Uncle Larry the Bachelor

Today I would like to share with you what I remember about Uncle Larry and what he accomplished in his life. He was born in Nova Scotia in 1893. His father worked in Digby for a while and then they went to Old Town Maine and then back to New Brunswick.
Larry never married but yesterday Mom gave me some of his old letters, and in one of the letters he talks about a girl he once loved. I believe her name was Theresa Mills, she was the love of his life and he did not win her and he never ever got married. Here is what Larry wrote at the age of 92, yes ninety two." There was a maid called Theresa Mills that one I first loved, in Saint Paul on a hill, she was an orphan I was told, but her eyes so blue and her hair shown like gold. This is why I loved her like I do. She got married after I met her but the words she said to me that day caused a pain in my heart I must say. That is all he wrote about her.
Larry lived in his parents home for a long time, he used to breed animals and birds, if you went to visit him, you did not expect a fancy house, he had chickens and roosters running through his house. He had the most beautiful exotic birds, peacocks , pheasants, with feathers of many different and beautiful colors, he had deer he had sent away for. He had white deer and one time one got away, and he never saw her again but later on he saw some white deer or brown and white deer so he figured she mated with the wild deer. He loved horses,and had various calves.
He was well educated and self taught himself on many subjects.
I first contacted him, when I got into genealogy, I had gone to his house when I was a little girl, but anyway when I first contacted me, he was hesitant on giving me information about his family,but he later confided in me. He told me of great aunts and great uncles, where they lived , the names of their children where they were and so on. I am grateful to him for sharing with me.
Anyway among his letters I want to share this one, it was written on July 24 1986 he was 93 years old, and he wrote to Prime Minister Brian Mulrooney in Ottawa. Here is what he wrote:
Dear Sir, I cannot see any harm in praising you in the Daily Times and Transcript of Moncton NB. As I have read some of your statements in that paper stating your great ambition in making efforts to bring this country to a reciprocal alliance with the rest of the world to talk PEACE instead of making efforts to blow up the universe and I hope your efforts will keep you as the man of Chaice for the safety of mankind for ever. Yours truly Larry. He had a note in the margin for whoever was mailing the letter to make a copy for him and one to Brian Mulrooney in Ottawa.
Now he wrote this at the age of 93, he died three years later at the age of 96. I do hope you enjoyed reading today's blog, I wanted to share this with someone,especially my cousin Eve, the memoirs of my great uncle Larry.
Thanks for the visit, and do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Acadians and Metis

Before the Acadians came, there were various tribes of Native Americans, there were the Migmaws, Maliseets,Abenakis. So when the first Europeen men came to Acadie they had no women with them. Many of these men lived with Native American women, some married them others had children with them. These children were called Metis. The following is from A great and Noble Scheme book.
There were as yet no French women in L'Acadie and sexual relations with Mikmaw women greatly faciliatated the assimilation of the Engages(workers or hired men) to native culture. Lescarbot saw no evidence of prostitution among the Mikmaq when he first arrived, but he noted a custom of sexual freedom among young unmarried women that was eagerly exploited by fishermen and traders. The Mikmaq did not consider an illegitimate child a stigma but rather a measure of a young woman's fertility, and bearing a child out of wedlock tended to enhance rather than compromise her chances for marriage. While the girls were free to accept or reject lovers, however the Micmaq had no patience with forced sexual relations. It is dangerous to dally with them wrote Lescarbot. After one French colonist meddled with a Micmaq woman, the men of her family came to Biencourt in a rage, warning him that anyone who attempted to do that again would not stand much of a chance that they would kill him on the spot. Marriage too was a serious business. If a young man with marriage on his mind found his attention encouraged by the girl, he was expected to ask her father for permission to take up residence in the family lodge. the father agreeing , the suitor entered the service of the brides household, hunting and trapping exclusively for them. This could last for a year without the bride and groom to be having relations. They were only allowed to marry once the groom showed he could support a wife.
Despite these strict rules, within a few years most of Biencourt's engages,(workers) were living in Micmaw communities with a native wife and metis children.
Philippe Mius d'Azy son of Philippe and Madeleine Helie married two native americans.He had fourteen children total. Joseph married Marie Amireau , Marie married Francois Viger, Mathieu married Marie Madeleine, Francoise married Jacques Bonnevie dit Beaumont, Pierre married Marguerite La Pierre, Anne Marie dit Nanette married Paul Guedry dit Gravois.

Jean Roy dit La Liberte married Marie Christine Aubois (Dubois) a native american. Not sure what tribe. They had nine children: Anne married Jean Clemenceau, Marie married Joseph Comeau dit Grandjean, and she married Girouard, Jean married Jeanne LeJeune and Francoise Corporon, Francois married Marie Bergeron, Philippe married Cecile Mazerole, Marie Madeleine married Louis Fontaine dit Beaulieu, Marie Francoise married Etienne Trahan, Rene married Marie Josephe Daigle.

Jean Vincent D'Abbadie son of Jean Jacques and Isabeau de Bearn de Bonasse married two daughter (of Madockawando a Abenaki chief )named Matilde and Marie Pediwammiskwa.
With Mathilde he had: Claire married Paul Meunier, daughter who married Philippe Meunier, Anastasie married Alexandre LeBorgne de Belisle, Urseline married Louis D'Amour de Chauffours,with Marie Pediwammiskwa he had a daughter Therese who married Philippe Mius D'Entremont.
These are just a few who married Native Americans, I found that I have Marie Christine Aubois and Mathilde, in my lines so far. So if you have any of the above in your lines you have a bit of Native American blood running through your veins. I am intrigue by the D'Abbadie de St Castin line, and Madockawando, if you do have him in your line, google Madockawando see all the stories out there.
I wonder if that is the reason that I enjoyed cowboy and indian movies long ago. grin.
I do hope you all had a nice Easter ,we had snow, yes we had snow, the ground is all covered in a blanket of the white stuff. But it soon will be gone again.
I do hope you enjoyed todays blog, the reason I wrote this article, was because I went into my software and noticed I had Jean Roy in my maternal line.
Have a great day
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Dominique Martin 's treasure

In 1938 there was a very bad storm near the home of Dominique Martin of Saint Louis Cape in New Brunswick. Can you imagine the waves washing on the shore and on the rocks? Well anyway, Dominique Martin was walking along the shore and he spotted something on the sand.
As he got closer he noticed a skelton all wrapped in fur and surrounded by bark of a tree. On the skelton was a leather caldron measuring 28 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep. Inside the caldron Dominique found many articles. There was another caldron a bit smaller measuring 7 inches in diameter ,thirteen ancient axes, a sword, a knife, a stileto,pot hooks, glass beads, and a few other articles not identified because of the rust. This discovery caused quite a stir among the villagers and attracted many visitors and local newspapers. They never identified the skelton.
I read this in the History of Saint Louis. I am certain there must be many stories like this one that has not been told, but can you imagine walking along the beach and something belonging to our lost ancestors wash up? Remember, there were many many tragedies at sea. The Duke William with all the Acadians on board, the Violet also among others. Somewhere under the oceans there may be some old time piece or old bowls or jewelry.
I always imagined going into the woods somewhere, where homesteads used to be, and finding an old abandoned home, and finding old photographs, or old dishes. It would be nice if we knew the exact spots where our ancestors lived and have permission to do a dig . I do know one of my ancestors Thomas Cormier lived in Beaubassin, and they have a dig going on there, if they find some carpentry ,could it have been his?
When I go to flea markets and I see an old photograph, I usually look to see if there is a name, just in case it would be an ancestor of mine. These are the treasures that are important to me, not the gold , nor silver, oh but mind you if I did find some I would not throw it away. grin.
But to me, keeping our ancestors memories alive anyway I can is what is most important.
When our ancestors were exiled, could they have buried some of their precious possessions?
Maybe one day someone will discover something else belonging to our ancestors.
But they won't find anything tonight and tomorrow because we are going to have some SNOW, grin. They are calling for 10 cm. of the white stuff. Out comes the boots and mittens and shovels, oh noooo! grin.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Acadians and Foods

If you think this pot is something used by cannibals you are not correct , grin. This pot was used to make maple syrup. It was bought by Jean a Nicolas Babineau in 1770 in Turtle Creek New Brunswick. I want to thank Omer Babineau for allowing me to use his photo.

Acadians began tapping trees very early in history.According to Diereville he says that as early as 1708 Acadians were making maple syrup using similar methods as those today. For many years maple syrup was used instead of sugar.

Sugar back then had to be imported along with molasses from the West Indies.

Now throughout Acadie berries were plentiful, there were wild strawberries, blackberries, blueberries,gooseberries,and cranberries, and berries are full of vitamins which was good for our ancestors. They gathered wild herbs such as Dandelion blossoms used to make wines. Summer savory was a herb that was used a lot as well as wild caraway,hops were picked to make yeast. They ate wild game such as porcupine,beaver, rabbits,even squirrels and all kinds of wild birds, blackbirds, pidgeons,meadowlarks, wild ducks, partridges and so on. They had chickens and pigs,and they would only kill the cows when they had no more use for them. Today many of us would not eat some of the things that our ancestors did, but they had to survive the best way they could. And who knows ? Maybe it was delicious, for instance we love lobster but in countries where there are no lobsters, people would shun at the thought of eating them. Now our Poutine Rappees, they look gooey but they are scrumptious and many folks would not want to even try them. I dread at the thought of being in the woods and having to survive and having to eat whatever I could find.

Now I will share a recipe with you. If you ever come to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and someone says do you want a Pet de Soeur? Say yes!

Pet de Soeur

Dough

2 cups flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup milk

Mix all together. Until a soft dough is former, if it is too wet add flour on the board. Roll the dough until it is fairly thin maybe a little thicker than a pie crust.

Grease with butter, add brown sugar and sprinkle cinnamon on the top. Roll the dough like a jelly roll and slice into circles around one half thick.

Pour water in a casserole dish. Put the sliced dough in the casserole dish and bake 375 F for about 25 minutes or until the pet de soeurs are golden brown. I sometimes do not even put them in casserole dish with water. I just cook them in muffin tins. mmmmm very tasty.

Thank you for stopping by, do come again.

Have a great day

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HURRY LET'S RUN IN THE FOREST

Who was running in the forest? Why? Well if you studied or read about the Dispersion of the Acadians in 1755 you would know that our ancestors had to run away or be made prisoners of war . Some Acadians escaped from the prisons even to also run and hide in the forest to avoid capture by the English.

What hardships they must have endured. Men,women and children,young and old all running through thick woods, depending what time it was, they had to endure insect bites, falls and scrapes, hunger, hot and cold weather.

Some became ill, was it from maybe eating wrong plants? Or wrong berries? Can you imagine them at night time, probably with a fire burning, no lights, pitch black. Hearing the unfamiliar sounds of the night. Coyotes, wolves, owls, bear, moose, wondering what the sounds were and if they were safe. Children crying because they were afraid or they were hungry. The men had to hunt for food and catch whatever they could such as rabbits, raccoons, beavers, deer, small birds. They did not have good tools to work with either, an ax or hatchet, a knife maybe. The brush would be thick at times. They had to go on. Some Acadians walked through the forest for days and days some died along the way.

One group of Acadians led by Michel Bergeron son of Michel Bergeron dit Nantes made their way up to St Gregoire Quebec first stopping in Cacauna with the native americans, and during the winter making their canoes to continue on their way.

What hardships these ancestors must have gone through. When you go for a walk in the woods, think about them, look around now the woods are cleared and you can walk through them but imagine the trees not being cleared, no paths to walk on. Imagine how your feet would hurt, our ancestors must have felt a lot of pain. And winter time,oh my I cannot imagine what they went through on their journeys. Food would be scarce because the snow would be deep, and it would be awful hard to walk . No berries, just a few wild animals if they could catch them. What about water? What did they do? Probably they found some streams or springs, but during the winter, possibly they would maybe melt the snow? But how did they survive the cold nights? How awful it had to have been for them. All because they were fleeing for their lives, to get away and wanting to live.

Well I went to the genealogy center yesterday and I was looking for something and came across the photo above, and said to myself, now that would be nice to put in my blog with a story to go with it. It sort of makes us think about our ancestors and what some of them went through.

I do hope you enjoyed my blog and will stop by again. Thank you for the visit.

Have a great day

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Saint Louis Kent County New Brunswick

Saint Louis de Kent is an acadian village in Kent County New Brunswick in Canada. I had the good fortune of spending quite a few summers there.
The people are so very friendly. They have a wharf or marina. My brother in law had a sport boat and we used to go out into the ocean to the Dune to dig Bar Clams, we also went to an island that is a bird santuary and went and did some jigging for Cod out in the Ocean. This village has been there for a long long time. Many of the villagers live to a ripe old age. In 1786 Jean Babineau and his son Joseph left Memramcook in search of a new homestead. Jean had some daughters married in Bouctouche,in Richiboucto and at Aldouane. But he continued further north. Arriving at the northern part of the Kouchibougouac River he found three english families living there. They decided to settle in the area attracted mostly by the meadows. But in the month of December Jean Babineau drowned while trying to cross the Petitcodiac River. The following month of May Joseph and his family came at settled at Kouchibougouac what it was known as at the time.And he was the first Acadian Family to settle in Saint Louis. Later other families arrived, the Barriaults, Henri,Poirier,Maillets,Richard,Thebeau,LeClerc,Vautour etc.
Now Lorraine Coulombe my friend has a site on Facebook on Saint Louis and she has posted all these photos of people of Saint Louis and she has given me permission to add some on my photo gallery at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ I would really suggest you look at them, notice their clothing, their age,their large families, I will be adding a few more soon. And if you are on facebook, check out her Saint Louis Group and my Old Photos of New Brunswick group. I am sure you will be impressed. I want to thank Lorraine for sharing her photos with me and with all of you. Some of the photos in my gallery include Auguste dit Audjuste Richard and his wife Pelagie Maillet, their children, Louis Maillet and his second wife Lucille Doucette and the children of Louis.
Thanks for the visit and do stop by again and if you happen to go to the CMA2009 stop in at Saint Louis de Kent for a brief visit.
Have a great day
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Witches and Witchcraft

I am reading a book by Donald Lines Jacobus and wanted to share some parts with you.
One of the chief delights of genealogy researchers is the insight it gives us into the motives, the customs,the daily manner of life, of people who lived in a different era. They lived in a different world than us. Think about it, we have washers, and dryers, they had rivers and tree branches to hang the clothes, we have stoves, they had fireplaces,we have lights they had lamps ,we have cars they had horse and wagons and the list goes on.
Those who view cemeteries as a gloomy place to be avoided can never experience the mingling of reverence and exultation felt by the genealogy researcher,when at last he stands in front of the long sought gravestone of an ancestor. And nor can they know the furtive delight of collecting curious epitath. ( I noticed on some graves, photos of hunting cabins, or even a truck that they drove, something that connects to the deceased.)
Now about witches and witchcraft.
Those who take a satisfaction in writing of our witch-burning ancestors would do well to persue their historical studies a little further,for witches were not burned in the American Colonies. The usual method of execution was to turn them off ladders and leaving them hanging. In Europe witches were much more cruelly dealth with than in America.
The explanation of witchcraft craze is simple. Witchcraft existed two or three centuries ago solely because people believed it existed. An angry woman might give a neighbor a hateful glance or utter a half veiled threat. It would be remembered, and misfortunes subsequently occuring would often be connected with it in the mind of a neighbor. Significance would be extracted out of mere coincidences, and entirely natural events would be attributed to the malignant agency of the suspected woman. These suspicions would be bandied about, in whispers or even openly. Oftentimes, imaginative children or neurotic adolescents, overhearing the talk, would discuss the matter between themselves. There was a thrill in it, and they would shudder deliciously when the suspected witch passed by them or spoke to them.
Sometimes the children became obsessed with the idea that the witch was persecuting them. They imagined they seen apparitions of the witch,their parents would then see their previous suspicions confirmed. Formal complaints would be lodged against the witch. Then the witch was brought to trial and so on. The Salem craze reached the dimentions of mob hysteria and many innocent victims suffered. Can you imagine? If you did something a little bit out of the ordinary it was believed that you were a witch??? Very scary situation, I am very happy that I wasn't there during those sad and terrible times.
Well we had two days of snow, yesterday I had to clean my car, and I hadn't cleaned the top of it, while we were driving down a busy street, we stopped for a red light and Poof a pile of snow came tumbling down on the windshield, You should have seen how fast I moved out of the car and cleared the window. grin.
Our Bergeron-Damboise reunion plans are going very well. I have had some folks contact me from various places who would like to attend. That is good. We are getting closer to the date in July. And the CMA2009 also is getting nearer, if you are looking for accomodations I have a friend in Bouctouche who has an old house converted into rooms that she will rent, Bouctouche is not real close to Caraquet but now everywhere you look the motels , hotels ,B&B are all booked solid.
I hope you enjoyed todays blog and will return.
Have a great day
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ACADIAN FUGITIVES

As you know there were many Acadian Fugitives during the Grand Derangement or Acadian Exile. Anyway, I was at the genealogy center a few days ago, and as always, every time I go there I keep thinking, I wonder what I could add on my Acadian website. This time I came across an article title Acadian Fugitives by Placide Gaudet. Now many of you know that Placide Gaudet was a great genealogist and he wrote lots of articles on the Acadians plus he had a series of genealogy books. So when I saw by Placide Gaudet and he had posted the article in the New Brunswick Magazine back in 1899, I knew I wanted to share it with my readers. So I have added the pages on my website, I did not write all the article but I copied and pasted the pages. I do hope you will find it interesting , I did. Go to www.acadian-roots.com you will see it there. I would like to hear your comments about the article if possible. Did you enjoy reading it?
Well we are expection snow tonight , five to ten centimeters, I am glad that we have moved a big part of my stuff. We have a couple more trips and then the movers will take the big furniture.
Let me tell you , that when night time comes, no one has to rock me to sleep. I hit the bed and wild horses couldn't wake me. grin. In the morning when I get up I am ready to load up the car again. So Friday is the big moving day. Then its back to unpacking and putting things away.
I do hope you have enjoyed todays blog and will go check out my website regarding Acadian Fugitives. Also if any of you readers are interested in joining our acadianrootsclub genealogy room, you can come in the back door through the side of my blog, once you join petiteacadienne then I shall invite you to our main group.
Have a great day Thanks for the visit.
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Pleasant Surprises

Well to begin with, I am typing in GREEN, seeing today is the first day of Spring, which soon will bring the tulips and crocus to our flower beds. So happy first day of Spring to you.
What pleasant surprises am I talking about you ask? Well, to begin with, when I was doing my research at the genealogy center, I was very nosy and I looked everywhere for whatever I could find for my family tree. I believe with all my heart , that a family tree should hold more than just names, places and dates. You need to make your ancestors come alive, to sort of understand their lives and even their friends .
One day, I noticed someone had ordered some school returns, and that really interested me, to be able to find my father and my mother's school classes and even my grandmother's class.
From there I began searching for my school classes, 'Oh here is my grade one, I didn't know so and so was in my grade one!, anyway I found all my school grades from grades one to eight. I noticed there were classmates who were in most all of my grades with me.
Now getting back to my surprise, two days ago, an old friend of mine, sent me a photo, and she posted it in Facebook too. I looked at the photo and it was a photo of my classmates and me, I was around 12 years of age maybe younger and here were all the faces of the names I remember going to school with. Now I can add the photo with the school returns to match a face to the names. What a nice feeling to be able to do this. I did not think I would ever find a school photo with me in it, but this was a classmate who took our photo in front of the school.
Well changing the subject, I am in the process of moving, yuck!, I do not like moving, but there was an apartment empty two doors down from my Mom's, and this way I will be closer to her, she is 90 or will be 91 in May, she had fallen and broke her pelvis two places five weeks ago, would you believe she is now walking with a walker and sometimes without the walker around the house? She was determined not to give up, and her progress really shows this.
Now she is talking about driving her car again, and maybe even going for another trip to the USA. grin. Her memory is really really good, I know I will never have a memory like hers, I write everything down to make sure I remember. I must take after my Dad, he couldn't remember his youth at all. I remember but not as well as Mom.
Oh a final note. I am wondering if there are any readers out there who do cross stiching or embroidery or wooden crafts and so on who would be willing to donate something to give at our reunion in July. I want to give out some prizes and as you all know crafts ARE expensive, so if there is anyone out there who wants to donate something, even some Acadian Music would be great, contact me and we can discuss it, I will tell you what ideas I have ok?
Contact me through the url on the right side.
Have a great day , thanks for the visit.
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A journey back Home.

I came across this little tidbit while looking in the Societe Historique Acadienne today and I wanted to share it with you.
In the collections published by the French Canadian and reproduced by the Canadian Archive Reports in 1905 ,we find the following article of one Mister Fraser of Miramichi in 1815 which we have transcribed from the Dr Brown collection.
"Michel O Bask (Bastarache) , his brother Pierre O Bask and twelve others travelled through the woods from South Carolina ,some say from New Orleans right up to the top of the Saint Laurent river and from there travelled by canoe to Cumberland where they joined their wives, familes and homeland. These two Bask families were said to be still living around Miramichi.
Placide Gaudet added that that many of the acadians followed the shores to return to their homeland in Acadie. Many did the journey on foot ,through the woods and on May 8 1756 we find fifteen which we notice Pierre and Michel Bastarache, and the old Broussard dit Beausoleil who was their leader and which left from South Carolina and arrived in Quebec at the end of September of the same year. They had to cross the United States on foot.
This story has been handed down from generation to generation and in 1971 a mister Girouard
from Sainte Marie told this story. Mister Girouard was a descendant from Pierre Bastarache
on his maternal side.
"Pierre Bastarache and his brother Michel were among the many prisoners in Grand Pre during the deportation. There were crucifixes attached along the sides of the church for the station of the cross. A native american was among the prisoners and he removed five crosses and gave one of them to Pierre.
These Bastarache brothers were deported to south Carolina, and were held prisoners in a potato cave. During the night, they escaped and hid under the wharf.
To flee to the south they had to pass by an area guarded by a dog, who was there to warn the guards by barking daytime or night time.In order to go by the dog, there were 27 prisoners in all, one of them took a twenty cent coin and put it under the heel of his left foot in order to keep the dog from barking. It worked they crossed without waking the guards and the dog tried to bark and he couldnt.
During their journey they found fruits that they did not recognize, the oldest said he would eat the first one and if the fruit was poison all they would have to do was bury him. After a two hour wait, the old man was not dead and everyone ate the fruit. A little further on they found a horse , killed it for meat. Finally they arrived as far as Mississippi.
There they were made prisoners by the native americans. The chief wanted to kill them, but one of his daughters had married a french man from france, and the frenchman talked the chief into letting them have their freedom. The chief even gave them guns, hatchets and food and canoes to take on their journey. The voyage from South Carolina to Memramcook took them two years. When Pierre arrived , he found his mother and it seems then when they were away his mother would say everynight at bedtime," No Pierre,noMichel".
The descendants of Pierre settled in Bouctouche, Joseph ,Isidore and Michel Bastarache settled in northern New Brunswick.
As for the crucifix, Joseph had it in his possession and took it to church at each of his daughters weddings. The youngest one married Simon LeBlanc , her name was Brigitte and she received the crucifix. Father Desire Allain was one of the descendents of the LeBlancs and he had this crucifix from Pierre Bastarache in his possession.
I hope you have enjoyed todays blog. I found this an interesting story.
Have a great day, thanks for the visit.
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What is in a Name?

Have you ever heard a man called Fred a Joe a Meleme? Or Jean a Fidele a Charles? Many Acadian families were identified that way. (Meaning Fred son of Joe who was a son of Meleme.)
By the way this was my father in law's family. So for example if there were two Joseph LeBlanc in the same village, they would identify them as Joseph a Pierre or Joseph a Marcel.
Have you ever heard someone called Saindoux?Bonhomme Gould,Leonide Menteur. And some children of certain families would be known as the Cormiers, the Landrys etc. Among the Leblancs of Village du Bois and Memramcook some were known as Charlittes, Mulligan, Petits Chicot and Saindoux. The Charlittes and Saindoux were two different branches.
Saindoux name or nickname that we still hear of today started with Dominique LeBlanc in the middle of the 19th century. Here is what was said from a descendant: In the olden days they would kill a pig and take the fat from it and melt it like Shortening (Saindoux) ,they cooked with it. Anyway old Dominique my grandfather's father,came to old Jude's house. It was in the spring and they were killing the pigs and they would melt the fat to make shortening . Then it would melt on the road ,there were little patches of ice, and Dominique would be walking along with his pail, then he hit a patch of ice and his two feet lifted in the air. And all the Saindoux fell on the ice and all over him. And they have called him Saindoux from that day on. source book Village du Bois.
I remember a family in my youth , that were named Musquit. I forget what their last names were . Now Olivier Doiron was known as Olivier dit Bouleau. I guess these were ways to distinguish families. Many families had pet names for their children, such as Princess, Pitonne,Titi,Tata, Peete,Pouch, Catoo,Catchoo, Catonne, Catin, Chol. I am sure you must have heard some of these names before. Now do you have any nicknames used by your ancestors or family? Why don't you share them ?
I hope you have enjoyed todays blog, and will drop by again.
Have a great day
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Moving and Hens

Well first of all, I am moving and I am beginning to have an idea how Hank Snow's I've Been Everywhere song became famous, he's been everywhere, and I've MOVED everywhere. grin.
Well hopefully this time I will stay. So the end of the month the movers will be here and away I go . Now what does moving have to do with Hens? Well I am reading a book called Au Village du Bois and I came across the following article that I wanted to share with you.
In the village there were always story tellers and joke tellers and the following is one that was mentioned in the book.
"I had married the daughter of Vital and she was never satisfied and she always had to "move".She could never stay at one place for long. And we had five hens and everytime we moved so did the hens. We had horses and a truck wagon and we would tie the hen's feet together so they would not fly away. And these hens were so used to seeing a chair being brought outside that everytime they saw a chair being brought outside, they would lay on their backs and cross their feet.grin.
Now changing the subject, I have added two more pages on my website at acadian-roots.com ,I have added some marriages from Grande Digue New Brunswick and some marriages from Havre Boucher Nova Scotia. They are not complete but a few names is better than none at all and I may be adding more to the Grande Digue page . Havre Boucher marriages are only from 1831 to 1847 and among those are a few marriages of Tracadie Nova Scotia.
And for some good news, I don't know if I mentioned that my Mom had fallen and broke her pelvis bone about five weeks ago. She is 90 and I was so afraid that she would not heal, she had been in a wheelchair ever since, anyway yesterday we stopped by on our way home and when I walked into her home, there she was walking with a walker, well I was so surprised to see her up and walking. She has a therapist coming in and helping her ,I believe all the prayers that were said for her have been answered. So to you who have said prayers I thank you.
I noticed I now have 24 followers, one more to go for my first quota of 25. I am very impressed.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will return.
Have a great day
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Widow at 13 ,Millionaire at 34

I thought my Mom had married young ,she was 14 when she married my Dad, had her first baby at 15, can you imagine? Before I go on with my story, last night I went and stayed with Mom for a few hours and I am always amazed at her stories. We were talking about log homes, and she was telling me her father had built their log house, and she explained how he cut the logs and fit them at the corners and how they filled the cracks with Moss. I said the place must have been cold. She replied "Oh no, the house was warm" she continued to say he had dug a hole under the house and they would store their food for the winter there. Mom said they had steps leading down to the cellar from their kitchen floor.(Mom is 90 years old).
Now to the story: Found this in SHA (Societe Historique Acadienne) at the genealogy center. Now this might be among Clarence D'Entremont articles on line, but I have not noticed.
Anne Mius d'Entrement daughter of Jacques Mius D'Entremont and Anne de LaTour was born in Pubnico in 1694 and according to her mother's testimony she was thirteen years old when she married Antoine de Sallien sieur de Saillant in Port Royal July 18 1707. One month and three weeks later ,on September 8 Antoine de Sallien died of wounds suffered defending Port Royal from the English under the command of John March.
Anne Mius D'Entremont became the youngest widow in the Acadian journals and even in Canada. After the English conquered Acadia in 1710, Anne returned to Louisbourg where three of her sisters had married french officers. It is there on Feb 12 1716, she married secondly to the governor of Cape Breton Philippe de Pastour de Costebelle widower of Anne de Tours de Sourdeval. This marriage lasted but one year and a half because Philippe died at the end of October 1717. Philippe left her nothing when he died , he was so much in debt that they may have even confiscated her clothes and furniture to pay his debts.
Anne eventually ended up in France around 1718 to ask the King for help. This is when she headed for Bearn in the southwest of France,at the birthplace of the Baron St-Castin where her brother Philippe Mius d'Entremont who married Therese de Saint Castin daughter of the Baron was. This is where she met a rich Seigneur named Laurent de Navailles Subercase, abbe laique d'Asson at Bearn, Knight and baron of Labatut, Officer of the Navarre Regime,and of one of the oldest french families of whom the mother must have been related to Jean Vincent D'Abbadie de Saint Castin. This third marriage was held in Paris (ooo la la grin) at the Saint Eustache Church Aug.20 1719. She was given the title Baroness. This marriage lasted about nine years, this husband left her besides five children of a previous marriage, a great fortune, including numerous rents, and riches from all over. So she married young, became a widow three time, and she remained a widow for around fifty years and died October 15 1778 in her Chateau Navailles-Labatut in Bearn France.
I hope you have enjoyed today's blog. I would like to end todays blog by thanking Geneabloggers for featuring me yesterday.
Thank you for stopping by, I do hope you will return .
Have a great day
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Photos and why we should identify them

The photo on the left is unknown, it was among the photos of the D'Amboise Family .It is thought that maybe this could be a brother to Narcisse D'Amboise who married Marie Dumont and a son to Jean D'Amboise married to Suzanne Cayouette.
So if you readers recognize this photo please leave a comment on the bottom of this blog?
The same thing happened to me when my mother in law passed away, she had old photos, possibly relatives, who were they? I never knew. So this is important, write down who they are, even your immediate family, because through our lifetimes, our looks sometimes change quite a bit. This is very important. Think about it, many years from now when we are gone, our great great great grandchildren will be able to look at a photo of us, and say oh this is wonderful and they will marvel at how we looked and how we dressed, and hopefully be proud of us. We should also take pictures of our homes, our farms or even our cars. When I look at some of my old photos and see that my grandfather had a Model A Ford truck, it is something to behold.
One day we will be antiques grin and all our material things will also be antique and some of our descendants may marvel and what we had in our lifetime.
Changing the subject, our Bergeron-Damboise reunion plans are moving along just great. July will soon be here . Next week I am meeting with the one who is making the lunch, and I am anxious to meet her. I wish I were rich, because if I were rich, I would have some lobster or salmon to serve even as sandwiches to our guests, since some of them are coming for far away, I keep thinking in my mind, "What can I do that will make the guests really glad they came to the reunion? What could I do that would be special? I have come up with some things which I know they will all appreciate. I will share the results of our reunion with you when it is over.
Well I need to call it a day, I am packing and moving again. This time I am moving closer to my Mom as a matter of fact two doors down from her. That way I will be close by if I am needed.
Thank you for the lovely visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Celebrate Your Name Week

I was wondering what I should blog about and my friend Evelyn alerted me to Celebrate your name week. So this is what I am going to do, celebrate my name.
ALINE origin French meaning "Noble". origin Armenian meaning bearer of the light. Used in English,French and Armenian Countries. In Celtic it is a feminin form of Allen or variant form of Helen.It is also a form of Adeline. .They must have taken the DE out of it. grin.In Scotland Aline is a form of Aileen and Alina. Popularity The name Aline, is the 59023rd most popular baby name at Mybaby-name.com placing it in the top 82% of names by popularity. Oh my! in English,
Aline means noble and "BRIGHT???? grin. Anyway you have a general idea on my name. BUT
I was not names for anyone famous, but I did ask Mom once, where she got my name because my sister was named after Loretta Lynn, my other sister after Rita Hayworth, my brother after Ted Williams but me?? Mom told me, when she was pregnant for me, there was this pretty little girl who used to walk past her house with long brown hair and her name was Aline, so she named me after this little girl walking by, and Mom said to me" Then I had my own little pretty brown haired girl." smile.
Do you have any little stories to share about your first name? If so, why don't you add a comment here? I would love to hear your stories.
Thanks for the visit and do stop by again.
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Abraham Boudreau

Abraham Boudreau was born around 1657 the son of Michel Boudreau and Michele Aucoin. He married Cecile Melanson daughter of Charles Melanson and Marie Dugas around 1686. In the 1698 census in Port Royal, he had 10 horned cattle,9 sheeps,6 pigs ,8 fruit trees, one rifle and 3 arpents of land.
Abraham was a merchant navigator of Port Royal where his ship was captured in June 1683 by the pirate Grayham and testified in Boston against one of the Pirate officers. This same Abraham would be acting as a spy for the Acadian Governor Villebon. He would go to Boston on a regular basis and inform the Acadian Govenment on the war preparations. On Dec.4 1692, Boudreau informed the governor that he was going to Boston and bring back information for the month of March in 1693. It is a good thing Boudreau brought back the information, so that Villebon could send the details to Ponchartrain, minister of the French Navy of the Pemaquid Fort. ON March 17 1695, Boudreau informed Villebon of the presence of English War Ships at the Port of Boston. Thanks to this information, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, Baptiste,Jean-Vincent D'Abbadie baron of St Castin and others would capture on Aug.15 1696 Fort Pemaguid. source Societe Historique Acadienne.
When I was at the genealogy center, I came across this article about Abraham Boudreau, and thought to myself, I bet this would be a great thing to add to my blog. As I said before, these little tidbits we find here and there, are an important part of our history. If you descend from Abrham Boudreau and Cecile Melanson, you should add this little story ,or do more research on it and add it to your family tree. I checked my Boudreau line and it doesn't have Abraham in it.
Changing the subject, I was all excited , I had written to the Archives to find a death record for my ggrandfather Amand Cormier, they said we found the record and will be sending it to you.
Today the big brown envelope arrived, oh boy! oh boy! It is the death record, I thought. So I quickly opened the envelope but to my dissapointment they sent me his death record from the church, I already had it, and they said they could not find a death record there for him. So I am wondering if back then, they forgot to register deaths. He died in 1913, but no record. I searched under Joseph, I searched under Amand, Armand,Laman, found nothing. Seeing as I waiting around thirty to find his wife, maybe I will have to wait another thirty years for him. So guess I will have to stick around. grin.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
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The High Seas with pirates ,buccaneers,privateers

We call them Corsairs, Buccaneers, Thieves and Pirates. They were the ones who attacked merchant ships in the high seas.There always were pirates on the seas just as there will always be thieves and mercenaries. We figure the pirates were at their peak from 1650 to 1725 with the majority of them being in Antilles. The Manche, Mediteranean, Madagascar island, Indian Ocean and China Sea were the areas most freqented by the pirates. Acadie situated in the center of the war between France and England was often victims of english pirate attacks and one of the principle haven of French Corsairs in North America. It is in the golden age era of pirates especially a short while before the treaty of Utrecht that the activities of piracy were more intense in Acadie. Baptiste, Guyon Brothers,Lamothe Cadillac,d'Iberville,Rodrigue,Deny brothers,Saint Castin sons,and Morpain are the most well known of the french buccaneers in those years.
What were these pirates and corsairs looking for? The best prizes in Antilles was gold, silver and jewelry. Slaves were important prizes. In the north Atlantic in times of war the most important prizes were arms, guns, canons and powder. Often they took corn, barrels of flour,sugar, molasses and rum ,sometimes wood,fish and furs.The following is from SHA (Societe Historique acadienne). regarding Baptiste the pirate;
With his brigatine in the trimester ,he takes ten English buildings. March 10 1697 three leagues from Canso Bay in Maine, the Acadians meet eight fishing boats which had 28 men. Baptiste and his crew who had only eaten shellfish gathered along the shore, decided to attack the fishing boats to get some food. The boats were all lined one along side the other, and Baptiste decided to attack during the night of March 10th or 11. His two vessels attacked two boats while they were asleep. They had no problem but the noise woke the other boats who retaliated with lots of vigor. The privateers bravely boarded the boats and fought like lions, and became masters of six boats .The other two boats saw the results of the attack and fled like the wind. There were seven Englishmen killed, including five Captains of the boats, four injured and twenty prisoners. Baptiste received three wounds, and eight of his men were injured but no one seriously hurt.
Baptiste did many raids until 1697 when he was made prisoner in Boston. He was treated very cruel, they even tried to poison him. Freed in 1698 he continued attacking the English Vessels who were fishing illegally. In 1702 he was captured again until 1706. They wanted to hang him as a Pirate.He was later traded for the release of Reverend John Williams who was captured by the Native Americans in a raid.
Well this is it for today, thank you for the visit , do stop by soon ( I really need my cuppa coffee) grin.
Have a great day
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Tragic Romance

Here is a story I got from a Our Newfoundland, by Larry Bourne:
The famous explorer Jacques Cartier was making his last voyage along the Gulf of St Lawrence. Among the crew and passengers was a man named Roberval, along with his niece Marguerite. She was extremely beautiful and headstrong,as event later proved.
During the long days at sea, bored by the inactivity, Marguerite struck up a friendship with an ordinary deckhand who was very handsome and had lots of charm.
The friendship grew into a full blown romance. The two young lovers met secretly whenever possible. Within the close confines of the little ship, it was a secret destined to be discovered.
When Roberval learned of their affair, he flew in a rage. Filled with anger and mortified that his niece would fall in love with someone so far beneath her station,Roberval insisted that the young man be marooned on an island thought to be off the coast of Newfoundland.
His plan backfired, however, when Marguerite ,headstrong as ever, went ashore with her lover.
Sadly there is no happy ending. The young man died shortly after. Marguerite was rescued and entered a convent. She died within a few years. The victim ,some say died of a broken heart.
I don't think I would have jumped ship and went ashore, not fond of snakes and mice. grin.
Have a great day, thanks for stopping by
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MEMORIES

Yesterday I went to sit with Mom, she had an accident and is confined to a wheel chair at the moment, so I was asked to go sit with her for a while. And everytime I go visit her, or nearly everytime , we always talk about the past.
Now she was telling me her cousin Augustine Pitre and his brother Henry had a little Bull, and they trained that bull. Mom said they would take him into the woods and tie some logs or branches to him and say Git and the bull would go home, but ,Mom said, when that bull decided he was not going anywhere, he didn't go. grin.
Then I told Mom, I was getting the death records for her grandfather Amand who died in Notre Dame, I had been wanting to get them for a while, and soon they will be arriving. Mom said" yes grandfather died as the result of an accident, he was pulling tree stumps from the ground and one caught him in the stomach somehow and he died." So possibly his death will say internal bleeding. I am anxious to get the death record. His wife Rose died from pneumonia later at the age of 67, so she died in 1921 he died in 1913 so he had to have been quite young.
Now I am a very lucky lady, because my mother will be 91 on her birthday and she still has a great memory. And I have received so many little stories from her about her youth and growing up. She told me, that when my grandfather died, my grandmother was left with seven kids at home, Mom was newly married and my grandmother had a three month old baby, and she worked doing housework for others and it came to a time that she just could not take care of seven kids so she put them in an orphanage. And my Mom and Dad took them all out one by one. It must have been hard for my grandmother at that time, and it was so good of my Mom to take them out. One of my aunts who has since passed away was like a sister to us, she was always at our home, as we were growing up.
Aw, memories are good to share with others, memories are a thing that should be noted, written down, added to our family trees. So if you have grandparents even your parents or aunts ,uncles, cousins who can share their memories, then take a little drive to see them, phone them, talk to them , as I said before ,once they are gone, so are their memories.
Hope you enjoyed today's blog and I hope you will stop by again. Oh and I see I have 20 followers, getting close to my first quota of 25. Thank you everyone
Have a great day.
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Bergeron dit Damboise

If you are wondering what the image on right is, well I
will tell you. First of all I have been doing genealogy
since 1976 and I had always believed that Barthelemy
Bergeron dit Damboise was a son of Antoine Bergeron
and Catherine Scarron. Apparently there was a lady who went to France and she said that the father was
Antoine Bergeron. But no records has ever been found
saying Antoine and Catherine had a son named
Barthelemy Bergeron. A few years ago, professor
Marius Damboise from Montreal went to Amboise France and did some research, he searched the
St Denis parish records in Amboise France and
one nice sunny day he found a baptism of a
Barthelemy Bergeron born in May 23 1663 a son of
Rene Bergeron and Anne Dagault. He searched to find
another Barthelemy Bergeron born there, he found none. Now in July 2009 we are holding a Bergeron -Damboise reunion in Fredericton New Brunswick to honor our ancestor, because that is where he spent his final years. So I decided to write to the Mairie of Amboise to see if he would write us some kind of letter to read at our reunion. He did better than that, he sent me the copy of the birth of Barthelemy Bergeron ,the one you see above. He said they did a search in the records and could not find anything else on this family. As you can see the paper is turning yellow, think about it, the records are back in 1663. A truly good thing to share with everyone before the records dissappear. Now if I could only find the marriage of Rene Bergeron and Anne Dagault, where did they marry? Maybe Anne Dagault came from Nantes, remember Michel took the name of Michel dit Nantes. Also two daughters of Barthelemy and Genevieve were named Marie Anne and Anne Marie, were they named after Anne Dagault?
Maybe one day someone will find the marriage of Rene and Anne, since many France parish records are not being added on line.
Plans are going along quite well for our reunion, if the weather cooperates we will be fine, on the 18th we are all meeting at O'dell Park around noon, then the 19th we are having a Mass said, and then we are meeting at the Sainte Anne Community Hall . We have some important guests who are suppose to attend, we will have speeches, and prizes and a small lunch. There will be picture taking, and meeting new cousins. Some are coming from as far as Louisiana, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, Mass, Quebec, Ontario etc. So I am looking forward to meeting new cousins.
My great grandfather Bergeron-Damboise lived in the country and once a month he and his brother would come to town, and go to a grocery store and run up a tab, they would buy their groceries and pay when their pays came in. And back then a can of lobster sold for fifteen cents, can you imagine? Today we are lucky if we get a cold pack for 20 dollars.
Well that is it for today, thanks for the visit, and I see I have reached 20 followers, can I make my first quoto of 25? Time will tell.
Have a great day
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