assist the attackers in burning Acadian homes were put to death, including women and children. The survivors either went up to Canada or sought refuge in the woods."
Another section reads;
" Under the leadership of Abbe Le Guerne,most of the refugees along the upper coast (some estimates place the figure at about 4.000) made their way to the Miramichi area. Having fled their homes with little more than the clothes they carried on their backs, these refugees, many of whom were women who's husbands had already been sent into exile from Beaubassin, lacke adequate shelter,food and clothing. Pierre de Rigaud, the marquis of Vaudreuil, governor of Canada described their plight." (Acadian mothers see their babes die at the breast not having enough wherewith to nourish them. The majority of the people cannot appear abroad for want of clothes to cover their nakedness. Many have died. The number of the sick is considerable and those convalescent cannot regain their strenth on account of the wretched quality of their food, being often under the necessity of eating horse meat, extremely lean sea-cow and skins of oxen. Such of the state of the Acadians.)
The book goes on about when the exiled Acadians arrived at the port where they were shipped to, and how no one wanted them. How some became slaves, how they caught smallpox and other diseases. Just imagine what they must have gone through ,our Acadian Ancestors.
In one of the exherts I mentioned about the British Rangers attacking the village of Sainte-Anne (Pays Bas) well there were Bergeron-Damboise, Godins,Pare, Bellefontaines,Roys,etc many of who are some of our ancestors, in July 2009 La Societe Historique Riviere St Jean is having a comemoration in Fredericton New Brunswick (formerly Sainte Anne des Pays Bas) ,and we are also holding a Bergeron-Damboise Reunion at the same time to honor Barthelemy Bergeron dit Damboise and Genevieve Serreau, we are inviting anyone that descends from Barthelemy , or from Gabriel Godin dit Bellefontaine, or the Roys, Pare, Saindons ,to come join us July 18 and 19th. For more information , go to bergeron-damboise@googlegroups.com Hope to see you there. I do hope you enjoyed today's blog.
Thanks for the lovely visit, do drop by again soon.
Have a great day
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Fall River Massachusetts is a city in Bristol County USA. It is situated southwest of Boston, southeast of Providence Rhode Island and west of New Bedford. Between 1840 and 1930 around 900,000 French Canadians left Canada to settle in the USA. Fall River was probably a good place to go to, because it was the leading textile manyfaturing in the USA. The first French Canadian family to settle there back in 1859 was Louis Noreaux who left Montreal Quebec to go teach French in Massachusetts. But the immigration really began after the Civil War. Some Acadians from Northern New Brunswick Canada also headed for Massachussetts including Fall River and Chicopee . Fall River was also well known for Lizzie Borden being accused and acquited of the axe murder in her home in Fall River in 1892. Why am I talking about Fall River? Well I have added the cemeteries of Fall River (Notre Dame Cemetery) and of Chicopee (St.Rose de Lima cemetery) with permission from Kelly Townsend ( who transcribed them ),on my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ . There will find many French Canadian surnames and also some Acadian names such as Arsenault, Breau,Boudreau,Hebert,Landry,LeBlanc etc. I do hope that by adding these two cemeteries someone will find their ancestors. Some of the dates were very hard to read and some dates were covered with grass and could not be added.
I would like to finish today's blog by wishing all you readers who stop by to see my blogs and to everyone who visits my website, to my members of my genealogy group at acadianrootsclub and petite acadienne, to my members of Chat n Brag, to all my cousins and friends a very happy and prosporous New Year.
See you in 2009.
Have a great day ,stay safe, and please drive carefully over the next few days.
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This is what Christmas is all about. The photo on the right is the Moncton City Hospital, I have been a patient there many times, that is where I had my son. Anyway this was taken today, George and I went to the Christmas Party held for the sick children and where members of my genealogy group and some friends donated some toys to. It was snowing, and the party was at 1.30pm. Arriving there, the parking lot was full, so we waited for a space and then we parked the car. George carried the last toys while I snapped some photos. The party was held in the playroom of the pediatric ward. When we got there, some of the children were playing. There was a lunch set up, and the room was decorated. I noticed a stuffed dog we had named George and a ride on pony sitting on the shelf. There was a little blonde girl all dressed in red, she was eighteen months old, there was a little boy named Tristan, another one named Brady and a few more arrived after. So they were all waiting for Santa to arrive. I peaked at the door and saw something red moving, and yes it was Santa. Santa came in with his usual HO HO HO and talked briefly to the children , then he sat down. He had the children sit on his lap and talked to them. Well the little girl in the red dress, didn't think it was a good idea , she began to cry. So Santa said it's ok, you can get down. But first here is a present for you. Tristan got on his lap and he told Santa he had a lot of things he wanted. Then this little blond girl ,dressed in yellow really touched my heart, she was standing up waiting to go see Santa, she was wearing a mask and carrying an oxygen tank. She was the sweetest little thing I have ever seen. Finally Santa called her name, and she sat on his knee. She smiled at him, he asked her what she wanted and she told him. He said well here is a present for you for today and you will have one at Christmas. The gifts were all wrapped, and I watched her open hers. The box was fairly big, I was hoping it was something we had bought her that I would remember. All of a sudden she yelled "It's a BARBIE". She was so excited and yes I remember buying it, it was a Barbie in a blue car. I had the nicest feeling and thought to myself, I sure wish the rest who donated could be here to see this.

After the children got their presents ,Santa continued down the hall from room to room , giving gifts to the children who were not as fortunate on attending the party. I was not allowed to take photos there, but the photos I took was fine with me. And I do know the ones who donated will be pleased with them. As Santa left the room, he thanked us for the donations, and the one who organized the party also thanked us. That was good enough for me.

And when we got home tonight, a bit later, the doorbell rang and standing at the door were two cute little girls. They said, hello, we are giving candy canes to everyone in the building, I said well thank you very very much......

So I think this is really Christmas, opening our hearts and giving to others if we can. But remember if you cannot give, phone someone, or visit someone. There are many ways of giving of yourselves.

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you.

Hugs

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Gifts from the heart are something so very special. As you know my genealogy group, my friends and I did a Christmas Toy Drive and it was a success. I received gift cards and money from various parts of USA,Canada, and England.

Now I have been in the process of moving and one gentleman wanted to participate in our toy drive so he went out and bought the two toys you see here, but I have been in and out of my old place, moving things to my new one and running errands. This gentleman came to my old place and had no luck finding me home. Today the movers came and moved me to my new place.

Around 6pm or so my doorbell rang. Who could be at my door? We just moved. I opened the door and there was this gentleman with his two toys for our christmas toy drive. Now if that is not a very special deed on his part ,I don't know what else it could be. Now on Wednesday the 17th, there will be two more children with a happy smile on their faces. As the saying goes, it is not the presents we get that matters it is the ones others get from us that do.

In case I do not have time to blog until after the holidays (but I just might blog if I have time). I would like to wish all you fateful readers a very Merry Christmas from my home to yours.

To all my members of my acadianrootsclub genealogy group, Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you and thank you for all your participations, your faith in me, and for making our group a very very nice group. To the members of our Chat n Brag room, Happy Holidays from my home to yours, and thank you for being one big family in there. To my friends,family and cousins if you read this, Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

Stay Safe, Drive safely, Be very very careful over the holidays.

Hugs to everyone

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Christmas will soon be here, so I imagine you are all very busy at this time . As you know we had a Toy Drive this year, and I am so very pleased at the results. I received a gift card a few days ago and I believe it is the final one, and this year the toys are going to the hospital for the sick children. I phoned the lady in charge of the christmas party to ask her if there is something that they would need for the party and she said well some Christmas music would be nice and some candy canes. So with the twenty five dollars I bought two CDs and some candy canes. The lady who donated the last gift card said she was pleased with what I had done. The music will last for years. On December the 17th will be the party so George and I shall be attending for a while. I am hoping to be able to take a few photos, of course I can take Santa, and I am hoping to take a few of some of the children, we shall see. The parents have to give their ok on this.
Speaking of Christmas, now is the time for you to ask for something regarding genealogy for yourself. Some family tree software? Some census records? Some books on your surnames? If you ask me what I want, I will say " I want it all" grin.
And at christmas time it is a great time to tell your children or grandchildren of your christmases when you were young.
I remember when I was young, we always had a real tree, my Dad used to go cut one and bring it home, it usually was a real big one, and I remember Mom hanging bulbs on it , she had large balls and large bells and she had white icicles . I have one of her icicles as a souvenir . And Mom always made a large pan of donuts, they were so very good. We had a big family so the turkey was a big one or she would cook two of them. The night before christmas we would hang our stockings, and I remember mine was a long brown one. When we awoke we headed for our stocking first, inside we found apples, oranges, nuts , barley toys and ribbon candy, then we opened our gift, we always opened them on Christmas morning, and we did not have a lot of gifts but we loved what we got. My late grandmother always had a gift for us, stockings, mittens, or even hankies and that gift was always something we looked forward to. It doesnt matter what we pay for the gift , it is the thought that matters. So remember, if you cannot afford a big gift, get what you can afford , and know that it comes from your heart, I am sure your love ones will cherish whatever they get.
Have a great day , thanks for stopping by
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Family trees or genealogy is an important project that we should all have. It is something we pass down to our descendants, to our grandchildren and theirs.
What do you remember about your childhood? Did something very special happen to you? Did you receive any awards or did you do a good deed? Were you in articles in the newspapers? What kinds of things do you like? What kind of christmas do you remember growing up? What do you remember about your parents? Do you remember your grandmothers and grandfathers? These are what we call our memories, and when we are gone, so are they. Would you have liked to know about your great great grandparents? How did they live? What did they do for entertainment? Could they sing? Could they play instruments? Were they story tellers? Ah yes, you need to write down notes, on what you can remember. I have a book, well I have divided my book into three parts as of now. grin. In my Cormier book, I have written down the names of the ancestors, these ancestors were part of my Cormier line and part of my late husbands.
In the book , before my husband passed away and when I first began my genealogy in 1976, my husband would share some stories of when he was young, for instance when he was around seventeen, his father bought him his first car, it was a 1936 Ford with a running board on the side. Well my husband was very proud of his new car, and he drove it, but my father in law would be looking out the window to wait for him to return home. One day he said to my husband" Hey Gerry, how come you don't drive into the driveway and always park in the road? " Gerry didn't want to tell him, he had never driven it in the yard yet he always parked on the street. My father in law continued " Well if you do not park that car in our driveway you lose it." Well , my Gerry said to me" You can be sure I parked it in the driveway from then on."
I continued writing in my book, kinds of cars he had, what kind of jobs he worked at and so on. Next came my son, I wrote about when he was born, and cute things he did while growing up. One day when he was around three, we lived on a busy street and I had put him outdoors in our back yard, well the back yard wasn't good enough for him, he decided he needed to sweep the busy road, well I ran and got him off the road and then I bought him a little harness. No more sweeping the road for him. And then he was into Karate, and one day he came home and he had his baseball cap over his eyes and he was sneaking up the stairs I said" Come here! He came over and I pulled the cap off his eyes , yep he had this one huge black eye. Now when he reads the book he will laugh at it.
Do you understand what I mean? I wrote about my grandchildren and when they would visit, I would put the date and the cute things they did.
In my maiden name book, I have all about my parents and what I remember about my grandparents and stories Mom told me. They are all in my books.
Old photos with descriptions about who they were and dates are so very important too. I came across many old photos when my inlaws passed away, with no names .Who were they???? Very very important to write who they were.
Now changing a subject a bit, a few days ago a friend and I went to the Acadian Library and I was in heaven. Grin. Anyway I found a book on D'Abbadie de Saint Castin, it is in french but I am so pleased with it, and it speaks of Madockawando who is the Native American Chief who is among many ancestors of some Acadians. If your line branches into Anastasie D'Abbadie de Saint Castin for instance then she was his grandaughter. I began reading the book and I am enjoying it.
And also while researching your ancestors you might come across some royal blood, the D'Abbadie ancestors were nobles and judges and lawyers, now we are talking about the years in the 1600s, so that is going back quite far. And again you might come across some scoundrels , pirates, crooks, no matter what you turn up, you cannot change what happened, it is all history. Jean Serreau dit St Aubin who is in my line, caught his wife fooling around with the neighbor ,who I believe was a swede and he hit him and killed him. Again this was back in the 1600s or so. This must have been quite a scandal back then, if we compare it to today. Today it would still be a scandal. But it happened and is part of history. Do not hide what happened, our grandparents and theirs probably hid lots of stuff, we need to tell the truth and as it is. If our ancestors commited a crime, they did it, it happened not to be hidden. What they did is not our fault but we need to remember without them no matter who they were, we would not be here today.And there is nobody perfect in this world, we all make mistakes and we all have to live with it. So get out your pen and paper or computer and start writing down things and be part of history, share with the future generations that will follow us.
Thanks for the lovely visit, and do come again.
Have a great day
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